If You’re Reading This: Here’s My Interview with Megan Sumpton
Deon Egenti
When you have the resume that Megan Sumpton has, it’s hard to argue her contributions to the game. She’s a successful photographer and has one of the biggest fan sites on the internet today. Word on Road is a fan site that was created to profile the life of arguably the biggest artist of the past decade: Drake. However, when we spoke, it made me realize she was more than who people think she is. In this interview, we talk to her about how Word on Road was created, her first time meeting Drake, her passion for photography, and much more.
What were you like growing up and what kind of music were you listening to?
I was really into music and I credit my mom and my cousin back home in Baton Rouge. My mom put me onto R&B so she was listening to Anita Baker, Tony! Toni! Toné!, Toni Braxton, Keith Sweat, and all that. My favorite genre is still R&B and I owe that all to her. After a while, she stopped listening to secular music so we only listened to gospel music. We would listen to gospel in the car everywhere. Those are my two favorite genres still. I grew up listening to Kirk Franklin, I had all his CDs, and I knew all the words. After that, my musical taste started expanding because my cousin started introducing me to more modern R&B. She would have me listening to Destiny’s Child. At the same time, being from Baton Rouge, she was putting me on to Boosie, Webbie, Master P, and The Hot Boyz. She’s the reason I got into rap and my music taste kept evolving. I went to school with mainly Caucasians and that’s when I got into country music and alternative rock. I just told this girl from high school, who was on my track team, that she was the reason I started listening to Cartel. At track meets, she would be listening to them so I would go on Limewire, download their whole thing, and put it on my iPod. Another girl I went to high school with put me on Kurt Cobain and all types of alternative rock. However, I would still listen to gospel and R&B so now my music taste is all over. I still listen to everything. I just like good music that makes you feel something.
What made you want to create Word on Road?
I was actually asked to create it by Drake and his team. He had a previous fansite that was shut down by the person who ran it. I was actually helping her with that back then. I was basically interning and she let me help out which I really appreciated. I would always see reports on the timeline about him and I would piece things together. His team took notice of that and that’s how it started.
When did you first realize that Word on Road was gaining attraction?
I had to build it from the ground up back when Instagram was just starting out, even before Drake had one. This was heavy in the blog era and it was hard because transitioning from blogging to social media was a challenge. I was having to work backwards because most people only had blogs so they had to build their social media up. I had to build both of them up at the same time. It didn’t take that long for it to start gaining social attraction because before I already had certain connections with people. Elliott Wilson was already reposting stuff so people kind of knew who I was and that I was trusted. The bloggers back in that era would always credit me so I would be on articles all the time. I would be credited all the time because I would be the first to post about it and that would give us traffic. It really helped out. Also, I would go to shows, get video footage, and just be out there. It grew organically because we started from zero on everything.
Tell me about the first time you met Drake? What has your relationship been with him since then?
The first time I met him I actually won a contest to interview him at his inaugural OVO fest. I was really nervous because I had never stanned an artist before. The only other artist I had stanned for was Kirk Franklin. I knew everything about Drake. I used to watch him on Degrassi so it felt like I grew up with him. It was nerve-wrecking meeting him because I had never been to Toronto, and I was flying there. Also, I was meeting someone that I admired so I wanted everything to go really well. I didn’t know what to expect but based on what I had seen, I felt like it was going to be a really good experience. It was really amazing because I had to interview him and the whole time in my head I thought: “I can’t believe that I’m sitting next to this person!” This was Drake and people knew who he was! It was a lot of emotions because I had never met someone that famous before and this was the first famous person I had met. It was pretty cool. Our relationship at first was more so me being a fan, but then it evolved into a collaboration/friendship. We still stay in contact and we’re really cool. It’s kind of crazy when I look back.
You have these amazing “Drake N Chill” parties that you’ve thrown in the last couple of years. Was that something that you always wanted to do? Also, will there be more in the future?
Yeah, I started off doing brunches in Toronto during OVO fest weekend and those were successful. Afterwards, I really wanted to transition to just doing parties. I felt that having a Drake party, with only Drake music, and having Drake fans come through would be really cool. He has a lot of good music. I’m working on trying to revamp it. I always like to start off in New York because I feel like they’re the best crowd. I know that I’ve done other places, but there’s nothing like New York. I’m looking to bring that back around April.
How did being a photographer become one of your passions in life?
I’ve always had a camera. I would use my report card money to buy one. One of my first digital cameras was a Canon Powershot. It was the first of its kind because it had an LCD screen on the back which was crazy for cameras. I would take my camera to track meets and shoot all my friends. I still have those albums on Facebook. Afterwards, my mom got this camera to take on family vacations and it was close to a DSLR camera. I would use that and try to do what I call photography. I didn’t know what I was doing. Anyways, I would always use cameras to shoot videos. That’s how I ended up winning the trip to Toronto because you had to do a video. I would enter contests and win all the time. My thing was always making content videos. However, I never used it to shoot and if so I use it on auto. I had the same camera for ten years. It was the Canon 2TI. In Summer 2018, I started to do foodie pictures because I like to go out to eat. Afterwards, I started to learn how to really use the camera and that’s when I wanted to shoot people. I still didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing all the way. However, Drake was on tour at that time so it gave me more practice. I was shooting at all the shows and it made me see how much I loved photography. In 2019, I started shooting self-portraits, learned how to re-touch, and edit. After that, I started shooting at other people’s shows, people in general, and then I made my website. It’s my favorite thing to do.
What can we expect from Word on Road this year?
I’m really just trying to work on more original content this year. I want to come up with more authentic ideas and have more events.
Finally, we need your favorite Drake albums ranked.
In order: Nothing Was the Same, So Far Gone, Take Care, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, Views, More Life, Thank Me Later, and Scorpion.
Make sure to follow Megan on Instagram and Twitter. Also, follow Word on Road on Instagram and Twitter. Finally, check out her photography on Instagram. If you want to book a photoshoot with her, contact her through her website.
