Drake Insists He's Not Dissing Tupac On 'Fear'

MTV Shows

Drake said, unequivocally, he isn't dissing Tupac Shakur on "Fear." He's just pointing out that he was too young to fully feel the impact of the music icon at the time of his passing.

"I never cried when 'Pac died," Drake raps on the song from his So Far Gone EP. "But I probably will when Hov does/ And if my tears hold value, then I would drop one for every single thing he showed us/ And I'll be standing in a puddle."

Recently calling in from Toronto, Drake explained his lines.

"A lot of people also sort of don't understand the meaning of that line," Drake said. "It's not necessarily that I don't love West Coast hip-hop or that I don't love 'Pac now that I'm 22, but that line was just said to show how new I am to hip-hop. And like I said, I was 9 when that happened, so it didn't really affect me. But that song in general was just one of those things that took awhile to finish because it was an opportunity to say a lot of the things on my mind. That always feels good as a rapper, when you can get your thoughts out."

Billboard recently reported that the first single from Drake's debut LP, Thank Me Later, will be "Shut It Down," featuring The-Dream. The song won't drop until January.

"It's sexy. It's slow, but there's an energy to it," he told Billboard. "I rap on it. Me and Dream both sing on it. It's cool. It also has a message that's never really been explored by male singers. This song is sort of like an anthem for women, like pre-the club. It's like an anthem for you to be at your house with your girlfriends getting ready, what you listen to before you get there. It's a song for the non-famous woman to make her feel special and just to let you know that even though I'm up here and have the option to mingle with these 'upper-echelon' women, if you will, that sometimes I'd rather be with the girl from back home or a student or a girl that works at Wal-Mart. They don't have to be a star or rich or anything like that; that's kind of the gist of the song. It's an empowering song for all women."