Drake says he regrets name-dropping his ex-girlfriends in his songs

• Drake regrets name-dropping his ex-girlfriends in his songs.
• Alisha, Rose Mary, Courtney, and Keshia are just some of the former flames Drake has rapped about.

Drake once had a penchant for name-dropping his ex-girlfriends in his songs, but the "One Dance" rapper has now said he regrets doing so.

"I hate hearing that shit," Drake said as he explained some of his regrets to Lil Yachty on the premiere episode of FUTUREMOOD's "A Moody Conversation" on Friday.

"I heard it the other night," he said of rapping about retiring at 35 in the song "Weston Road Flows."

"I think that, and sometimes when I've said girls' names in songs, maybe those are the two things that I look back on and I'm like, 'Maybe I coulda done without, like, shitting on people for age or disrupting somebody's life,'" Drake said.

Alisha ("Shot For Me"), Rose Mary and Leanne Sealey ("Club Paradise"), Courtney ("From Time"), and Keshia Chanté ("In My Feelings") are just some of the former flames Drake has rapped about in his songs over the years.

"The lyrics are never with ill intent, but I had somebody tell me one time, 'You know, it's not necessarily what you're saying about me, it's the fact that you said it,'" Drake added.

He expanded that he was once told by an ex-partner: "'You don't know who my boyfriend is at the time or you don't know what my family knows or doesn't know. And if you express any form of discontent for me and call me by name in a song, then all of a sudden, I'm left to pick up the pieces of my own life that I've tried to build up for myself.'"

"So I've tried my best to stop doing that," he concluded. "But I like to be honest in music too so that one's a push and pull."

During his chat with Lil Yachty, Drake also hinted that he is preparing to retire from making music.

"I'm at the point now where I just want to like, and I feel like maybe we talked about this the other day, but I feel like I'm kind of introducing the concept in my mind of a graceful exit," he said.

Drake, 36, has released seven studio albums, one collaborative album, and seven mixtapes. He's sold over 170 million records worldwide and is the most listened-to artist of all time on Spotify with over 55 billion streams.

Having accomplished so much, he told Yachty he wants to see what the next generation of rappers can bring to the table.

"I feel like a lot of people that I've watched as the years have gone on, it's a really addictive competitive space and oftentimes you're addicted to the competition itself," he said.

"I'm not ready now, but to gracefully continue making projects that are extremely interesting and hopefully cherished by people, and then to find the right time to say, 'I can't wait to see what the next generation does.'

"I'll still be around to work with people or do a show here or there, but I'm not going to force myself to compete. I would love to just see what the next generation does. whenever that time is."