How many times in your life have you ever left a job and been under the impression that you’d been fired when that probably wasn’t really the case? That’s never happened to me, but then I’m not hip hop/R&B artist Drake. He was under the impression that he was pushed out the door when his time on the Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation was through, but it sounds like that wasn’t the case at all.
Drake recently took part in an interview for W magazine, where he talked about his burgeoning music career as the reason he was “kicked off the show” in 2009, and he said that after the powers-that-be saw him struggling as he juggled the two creative outlets, they told him to choose between them. However, Degrassi co-creator and executive producer Linda Schuyler calls B.S. on that, although she’s not bringing the diss track swagger to it.
I’m hoping there was just some miscommunication here, because if that’s the perception nothing could make me sadder. From my point of view, the timing was absolutely brilliant because we knew Aubrey was juggling his music. Not only did we know it, we helped him with it. His character had run its course, so we were nothing but supportive.
I don’t think there’s any actual bad blood between Drake and his former employers, as the rapper was supposed to reprise his role of Jimmy Brooks earlier this year, although that didn’t happen. And Shuyler told BuzzFeed that she’s “very proud of Drake,” even though she still calls him Aubrey. Regardless of everyone’s present-day feelings toward one another, it’s obvious that Drake still has something burning where treatment of his character is concerned. But what were they supposed to do with him?
By the time he left (or was kicked off) the show in 2009, his character was graduating. I guess they technically could have kept him around to keep track of his health and wellness in the years after he was shot in the back and forced to get around in a wheelchair. But that’d be like Degrassi All Growed Up or something. If he wants to remember the past with the inclusion of him being kicked off of the show, though, I guess that’s his prerogative.
Drake, a former Saturday Night Live host and musical guest, has spent the recent past crafting his rap persona, and it’s about as far from a teen soap character as can be. He made headlines earlier this year when he got into a brief feud with Meek Mill over Drake’s lack of Twitter talk about Meek Mill’s latest album, but the beef was brushed under the rug several diss tracks later. Maybe his next one will have something directed at Degrassi execs.
