rapper laureate July 5, 2023

Aubrey Graham, Poet, Worries He’s Still Just 14 and High

Portrait of Jason P. Frank

By Jason P. Frank, a Vulture writer covering comedy, theater, and music

Photo: Prince Williams/WireImage

“Please don’t try me,” Drake writes in his new poetry book Titles Ruin Everything: A Stream of Consciousness. “I’m not that far down my spiritual journey.” Well, lucky for us, we got a taste of that spiritual journey in a newly released promo video for his It’s All a Blur tour with 21 Savage, which begins July 5 in Chicago. In the video, accompanied by a white transcription of his words over a black background with piano accompaniment, Drake describes a worry of his: that he isn’t actually real but a figment of his high, 14-year-old self’s wildest dreams. Could a freshman come up with YOLO? Actually, wait, don’t answer that. “I go back to this day when I was like 13 or 14,” Drake says in voice-over. “I had an audition for a TV show that ultimately shaped my life, and before my audition, I went to this kid’s house.” That show would be Degrassi: The Next Generation, naturally.

“And I, out of, I guess, a desire to be accepted, I would succumb to peer pressure, and I got high with these kids right before my audition,” he continues. “I kind of wonder, like, if something bad happened that day or, you know, maybe I’m still high, maybe I’m in some coma. And this is just, like, me playing out my ideal life. And yeah, that concept has stuck with me for a lot of years. I mean, it feels like reality, it feels tangible. But I definitely wonder sometimes.” It kinda sounds like Drake is just bragging about living the dream, but poets live in different worlds than us. This poet’s world just happens to be filled with Birkins.

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Aubrey Graham, Poet, Worries He’s Still Just 14 and High

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