News: Drake On His Loyalty To Lil Wayne, "He Put His Neck Out There For Me At A Very Early Stage"

Drake has opened up about his loyalty to Lil Wayne and why he decided to align himself with Young Money instead of other record labels last year.

According to Drizzy, his admiration and respect for Wayne goes unmatched.



"Everyone seems to have a comment for me about Young Money, 'F*ck Young Money' or 'Why are you with them?' But what people have to understand is maybe there was a way for me to be successful without Young Money. But we'll never know. My loyalty is to Wayne, and that goes for anybody who genuinely believes in me. We don't have the most personal relationship where we hang out every day or we talk that much, but Wayne's admiration and respect goes without being verbally said. He put his neck out there for me at a very early stage, and those actions tell me everything I need to know about how he feels about me as an artist." (Complex)

The Canadian-based emcee recently spoke on Wayne's leadershp with Young Money.



"I think the best thing about Wayne is that he doesn't really get too involved in us developing as artists," Drake said about him. "He doesn't give his input on how we should be, or how we should rap, or how we should dress. Wayne just gives us the opportunity. If you drop the ball, you drop the ball. But Wayne's gonna give you the set-up. Wayne is gonna throw you the alley-oop -- you just have to cut to the hoop and slam. With that being said, he really gives you the space and lets you become your own person. He respects [artists that know] about themselves. He doesn't want to shape us all. I don't really know who wants to do that anymore. That was like, in '96 or something, when labels would be like, 'You got to be like this.' Wayne doesn't want to do that. Wayne wants us to thrive as the people we truly are, which is great." (MTV)

Last year, Drake compared his studio work ethic to Weezy's.



"Someone would really have to come to the studio to see me and Wayne together and how we work," Drake said in an interview. "It's the same sort of thing. I fear Wayne's creativity. It's endless. It's a scary beast. He never takes one day off. When we get into the studio it is very competitive, but in a good way. You can't just use a line you wrote Tuesday. Every line has to be thought out." (The Boom Box)

The new Young Money album debuted in the Top 10 last month.



Lil Wayne's Young Money compilation, We Are Young Money, debuted at No. 9 this week. The group's debut album has sold 143,000 copies to date. (Sales Wrap)

Check out Lil Wayne speaking on Young Money below: