How Drake and Lil Wayne First Met

As the **legend** goes, Drake was at one point a somewhat obscure Toronto artist handpicked from the cultural confines of Canada by Lil Wayne on 2007’s “Man of The Year.” The conversation generally ends there; Drake went on to blossom into his own under YMCMB, Lil Wayne successfully notched another talent into his belt. The story has recently been complicated by the likes of one James “Jas” Prince, who filed a lawsuit against Cash Money Records last February for his unacknowledged contribution to either artist’s success. Prince claims to have connected Drizzy and Weezy, and is thereby claiming to be the catalyst for one of the most notable partnerships in music today. To support his story, Prince turned to The FADER to offer up his testimony of how Drake and Lil Wayne first met. As Prince details: the connection was a near-miss, as Lil Wayne scoffed at Drake’s initial work and didn’t bother to acknowledge him during their first encounter (which was facilitated by Prince). While The FADER has the exclusive interview, key excerpts can be found below.

“At the time I was really cool with Lil Wayne, and I brought Drake to his attention, too. I was like, “Yo, I have an artist I’m working with and I believe he’s dope.” His response was just: “Jas, don’t ever play this for me again. He sucks!” But I’m persistent. Wayne didn’t stop me—I kept pursuing it, pursuing it, pursuing it.”

“…then I threw a New Year’s party for Wayne in Houston. The next day, he asked me to take him to my jeweler, Exotic Diamonds on Westheimer. I got him a car and he was in my front seat and we were just riding down Westheimer, and I’m always thinking of business, so I’m like, you know what, lemme play some Drake while he’s in my car. So I put on “Replacement Girl” and look over and see that he’s bopping his head, and I’m like Okay! So I put on another song—an “A Milli” remix Drake did. Wayne was like, “Who’s this?” I was like, “Oh, this nigga Drake that you told me you didn’t like.” Drake had been sending me music, and I was sending him records he was not supposed to have at the time to rap over, to kind of create a buzz. When Wayne heard his “A Milli” remix he was like, “How did he get this track?” At that time, Drake definitely had an advantage on some people.”

“When I brought him to Wayne, Wayne was nonchalant. He didn’t really speak to Drake at all, so Drake was like, “Does he not like me?” Before Drake got there, all Wayne was listening to was Drake—and I never really see him listening to nobody but himself, so that was different. But then Drake arrived and it was silent treatment.”