DRAKE FINALLY OPENS UP ABOUT HIS UPCOMING ALBUM

"We have just 10 days before we turn it in,"
Drake says of his third LP, Nothing Was
the Same (due out September 24th).
"I'm
literally sleeping in the studio on an air
mattress.We're working 24-hour days to make sure the story is done, front to back.
It has to be a new point of discovery."
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The MC and his longtime engineer-producer
Noah "40" Shebib have been camped out
since early July at Metalworks Studios, in
the suburbs outside Drake's hometown,
Toronto. If 2011's Take Care – which sold 2
million copies – was about the stresses of
superstardom, the follow-up is about
learning to love it. "With Take Care,
everything had changed so much. I was
almost lost mentally, looking for something
that wasn't there," Drake says. "With my
new album, it's the most concise picture of
the moment I'm in right now. I had a choice
whether to hold on to whatever the past
was or to fight and fully embrace this
incredible time in my life."
Drake recruited some of hip-hop's biggest
names for the disc, potential tracks for
which include guest appearances by Jay Z,
Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz and more. "Drake is
like my brother, man," says 2 Chainz.
"Every time we mix it up – this Canadian
light-skinned dude and a black-ass trap guy
from Atlanta – we have success. His album
comes out right after mine. We planned that
shit to fuck up the world."
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As always, 40 produced much of the album,
along with top hip-hop beatmakers,
including Hit-Boy, Boi-1da and Detail.
"Honestly, 40 is one of the best doing it
right now," Drake says. "His drums are
connecting like you've never heard them
before." The MC also went deeper than ever
into the electronic sounds he loves: Scottish
DJ Hudson Mohawke (who contributed to
Kanye West 's Yeezus ) worked on the
ambitious suite "Connect"; Drake also
brought in dubstep singer-producer James
Blake during the recording process. "I saw
him at a show and told him I had some
ideas knocking around, and he invited me to
Toronto," says Blake. "Anything that comes
out of that studio, I'm happy to be
involved."
40 says Nothing Was the Same reflects how
much the formerly self-conscious rapper's
confidence has bloomed. "It's a huge change
in tone," says the producer. "Before, Drake
was a nice guy. Here, he's stepping up the
attitude and playing hardball." Of bombastic
album opener "Tuscan Leather," 40 says,
"It's a three-stage record – one sample
flipped three different ways, with a verse
over each beat."
Drake, meanwhile, cites the standout track
"Paris Morton Music II" as the clearest
proof that he's stepped up his game. "That
track excites me from a rap standpoint, just
getting off bars and different flows," he
says. "I played it for J. Cole, on some rap
buddy-buddy shit, and he was like, 'Damn!'"