Read Drake’s Foreword in J Prince’s New Book ‘The Art & Science of Respect’

J. Prince is gearing up for the release of his memoir, The Art & Science of Respect: A Memoir by James Prince. But ahead of the book's June 22 release, the Rap-A-Lot Records CEO shares some of the audio of Drake reading the foreword he wrote.

In the foreword, Drake touches on being discovered by J. Prince's son, Jas Prince, and reveals what he learned from J. "Through our ears, he reinforced the importance of being self-contained, how to build a team, and how to respect and value their unconditional support to the movement that you're creating," Drizzy writes.

J. Prince shared a snippet of the foreword on Instagram on June 1, along with a photo of the first time he met Drake. "You can tell a good tree by the fruit it bears," he wrote in the caption. "That's why I'm proud to be Pops to both of these young men @champagnepapi and @jas.prince."

Along with the foreword from Drake, The Art & Science of Respect also receives some quotes from Jay-Z and Bun B, who both praised J. Prince. "When you do business with [J. Prince], you're held at your word," Hov said. "You know if he tells you something, he's gonna do it, which is refreshing."

Check out what Drake had to say in the book's foreword below.

I honestly don't remember meeting James Prince. It was years ago and a lot of life has happened since then. What I do remember is like scenes from a movie, being in Houston, on our way to a nightclub escorted by a motorcade; seas parting everywhere we went. Waves, handshakes—all blatant signs of respect and admiration and maybe even fear to be honest.

But it all equaled up to a man straight out of all my favorite movies about power, loyalty and respect. My story from Degrassi until now has been pretty well documented. Everyone has heard how Jas Prince found me on MySpace, reached out, brought me to Houston and introduced me to Lil Wayne. But not much has been said about the things I witnessed from the Prince family during those early years in that city.

There's a common thread throughout the careers of mine and many others. And that is that no one becomes great on our own. Not even me or Pops. You know me, Jas, Jr., Baby Jay, those are my brothers, so I call him Pops. He's a complicated man, and it takes time to learn how to read him, even for me. Through our ears, he reinforced the importance of being self-contained, how to build a team, and how to respect and value their unconditional support to the movement that you're creating.

Our parallels became clearer and clearer. At a time where Toronto was as unlikely to succeed as a former car salesman out of Houston, at a time where rap was either East Coast or West Coast, here we both are. He helped pave the way by building a Third Cost the same way we established the North.

The challenges of creating a movement from scratch are indescribable. Everyone is different and no one has the cheat codes. We're all just feeling our way through, relying on instinct, using whatever tools we've been given. And what James Prince did, from rap to boxing, was build a movement. And he did it for his city.

 

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