“Fresher than a pillow with a mint on it”
There is a rapper (from Canada) named Drake, and if you’ve heard his mixtape So Far Gone, I’m aware you either love him or you don’t. Yet I’ve noticed that an overwhelming number of women versus men claim the former, not solely for his smooth looks and insanely groomed eyebrows but for the emotions he conveys through his singing and rhyming. He does both well. The mixtape is all about feelings—ex-girlfriend, relationship, loneliness—and we all know how much guys (pre)tend to recoil from such mushy stuff as that. Drake is savvy to this, when he says: “When my album drop, bitches’ll buy it for the picture and niggas’ll buy it too and claim they got it for they sista.”
On first listen, most people notice initially that much of the material is 808s & Heartbreak territory, and I’ve heard Drake defined as a cocky new age combo of Lil Wayne and Kanye West, which sounds about right. He’s one of the first new rappers really built from that mold, evolving from both of those MCs’ risk-taking screw-convention template. Hip-hop fans who weren’t willing to accept the emofied version of Ye are most likely turned off by Drake, as are those more into hardcore lyricism and/or thug posturing, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Clearly, Drake isn’t a lyricist and he’s quite subscribed to the type of simplistic flow Kanye has somehow made satisfactory. Still, there’s the fact of believing what he raps about. He sounds like he means these things and is not just trying to sound like he does.
Hardcore hip-hop heads—some call them “purists”—as well as those ubiquitous fulltime haters instantly and vehemently refute anything that doesn’t appear distinctly “hip-hop” and Drake falls into that category: for example, I’ll just refer you to his song based on the “Let’s call the whole thing off” tune and his stint on a show my little brothers possibly watch, Degrassi. Either way, dude’s been on repeat in a lot of my friends’ iPods. A few posts back, I linked his song “Little Bit,” which he jacked from this chick I should’ve been listening to, Lykke Li. Few other favorites: “Successful,” “Best I Ever Had,” “November 18.” I’ve been listening to him, just late with the review. Honestly, I was thinking of where I could write about it for money lol.
Download, alright…
I like this mixtape. good look on the link.
you know how i feel about our drake, ms. hope. nice piece.
thanks
I agree with everything, but don’t front on Drake’s lyrics or his flow. He outdoes Wayne on Unstoppable with the Wayne flow, and that takes skills. Listen close to that track, especially after Santo first comes in, where he stop for breath? From what I can tell, he just goes right in and does it perfect. That takes skills.
And his lyrics are wayyy doper than people give him credit for. First, as a song writer he knows how to structure a song properly (probably cuz his family is all musicians anyhow) and that’s something a lot of “lyricists” who just spit 100 bars at the time don’t understand how to do. Plus, as a rapper his punchlines are witty as hell (Peep the caption! lol). Most rapper punchlines revolve around guns and crack, topics that Drake avoids entirely. Tell me lines like; “the game got these old hand prints on it, but I’m the one to come pour cement on it” or “the moment you began to doubt, transitioning from fitting in to standing out” and tell me who else might spit a line like that?
good point – he has some dope one liners and his song-making ability is really on point, and I mentioned how his rhymes are atypical, which I like. lyricist though? I need some more material to determine. still I don’t understand why people hate on him
i love him on dagrassie
Drake is my favorite, but he ain’t hearin’ none of that… lmao