Cover

Matt Doyle for Complex Magazine

New Money stands out. Take the Twelve Hotel in downtown Atlanta. Everything is modern, angular, all rich wood grains and polished metals. The chairs in the lobby are likely as expensive as they are uncomfortable. It feels like a playground for people comfortable with privilege. So it comes as no surprise that Aubrey “Drake” Graham and his crew are staying here while in ATL, and it’s hard to blame him for feeling entitled: After all, he did help usher in an entirely new sensibility in hip-hop. It’s not the singing that makes him special—MCs have been crooning for years. What puts Drake in a different space than rappers past and present has less to do with his music than how he found himself in a position to make it. He doesn’t represent traditional hip-hop in any form or fashion. There were no obstacles to his success; far from a statistic, he caked off as a child star on a soft-ass show (Degrassi: The Next Generation). He’s Canadian, which as we all know did wonders for the careers of Maestro Fresh Wes and Kardinal Offishall. And he’s Jewish! Scope those stats on paper and rap celebrity seemed destined to elude Drake. Yet, the Toronto kid made it work. But how?

Read more…