Drake Speaks On Being Labeled A Culture Vulture In New Bobbi Althoff Interview

For many years, Drake has dabbled in a multitude of genres outside of hip-hop and R&B. He's operated in dancehall, UK rap, pop, and many more. He's even messed around the patois of the two former genres, sometimes to the chagrin of listeners and critics.

via: Complex

Drake and Bobbi Althoff publicly making amends in the 90-minute debut episode of Not This Again has resulted in no shortage of swiftly headlined excerpts, including his thoughts on a 2022 Sweden arrest over “nothing” and the temporarily misaligned perspectives that led to him and the former Not Really Good Podcast host’s brief falling-out.

While discussing the latter, Drake, whose solo Iceman album is expected before year’s end, also touched on a larger “hair trigger” he says is connected, at least in part, to various criticisms he’s faced along his artistic journey, including “culture vulture” claims.

“What I’m really trying to say is I feel like I’m not necessarily a part of the problem,” Drake told Bobbi in the new interview, released Monday. “I experience a lot of guilt-tripping in my life where people are like, ‘No, this is your fault,’ essentially. And my intentions are pure.”

Tying these experiences to music, Drake explained that he gets “really sensitive” when it comes to what he argues is “a negative spin” sometimes put on his work.

“It’s the same way even in music,” he said. “People will be like, ‘Oh, you’re a culture vulture,’ or people will describe the collaborative efforts that I’ve put forth and the artists that I’ve picked up and lifted up or shined a light on as me taking, you know? They’ll put a negative spin on it and try and tell me that it’s a self-serving thing or whatever, and I think I get really sensitive about that.”

This perspective affected his and Bobbi’s friendship, Drake added, leading to him being “extremely short” and “really snappy” with her at one point.

“I don’t think I put myself in your shoes,” Drake admitted to Bobbi, who also shared her side of how their friendship entered a briefly rocky period.

The “culture vulture” claims are nothing new, and Drake has responded to such chatter in the past. In 2019, for example, he said he didn’t “know what that means” while expressing frustration.

“I’ll never understand how supporting somebody’s song or giving someone a song isn’t admirable,” he said on BBC Radio's 1Xtra Rap Show at the time.