The Block37:12Roy Woods on The Block
In 2015, Drake fast-tracked the career of Roy Woods when the rapper signed the R&B singer to his OVO label. That July, he introduced Woods to the world by premiering the Brampton, Ont., musician's sultry single "Drama" on his OVO Sound radio show.
Woods' moody, enigmatic sound quickly garnered attention, and the track blew up. To date, it's been streamed more than 440 million times on Spotify.
In July 2023, Woods dropped a new album, Mixed Emotions, his first full-length release in nearly six years. During that period of time, the performer traded his days of endless partying and living in the studio for calmer moments of self-reflection.
Woods recently opened up about getting signed to Drake's label, handling his early years of fame and more with The Block's Angeline Tetteh-Wayoe.
2016 is the year of Waking at Dawn, your debut studio album. Can you take me back to that time in your life? What was happening with you?
I think I was about 21 or 22, actually, maybe even a little younger, maybe, like, 20, 21. I was just living fast. Everything was fast. So that time was a little blur for me. Even making that record, just a regular day to me was living and then going into the studio, drinking [Hennessy] all day.
It was really good, 'cause all I cared to do at that time was music. I didn't have anything else to do. I was just [spending] every day in the studio.
OK, so you ran away from home, and then you moved out, and you were living in downtown Toronto. And then you get signed to OVO, and then you get whisked away on this life. Do you ever feel like sometimes it was out of your control? Like this was almost a destiny kind of feeling?
You know, I never get that. I don't know why, but I feel like I have a mission, and I'm getting it done. That's more how I feel about it.
Were you feeling like you were handling the events and the work in an intentional, healthy way at the time?
Definitely not. I was a wild boy, I was wilin' all the time, partying. But I got the party out of me early on and young. So that's all I was doing, just the most. But I don't regret it. You know, I made a lot of great music off of that, and it's helped me look back and be like, OK, well, I had fun. Now I'm ready to do different stuff, grow up, kind of do adult stuff that I enjoy.
When I always think about the act of creating, writing, making the art while under the influence of, like you said, [Hennessy] all day, what did that bring out of you? What would you say the artistic expression was under the influence?
It was super rock-star vibes, just living free, carefree. [I did] not care about even myself, really. It was just constant partying. No sleep for weeks, just partying, making music.
I made a lot of great music off of that, and it's helped me look back and be like, OK, well, I had fun. Now I'm ready to do different stuff, grow up.- Roy Woods
I also read somewhere that earlier in your career that you were writing from a place of needing love. What kind of love are we talking about? There's all sorts of different love in life. There is the romantic love that often shows up in a lot of music, but there's familial love, there's brotherly love, you know, all these different kinds of love that can come your way, love from God. What kind of love were you in need of?
At first, I thought it was more romantic love. That's what I was talking about. Over the years, I realized the love I need is nothing close to that, it's not even in that area. That was just the young me. Now the older me is like, "OK, well, I have to go back and kind of deal with some traumas," which I have been doing. Now I realize the love that I needed was family. But I didn't know that, being young. You just want to replace what you don't have with something else that may be just as good, right? And that's all I was doing, not realizing, "Oh, wait, I'm destroying myself in the process of that."
So the new album is out. What does Mixed Emotions mean to you?
First of all, when you take away every other letter except for the first two from Mixed Emotions, you get "me." That's what I'm giving everybody, versions of me that are complete. I feel like the earlier versions of me that people know me for, you know, the Exis, the Waking at Dawn — [projects that are] very incomplete. I'm writing from a place unknowing. It wasn't controlled, what I was writing about.
I [was] just winging it, you know? Literally just winging songs. For instance, I wouldn't talk about one girl on one song. I'd have to go to two, maybe three girls, and take different experiences from them and then make a song. So everybody thinks like I'm talking about one girl. Nah, it's just the situation.
Now, person and the artist that I am, I can talk about one situation. Even if it made me feel great, even if it made me feel small just a little bit, I can write about it now. I didn't have the power to do that before, the control to do that before. So that's what this album is — showing a lot of controlled creativity from where I want to give my feelings, give my places of thoughts, opinions on myself, relationships, other people in my family, the past, the future, everything. It was so much more controlled than it ever was. That's why I feel like I'm so much more proud of this body of work, because it's everything I actually wanted to say, not things that I was trying to say.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length. To hear the full interview, listen to The Block on CBC Music.
Roy Woods on signing with Drake, living fast and growing up - CBC.ca
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