Drake Addresses BET Awards Debacle, Performance
“Every Girl” singer/artist Drake has just become the first person to come forward and speak of Sunday’s controversial performance with Lil Wayne at the BET Awards 09′.
The performance, put together prior to the shocking death and subsequent tribute to Michael Jackson, became a subject of much scrutiny — mainly aimed at BET earlier this week.
The scrutiny, due to the fact that Lil Wayne’s daughter and other teenage girls were on stage while the rapper was using immense profanity and sexually tinged lyrics, has now been addressed in Drake’s fresh interview with Complex Magazine.
In his sit down with Complex, Drake takes on the backlash, stating: “That, actually—to be honest—was a terrible idea that I’ll never do to myself again. But I was being pressed from different areas to perform, and I think what really happened at the BET Awards is with the passing of Mike, the climate really changed, as far as the award show goes. I don’t think it called for us to perform “Every Girl” and “Always Strapped,” and I think it was an award show filled with tributes and music and these genuine heartfelt speeches. And to sort of climax out of a very tongue-in-cheek point, and then people misconstruing Wayne’s daughters and her friends coming out on stage.”
While addressing the BET performance, Drake also confirms that he did indeed injure himself and was thus sitting on the stool for that reason alone. But it is Drake’s response to a question that involves BET’s planning (Watching it at home, the BET Awards seemed to be a mess. Did it seem that way in person?) that is most interesting:
“Well, I can only speak for my portion of it. I had asked for something very specific for my performance and none of those were met, as far as production value, so… I understood my situation, as far as sitting in one place, and figured there was a way to make it interesting. But when I looked around and noticed that none of that was going on, I kind of just realized that it was going to be a loss for me. But at the end of the day, it is what it is.”
For any parents and other viewers offended by the performance, Drake says “To anyone who was offended, my personal apologies, it wasn’t intended to offend anybody.”
In related news, Drake has signed to Lil Wayne’s Young Money and will release his anticipated debut later this year.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:09 am