A recent book claims Drake was down with the house that Suge built.

Death Row Records—the storied Cali-based record label founded in 1991—boasts a Hall of Fame-caliber legacy roster. The imprint’s alumni includes icons like Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Kurupt, Nate Dogg… and Drake?

John Seabrook’s 2015 book The Song Machine: Inside The Hit Factory says:

At Death Row Records, Dre’s hip-hop hit factory in L.A., dozens of young beat makers and topliners put in long hours. The Canadian rapper Drake worked there for a while, before he was famous.

Dr. Dre notably left Death Row in 1996—when Drizzy was just 10 years old—so it seems unlikely that he was there for the label’s heyday. But Suge Knight did keep the label going until 2006, while Drake was still an aspiring rapper cashing checks from Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Drake told Seabrook about his memories of the label’s songwriter camps:

“It was some of the most strenuous militant shit I’ve ever done. But no useable songs came out of it. When I think of how he worked us, it’s no wonder he didn’t get anything out of it. It was just writers in a room churning out product all day long.”

If true, it seems strange that this information about Drake’s past has never surfaced before. If only we could have been a fly on the wall at Drake and John Seabrook’s 2014 dinner:

