iLoveMakonnen is on his journey to freedom after leaving OVO Sound, coming out as gay and moving to Portland, Oregon. The singer/songwriter gives fans a glimpse into his life in a recent interview with The FADER, where he details his fallout with OVO boss Drake.
He shares his memories of a time Drizzy, who’s expected to have the #1 album on Billboard 200 next week with his More Life playlist, tried to fight him at a VMA afterparty in New York back in August. While he doesn’t call Drake out by name, he uses plenty of hints to identify his “Tuesday” collaborator, including “we have a platinum-selling record together! The guy! The leader of the crew!”
“It was in the middle of the goddamn afterparty at the Up&Down club,” he says. “Everybody that was in there was in there. I’m in here around these Vanguard Awards and I’m accepted and I took pictures with Chainsmokers and G-Eazy and everybody and we all friends. And I’m here in the middle of the floor, no security, and they coming and I just step to the side and they see me and stop and the biggest motherfucker in the game goes, woo woo woo, ‘Next time I’ma fuck you up!’
“And all security and everybody stop like, ‘What the fuck.’ And the guys with me was like, ‘What you do?!’
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“I don’t have nothing to say. All I did was smile. And I guess they took that as a threat. I was confused, like, ‘It can’t be little old me. I’m just a goddamned old record from way back when. What the fuck am I doing causing stresses and pains?”
Makonnen suggests that his Tim Westwood freestyle a few months before the party, where he seemingly took jabs at OVO, is what set the Toronto star off. He insists he meant no harm.
“When I’m rapping, people think I’m throwing shots. I ain’t rapped no names! All I did was rap!” he explains, noting that he took to Twitter to clear the air after rumors of the confrontation circulated.
He continues that he and Drake never really clicked, despite the one-time Degrassi actor appearing on his “Tuesday” remix before bringing him on the label, saying that he could never get a promotional tweet for his mixtape and the video for “Tuesday” was “Business. Boom boom boom, do this and be out.”
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“And if I look at your track record — when I was really in the streets selling dope you was on the goddamn TV screen-acting,” Makonnen says. “I just met you on a song together and then y’all acted funny style on me. Or maybe I acted funny style on y’all. But somehow our relationship didn’t work out, and then the next time I saw you again you tried to threaten me.”
Makonnen seems to have found peace in the forests of the Northwest where he has befriended local farmers and enjoys thrift shopping. He says he doesn’t mind if he ever has another hit, but has fantasies of wowing people another way.
“I’m a hermit-slash-wizard now,” he says. “After I finish all my obligations, I’m gonna turn into The Red Dragon, right here in the mist. People’ll see me on hikes like Hillary Clinton. ‘Oh shit, was that Makonnen? The man who used to sing those songs?’”
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Read the entire interview at The FADER.
