Drake covers GQ

Continuing the year 2012 in style, Drake graces the cover of April’s edition of GQ. The accompanying interview highlights a set of various subject, like his complicated relationship with his father.

“Me and my dad are friends. We’re cool. I’ll never be disappointed again, because I don’t expect ianything anymore from him. I just let him exist, and that’s how we get along. We laugh. We have drinks together. But I spent too many nights looking by the window, seeing if the car was going to pull up. And the car never came.” Still, he identifies with his father and his ability to hustle, to get what he wants while having a good time. “I’ve never been reckless—it’s always calculated,” Drake says. “I’m mischievous, but I’m calculated.”

Drizzy further delves into the state of a new generation of rappers, one that is less defined by aggression and street credibility.

“Rap now is just being young and fly and having your shit together,” he says. “The mood of rap has changed.” So has the way you get huge as a rapper. Drake launched his career via a blog and Myspace; now he’s one of the biggest artists in the world. He’s keenly aware of the power—and the panoptic demands—of the social networks that made him. “Some of my favorite rappers, some of my heroes”—DJ Screw, Aaliyah—”there might be like 200 pictures of them because there was no Internet,” he says. “Whereas with us, it’s like every moment is documented.” While he’s quick to say, I’m actually really happy.”

In addition, he opens up on past promiscuity.

“There’s just a time where it was like, just getting pussy. Where I was in that sort of ‘I’m young, I’m going to disconnect from my emotions and just do what everyone else tells me I should do and just a be a rapper and have my fun.’ And for me as a person, it just doesn’t work. The seconds after a man reaches climax, that’s the realest moment of your life. If I don’t want you next to me in that fifteen, twenty seconds, then there’s something wrong.”

GQ‘s April issue hits newsstands on March 2. Read the digital version here.