Manchester Utd and England star Rio Ferdinand met Canadian recording artist and actor DRAKE to interview him for his #5 magazine. Let’s have a look at the exclusive clip…

I would like to thank my friends at LineupMedia and “#5” who provided me this video clip for publication!

HIS CONNECTION WITH MANCHESTER UNITED…

Rio: I can see you kitted out in the Man U kit. Talk us through that, what’s the connection?

Drake: I have a friend, my best-friend for a long-time back in Canada. We used to talk all the time about what we wanted to do when we grew up. I was like I wanna be a rapper and travel the world. This was when we were like 16. He was like all I wanna do is play for Man U, that’s all he ever wanted. Unfortunately he was wrongly accused of a crime, which I truly believe to this day he did not commit. So it was crazy for me to come out here and basically live the dream for him. Yeah, I’m a Man U fan

SPORT & MUSIC

Rio: I listen to a lot of your music and in a lot of your songs you mention and talk about sport. You said before that you’re a big fan of LeBron (James). How do you see the connection between sport and music?

Drake: I think that in sports, in rap and music, we’re all young guys thrown in there at a tender age when our minds are malleable, they can be shaped. It’s a struggle and you’ve got to go through the same types of criticism, the same types of pressures, it’s the same type of lifestyle. Me and LeBron (james) have been friends for years. When he first came in he was the golden child and all eyes were on him; like my situation in the rap game, all eyes were on me waiting for me to mess up

PEFORMING

Drake: I didn’t start to understand things until I was thrown into the shark infested waters! Your heart is beating so fast. It’s even crazy for me to tell you that I don’t even think about my lyrics on stage. The moment I start to think about them I forget them. If I start trying to remember or think about where I am I’ll forget, it’s like I click out.

Rio: It’s the same for us, if someone asks us to go through the cones or do some skills in training practice, you maybe mess up 8 times out of 10. In a game it’s totally different it just happens and you can’t really put that into words.

ACTING CAREER

Rio: Going back a little to your acting career in Canada, How did you make the transition from that to music, can you talk me through that?

Drake: Acting is such a funny business and I love it with all my heart, but the problem with acting was that it just takes too long to be able to do what you want to do. To get in front of the camera and actually get to act,  you gotta audition, then go back and audition again and then you gotta get the role out of 500 people that they called and then the project has to be green lit and funded; actors start dropping out and it starts to become less appealing. It was frustrating and I wanted something more, something that I could do from the ground up. Music was my biggest passion and I realised that I didn’t need anyone to help me make music and I started meeting people and realising I could make music in their houses, I’d leave their house and it would be done! It was more gratifying than acting at the time. The key ingredient was when I met with 40 (producer)

To see the full interviews, go to www.5mag.co/issue07/