Drake, Kid Cudi, and Wale earn a spot as “The Gangsta Killers” in the year-end issue of the respected GQ Magazine.
GQ writes:
”Have you been listening to hip-hop this year? If not, we’ve got good news: The gangster persona is finally dead, and these are the kids who killed it. One song at a time, they built a new era in which duct-taped kilos, exotic firearms, and freaky girls are out and real life is the focus.
That can still mean trumped-up egos and battle raps, but it also means family, drama, vicious hangovers, and regular chicks who will make good love to you, then stomp out your heart. (Weed? Weed is always in.) Wale is as famous for his live shows as for the slick-witted lyricism of his debut, Attention Deficit.
Kid Cudi is the cutup who scored with the stoner anthem “Day N Nite” and his album Man on the Moon. And then there’s Drake, who found himself turning down multimillion-dollar offers after his single “Best I Ever Had” exploded. (It helps that the girls like Drake. A lot.) Drake’s debut, Thank Me Later is easily the most anticipated album of 2010 So what do these underdogs thing about being cast as gangster slayers?
“The dope boy is going to be a fixture of black culture as long as “thug” is a legitimate option alongside a job” Drake says. But I’m not going to rap about how much crack I’ve sold.” Cudi also laughs at the idea of talking tough. “Anybody from cleveland will tell you I wasn’t in the streets” he says. “Ask them! They’ll say, ‘Scott was the goofy class clown.”
Hip-hop sensation Kid Cudi sounds off the comparision between himself and rap counterpart Drake in the annual Style & Design Issue of Complex Magazine, hitting newsstands August 11.
People love to point out similarities between you and Drake—do you view him as competition?
Kid Cudi: I think it’s just that Drake and me are the most creative out of the new up-and-coming MCs. Me and Drake are here not because of anything other than two niggas that have their own flavor. I’m doing my shit, nobody else can do my shit. Nobody else can do Wale’s shit or Charles Hamilton’s shit. It’s like a bunch of Kool-Aid stands. It just matters whose flavor you like the most.
It seems like a lay-up for you and Drake to work together.
Kid Cudi: We’ll come together eventually, but I’m not trying to force this because there’s hype around us both. I want to work with Drake, yeah, but right now I don’t want to work with anyone who’s in the same creative realm as me. I’m still creating my own shit.
Has he reached out to work with you?
Kid Cudi: Drake had been wanting to do an official “Day ’N’ Nite” remix early on. He was one of my earliest supporters; that’s why I fuck with Drake on another level than just being a new artist. His homeboy Oliver used to hit me up when I’d go to Toronto, like, “Yo, you gotta fuck with Drake.” Imagine if I would’ve let Drake remix “Day ’N’ Nite” when he wanted to back in ’07. That shit would’ve fizzled out; no one would’ve cared. Luckily we let it live and it worked out. We’re changing things on accident. That’s how I know this is my destiny.
