Makonnen is gay

Morgan and Drake, we had a great relationship. They had different priorities. ILoveMakonnen wears his freedom well, as he first displayed when he came out as gay in — a brave public admission for an artist of any musical genre, let alone hip-hop.

I was hoping that I would be collaborating with all the other artists on the label. We all sounded pretty cohesive in what we wanted to do together. But before I even signed with OVO Sounds and Warners inI wanted my own thing — to give my art to people the way they wanted it, and I wanted it.

I just wanted to get away from record labels, and go back to being independent since The label went through a round of management changes during those years, too…. I found out that to be a conflict of interest gay the Makonnen imprint is through Warner Brothers — like am I going to battle all of them now?

ILoveMakonnen wears his freedom well, as he first displayed when he came out as gay in — a brave public admission for an artist of any musical genre, let alone hip-hop. What were the circumstances under which your left Warner Brothers to start your label, Own Timeless Magic?

When managers and representatives on both sides talked, however, communications got lost. But I guess that I rubbed everyone at OVO the wrong way because that never happened or seemed what they wanted. And with his newfound independence comes a refreshing frankness, which ILoveMakonnen demonstrated during a recent interview with Variety.

But one thing is for sure: Throughout his career, even before he officially came out inMakonnen's presence as a queer artist in the hyper-masculine trenches of hip-hop has been a subject. Suddenly, too, there was a situation with old tweets where you dissed Drake going back to, like, I was young, online and saying wild stuff just to get attention — to get a reaction.

It was a battle for about four years — me trying to leave, get independent and free, to create the music I wanted and put it out on my terms with the people I wanted to work with, without politics and the usual industry stuff. I had no issue with them, and apologized for my old tweets and being young and dumb.

I thought that they wanted me to be part of the OVO family. So I left.

ILoveMakonnen Comes Out as

People who signed me left. Audiences have had the feels for Atlanta-bred crooner-rapper ILoveMakonnen since Popular on Variety. It all wound up as just politics without me ever talking to them. What were your expectations in being an artist on the roster? Rapper iLoveMakonnen came out as gay in a year after leaving Drake ’s OVO label, making him one of the first mainstream male hip-hop artists to come out.

That hurt me a lot. They were there to sign new acts. Was your contract up? We never really spoke again after that.