Entertainment

Rapper Drake Says He Steered Clear Of Harvey Weinstein

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Jena Greene Reporter
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Top selling rapper Drake is this week’s cover story in The Hollywood Reporter, in which he told the magazine he steered clear of Harvey Weinstein for a long time.

He was asked about everything, from handbags to Harry Potter, but what’s grabbing most headlines is his take on Weinstein.

Drake reveals that he’s been looking to move beyond music and dabble in movie production. And when he and his manager, Adel “Future” Nel, started shopping around for business partners, they steered clear of The Weinstein Company.

THR reported the following:

Still, cautionary tales abound. Jay Z made a similar foray into Hollywood last year, but he bet on the wrong horse by aligning with (even then) financially troubled The Weinstein Co. on projects including In the Heights, Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said and an untitled Trayvon Martin film. Given Harvey Weinstein’s pariah status, those projects remain in doubt. Ironically, Weinstein chased Drake to star in and produce a film called The Heist, but Drake rebuffed the overtures long before the mogul faced dozens of sexual harassment and assault claims. “I vetted him with five people and got bad feedback about working with him,” Future says simply.

Pretty business savvy move for two non-establishment Hollywood guys. You’d think some of the people closer to Harvey Weinstein might have realized the same things and distanced themselves sooner, too.

Deciding to distance himself from the embattled Weinstein Co. could be attributed to Drake’s pretty strong moral compass. He was raised by a single Jewish mother and considers himself to be pretty spiritual.

“I identify as Jewish. I am a person who, you know, I talk to God. I just try to live a very good life, to be a good person. I’m not necessarily extremely religious, but my mom and I always do the high holidays together,” Dratke told The Hollywood Reporter.

Whatever the reason may be, it seems to serving Drake well. He routinely sells out concerts and grosses up to $1 million a night. Apple Music’s VP of Media and Apps almost exclusively attributes its success to Drake. And he keeps a closet full of Hermes Birkin bags (which can retail for over $300,000), for the woman he ends up with.

Yeah, I’d say Drake’s doing just fine without Harvey.