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If there’s one mantra that has been synonymous with Drake and the OVO brand it’s “know yourself.”

Oliver El-Khatib, Drake’s long time manager and friend, recently spoke to GQ about how the team remains so grounded and how he keeps the OVO ship afloat.

El-Khatib, of course, is the mastermind behind the rapper’s partnerships with Jordan Brand, Sprite, and Apple. El-Khatib attributes the collective’s success for sticking to their Canadian roots instead of getting influences by the USA like so many others.

I remember guys walking around Caribana [Toronto’s Caribbean carnival] talking like they’re from New York, to impress girls. We took the flaws and flipped it. We Eminem’d it,” El-Khatib says.

The OVO camp has continuously managed to always go left when everyone else goes right.

The OVO clothing line zigged to branded sweats when everyone was zagging to high-fashion collaborations. They zigged to Apple Music when TIDAL was assembling the Avengers of pop … When entertainers flocked to Adidas to launch sneaker collabs, Drake went to Jordan Brand,” the article notes.

Overall, El-Khatib says in order to succeed you have to trust yourself and the message you are trying to spread. The success and accolades will follow once people catch on.

No one is going to tell you that you’re making the right move,” El-Khatib says. “But you have to have blind faith. I just had a sickness — a sick belief that it’s all going to work out.”

Check out the rest of the interview with Drake’s right hand man here.

SOURCE: GQ | IMAGE SOURCE: Getty, Twitter, Instagram

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Drake’s Manager Oliver El-Khatib Reveals The Secrets To OVO’s Success  was originally published on theurbandaily.com