While earning his Bachelor of Sciences degree in Biology at Howard University, he was a frequent contributor to the Hilltop newspaper and to the yearbook in the form of poetry and editorials that challenged the thought patterns of his peers. He also built a popular reputation as a performance poet, bringing his humorous spin on social and political issues to a slew of university functions. In 2001, he decided to capitalize on this audience by self-publishing his first collection of poetry, Droopy: Dat Boy's A Fool, through his company Broke Baller Enterprises. The success of this first project led to the publication of his sophomore work Feel No Way: The Drew Testament (2002) and the compilation I'll Probably Die Writing (2003), which he edited and co-wrote along with The 5th eLement, a spoken word/theatre troupe which he co-founded in 2002.

His publishing projects have caused him to be sought out to edit a number of books, including Brandi Forte's Drama Girl: Diary of a Sistapoet (2002), Dana E. Crawford's The Evolution of an Ugly Duckling (2003) and Michelle Sewell's Growing Up Girl: An Anthology of Voices from Marginalized Spaces (2006). The latter work won the 2007 National Undergound Spokenword Poetry Award (NUSPA) for Book of the Year. Addicted to the stage, Drew has given many explosive poetry and theatre performances from arena to academia, New Orleans to Ottawa, under his moniker "Droopy the Broke Baller". A member of the 2003 and 2004 DC/Baltimore National Poetry Slam teams, he has been a coach and judge at a number of performance poetry competitions, including the DC Scores Youth Slam and special activities with Higher Achievement and Upward Bound.