2021 BBMAs- Drake Says He’s Self-Conscious About His Music during His Speech
Rapper Drake was honored with the Artist of the Decade award at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards for his musical domination throughout the 2010s.
After a video highlighting his incredible career, Drake walked out on stage hand-in-hand with his 3-year-old son Adonis (whom he shares with artist Sophie Brussaux) to accept the award.
“Thank you very much,” he said during his speech. “That video was really full of a lot of confidence and bravado, but you know the truth is, I’m really bad at taking compliments. I’m really self-conscious about my music. Even if I do a good job, I always wonder how I could have done it better.”
“I rarely celebrate anything,” he continued. “For anyone watching this that’s wondering how this happened, that’s really the answer: It’s being so unsure how you’re getting it done that you just keep going in the hopes of figuring out the formula, Feeling so lucky and blessed that the fear of losing it keeps you up at night.”
Drake went on to say that he “didn’t write a grandiose speech about how to make it work or what it took” because “I don’t quite understand it myself.”
“I just know that I’ve spent an incalculable amount of hours trying to analyse all the things I did wrong, but tonight for once, I’m sure as hell we did something right,” he said.
He then gave a special shout out to his friends, his long-time collaborators and his peers, whose music he said has him “tossing and turning at night trying to figure out what I should do next.”
He also thanked his “beautiful family” and turned his attention to his son, who had broken out into tears by the speech’s end. “I want to dedicate this to you,” he said as he picked Adonis up.
The “God’s Plan” rapper was nominated in seven categories at this year’s show, including top artist. Earlier in the night, he won the award for top streaming songs artist.
Back in March 2021, Drake became the first artist to have three songs debut in the Top 3 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart after dropping his project Scary Hours 2 which included his three songs — “What’s Next,” “Wants and Needs” with Lil Baby and “Lemon Pepper Freestyle” with Rick Ross.
The Billboard Music Awards are airing live from Los Angeles from 8-11 p.m. ET on NBC.