Connect

Album: Nothing Was the Same (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • This emotional song finds Drake describing an on-off poisonous relationship with a girl. Despite the fact that she is constantly running around the city partying and communication is a problem, he keeps finding ways to justify staying with her. "That one hits you in the heart," Drake told Rolling Stone. "It's painful and beautiful at the same time."
  • Drake used to drive around in his uncle's drop top Lexus before he was signed. He refers to this in the lyric, "My uncle say, 'You drive my whip like it's yours.'" The Toronto rapper also discussed this memory on "Started from the Bottom" when he rapped: "And my uncle calling me like 'Where ya at? I gave you the keys told ya bring it right back."
  • Scottish producer Hudson Mohawke supplied the beat. He also helped create the soundscapes on a couple of Kanye West's Yeezus tracks, "I Am a God" and "Blood On The Leaves." In addition, Mohawke released a self-titled EP as one half of the duo TNGHT with Canadian producer Lunice. The pair lent one of its beats to Lil Wayne for the I Am Not a Human Being Part II track, "Lay It Down."
  • The Toronto poet Kenza Samir helped Drake write this song. She recalled: "When I texted him, 'Isn't it amazing, how you talk all that s--- and still we lack communication,' he was like, 'Are you talking to me about me right now or is that for the song?'"
  • Speaking to Vibe Magazine, Drake was asked how he came up with such lines as: "Wish you would learn to love people and use things and not the other way around." He replied: "I just have a folder of lines. It's usually from conversations. I'll open up and see the last thing that I wrote down. [Scrolls phone] Like this'll probably never get used: 'I'm not gullible, I just trust you.' Someone must have said that to me. I kinda just write down these lines."

    "Who helped me write on 'Connect' is this girl Kenza," Drake added. "She's a great girl and a phenomenal poetry writer. We just sit together and come up with the best way to say things. Actually, me and her did [the lyric] 'love people and use things and not the other way around.' It's cool to get another creative mind in there, just someone who's thinking solely about the words and not the melodies and placement. It's nice to read her poetry sometimes, I'll take from that."

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