The rapper revealed he no longer found his stage name fulfilling, explaining he had realised it was simply “done”.
“It really was just like, ‘Oh, it’s done.’ It’s not fulfilling,” Donald, 40, told The New York Times. “And I just felt like I didn’t need to build in this way anymore.”
He added when he first became involved in the music scene, it had been hard to find a likeminded Black community with the same interests.
“I remember going to an N.E.R.D. show with my girlfriend and we were the only two Black people there,” Donald explained. “I feel like I was just looking around like, ‘Where is everyone? Am I an alien?'”
Ultimately, Donald said, he was uninterested in trying to be the coolest person in the industry and revealed he cares more about having a real connection with his sons, Legend, 8, Drake, 6 and Donald Jr, 4.
“I think grace is undervalued in the world,” he said. “When I put my son on my shoulders, I feel deep joy. That’s real. No one on their deathbed is going to look back and say, ‘Thank God I avoided being cringe.'”
