- Drake, welcome to the UK
and welcome to the world
premiere of Top Boy.
We are in the heart of the
show, we're in Hackney.
How good does it feel to be here?
- It's amazing.
I was actually here last
night for it, you know.
It's incredible.
I can't believe we were all just,
we did a dinner last night,
we were all just talking
about how far this journey
has come from inception, you know,
and just to be here at the
premiere, to see my brother Dave,
you know, apart of it and see, you know,
all the cast, new and old,
it's a beautiful thing.
I'm very excited.
It's surreal, almost.
- It is quite surreal.
I mean, I wanna talk about the
inception that you mentioned
because the great thing
about all your cast
and your crew mates, that
they've just praising you
for the fact that you are an unashamed fan
of this show first and foremost.
What was it about the storytelling
that attracted you to get involved?
- Well I watching it on YouTube.
Yeah, and I just really
became attached to it.
I became attached to the characters,
the story really drew me in,
and I think there's so many parallels
between Toronto and London.
Obviously we don't have the same accent,
but we speak the same a lot.
So, it reminded me of
people that I grew up with
or guys that I know and
situations that I've witnessed.
So, I just really felt
super connected right away.
And then, yeah, then it disappeared on me
and I was like, whoa, what?
Nah, wait, what happened?
I had to do my research.
- Oh, this is my story!
- Yeah, yeah, my stories, exactly.
Yeah, I did my research
and I found out that,
you know, it had been ultimately canceled
and I brought it up to
my brother and my manager
and my partner in crime who
always is the best facilitator
that I know, so if
anybody could get it done,
he could get it done, and
I brought it up to him,
I said, yo, we should
try and bring this back.
I mean, I think the entire
UK would appreciate it
and like, at first, it was
kinda like, just for me.
I was like, yo, I need this back,
but then I realized how much
it meant to so many people
and of course, like I said, you know,
you mention something to him
and he's gonna go full throttle, 100%,
so next thing I knew we
were sitting in the room
with Netflix and here we are.
- At the world premiere.
- At the world premiere.
- We're out here.
I wanted to talk to you
just about your connection
to the actors who are also
recording artists, right?
How excited were you for them
to kinda of be given that,
I guess that second
shot again at, you know,
flexing that muscle, you know,
Simz, Kano, Dave, Ashley.
- Well yeah, like, for the OGs, you know,
like for Kano, for Ashley, for Scorch,
like all those guys, like, it's like,
you know, to see them
be able to continue this
is an incredible feeling for me.
And for the next wave, you know,
like for Simz, Dave, I
just think it's something
that can assist, I mean obviously,
Dave is on the moon
already, but, you know,
but these are the type
of things that really get
to put on display how talented people are
and I think all these people,
you know, aside from music,
like, you know, you know
Kano has a new album out and,
you know, we all know what
they're capable of in that space,
but I think that, you know,
to be, their talent is
multilayered and so,
I think this really gives
the world a clear picture
of how talented these people are
and just how talented people
out here are in general.
- What is your definition of a top boy?
- The slogan for this
journey that we're going on
is it's crowded at the top, you know?
So, to differentiate
yourself from the crowd,
to be undisputed, that
is, you know, like, to,
whatever your space is,
it doesn't have to be,
you know, it could be in the
middle of Hackney hustling,
it could be in music, you
could be building houses,
you could be doing whatever,
but to be undisputed
where your peers respect
and fear you at the same time,
that, to me, is a top boy.
