Drake Talks Fatherhood, 'Dark Lane Demo Tapes,' & New Music with Lil Wayne

After launching his Young Money Radio show on Apple Music last week, Lil Wayne returned for a second episode on Friday.

This time around, he welcomed more famous guests including DJ Khaled, Shaquille O’Neal, and Drake. Fresh off the release of Dark Lane Demo Tapes, October’s Very Own phoned up his mentor to discuss his new project, the late Kobe Bryant, and fatherhood.

The proud dad shared photos of his son Adonis for the first time in March. “I posted those pictures. It was great for me,” said Drake. “I just woke up one morning and I was like, you know what? This is just something that I want to do. I want to be able to go places with my son and share memories with my son. I don’t want to feel like just because of a life choice I made to be a ‘celebrity’ that I got to make everybody live under this blanket. So, I just wanted to free myself of that.”

He also acknowledged Wayne’s own dedication to his family. “I’ve watched you be a functioning rap father for years, an incredible father. And that gave me a lot of confidence too,” he said. “I could just tell the way your kids would stare at you that the time and effort that you put in as a father. So, that was really inspiring for me just to know that I can still keep pushing forward as a musician and be there for my son.”

While quarantined at home, Drake decided to give fans something other than just his “Toosie Slide” single. Dark Lane Demo Tapes features new music along with leaks and SoundCloud drops. “It’s an interesting time for us all as musicians to figure out how this works and what people need,” he said. “And I just felt like people would appreciate maybe a body of something to listen to as opposed to just one isolated song.”

He’s now back in the studio readying his sixth studio album for release this summer. On Friday, he previewed some unreleased music including a collaboration with Roddy Ricch. “I just tried to float that out there, set the tone for the album and then, yeah the album is being worked on every day,” he said before praising Weezy. “Like I always say, in every interview I do, I learn from the best, I’m in the gym seven days a week because of the man I’m on the phone with.”

Wayne didn’t let him go without asking about their next collaboration. “The world want to know, Mack [Maine] want to know, my mama want to know, when is we going to give the people another joint, man?” he said.

Drake, who last collaborated with Wayne on 2017’s “No Frauds,” promised to send him something in the next few days. “You have my word as a man and Mack, you can hold me to this when we get off the phone, I’m going to be in the studio. What’s today? Friday? I’m going to be in the studio all weekend. By mid-week or maybe Monday night, you will have at least two joints.”

But Wayne has respect for the process, noting their history of hits. “We are both perfectionists. So, it’s not like, you send me a joint, I’m going to throw a verse on there,” he said. “We got a standard we got to live up to and we got a track record and a legacy we got to always protect.”