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Young Money’s rapping-acting sensation, Drake, is riding high on his success. His most successful mixtape to date, So Far Gone, hard-pressed him to Hip-Hop’s frontline particularly with his top Billboard single, “Best I Ever Had.” Originally released for free download in February on his blog, OctobersVeryOwn.blogspot.com, the successful mixtape is now set to hit shelves nationwide in September complete with bonus tracks not featured on the original.

Drizzy explained his reasoning for putting the album in stores in a post entitled, “Unlearn,” on his blog. He allows fans a peak into his mindset, wondering if any artist would live up to the old standards of past Hip-Hop legends without the push of the Internet.

“I often wonder in a time where new artists exist in a impersonal cyber world of instantaneous information, if we will ever have another rap legend that can manage to maintain the image that our idols had prior to this method of promotion. I am not suggesting that this person should be me, I am just urging a generation to understand that in order to have anyone of any significance in our lives that we can look up to there will be things that we must look past. There are people that buy sell and trade evil on a daily basis…when u believe in their brand is when they win.”

He continues saying that he’s releasing the mixtapes in stores so that fans can have a physical copy if they so chose. If not he says, it was a “gift” and they should “thank him later,” a play on words that refers to the title of his debut album.

“I also want people to know that I am only releasing this EP so that everyone involved in the project can hold a physical copy of the CD in their hands and see it in the store. And for anybody else who feels that So Far Gone marked a moment in time I just wanted to give you the option to have the disc. If you got it for free and want to keep it that way than by all means I urge you to. That was a gift from me to you…Thank Me Later.”

While fans are awaiting So Far Gone’s in-store debut, Drake is anticipating knee surgery. While already suffering from a torn ACL, MCL and LCL, he reinjured himself at a concert on the America’s Most Wanted Tour, collapsing on stage in mid performance. Since then he’s followed doctor’s orders to drop from the tour and is currently in the studio working on his debut label-driven album, Thank Me Later. He revealed via his Twitter that he will have surgery on September 8th to fix his ailing knee and his progress on the project calling it, “magic.”

“In the studio…working on Thank Me Later…magic…surgery September 8th! Then we’re back in business.”

Thank Me Later is set to hit stores in 2010 and so far features production from producers like 40, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz and Boy Wonder, the producer responsible for “Best I Ever Had.”