Job of the Day: Drake’s Vocal Coach

Omg.

I’d been singing in a band, was doing commercial jingles, stuff like that. People used to tell me that I should be a teacher, but for a while I still believed that only the people who can’t, teach. And that’s total crap. Teaching is an awesome creative process. Every person is like a new puzzle. You have to figure out, how are you getting that sound out, and how do I stop it? Singing always came so naturally to me, and working with people for whom it doesn’t is a big reward.

Oh lord almighty, Jia interviewed Drake’s vocal coach about what her job is like and how she came into it and it is amazing. Dionne Osborne is her name and she is a middle-aged white lady who urges Drake not to drink so much and took him to a WalMart in the middle of Kansas to buy a humidifier. It is, as Dionne will be the first to point out, the coolest job in the world: “I get to help people find their voice. What could be cooler? What could be more personal? Your voice is you.”

Unfortunately, everyone thinks I’m his mom, not someone there as a professional…The first three years, everyone thought I was his mom. Sandy is a cute Jewish woman who looks nothing like me, but you’ve been in the club, you know — if I’m older than everybody, and I’m in the VIP, I must be Drake’s mom!

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