The year is 2009. A 22 year old Canadian born rapper, who most remembered from his acting role in the TV series Degrassi, drops a mixtape in February. So Far Gone. It featured what would become the biggest radio hit in "Best I Ever Had". The mixtape became so popular to the point people considered it to be the best overall hip hop project of the year. I don't know if Drake saw this coming himself, but there is no way anyone could have imagined that Drake would be where he is right now because of that mixtapes success. One can argue that Drake is hip hop's biggest mainstream name today. In both hip hop and R&B. Not since 50 Cent have I seen someones rap career take off in this way due to their mixtape history. In such a short period of time no less. In short, Drake may have done the impossible. Not just the mixtape thing, but taking a style of hip hop never used before and making it popular, despite the criticism and/or jokes he takes because of it. Needless to say, it's very easy to understand why this is the most anticipated release of 2013. His third album Nothing Was The Same. Now let's reflect on the previous two albums first. His 2010 debut Thank Me Later I thought was pretty solid. It felt like a continuation of So Far Gone but much much more radio friendly. But then there's his 2011 sophomore effort Take Care. This is where I became frustrated with Drake. He just let his emotions pour out 100% on that album to the point where I couldn't tolerate it. Too many soft and soothing beats, too much singing etc. Giving off this sad and emotional emo like feel. It over-shadowed the little actual rapping that was on it. Now because of that, my expectations for this album was to hear the same b.s. but much worst. To my surprise, it wasn't worst. In fact, it's a bit of an upgrade from Take Care. However, I thought the album was pretty decent. Just decent. The singing is still there (to no surprise) and the emotions are still there but not to the extent like it was on Take Care. Now here's my thing about Drake just to clear the air. With three albums in, it's pretty clear now that Drake's music won't see no change anytime soon . It's at a point now where I nor anyone else can judge him or his music on the same level as other rappers. Drake has created his own lane and own style of music and you can only judge it on that. It is a lane that no one else in and Drake is alone. This is something I had to learn to accept over these last few years. He himself understands that he's alone in this music style which is why he owns up to being emotional and being "soft". That's actually the one thing I do respect about Drake is his honesty about his music. With that said, my positives and negatives for this album are pretty even so let's get to it. The album started off pretty good with the intro track "Tuscan Leather". Lyrically this was the best song on the album. It's also where he gets very aggressive with his words as it sounds like he's calling out enemies or all who dares challenge him. Reminding them to not let the soft songs fool you. How ironic he does something like this after that controversial Kendrick Lamar verse. I also like the beat switch ups on this track as well. Which is something he does with the production quite a few times on this album. Seems like he's experimenting with the production. However, while I did like the song, he had this one line regarding Lil Wayne that made me drop my face in my palm quickly: "I'm just as famous as my mentor/but that's still the boss don't get sent for/get hype on tracks and jump in front of a bullet you wasn't meant for/cause you don't really wan't to hear me vent more". I don't know when this dude is gonna realize he is not this person. He did this same thing on "Headlines" from the last album. Trying to threaten people with gun talk. Defending Lil Wayne no less. You are not about that life Drake. No one takes you serious when you talk like that. Stop. The following song "Furthest Thing" was alright. However, this is where his emotional venting begins. The first part of the song is him venting about how he isn't perfect and at the same time expressing anger towards some random girl. But still showing affection towards her. Honestly this track doesn't even get good until the song is damn near over. After 40 again does another beat switch up to something more soulful while Drake spits much better lyrics than the beginning of the track. "From Time" was a cool song and a perfect example of what I'd like to see from Drake. Now here he continues his emotional venting about his ex's. The first verse he's more so reminiscing on a past relationship. While on the second verse he just goes off name dropping a ton of females from his past. Porscha who worked at Treasures, Summer who he was buying Michael Kors for, Bria who he discovered at Beverly Center Macy's, Kourtney from Hooters on P Street and so on. He's basically venting about how none of these girls worked out and how he would have liked it to. But what made this song enjoyable was Jhene Aiko's heavenly voice on the hook. This is what I want from Drake. Get actual R&B singers on your hook instead of doing it yourself because this is definitely the type of song that Drake would normally sing his own hook on. Thank God he didn't. "All Me" is the bonus track that in hindsight is a bad song but I couldn't help but like it. It was kinda catchy. 2 Chainz comes in with his horrible lyrics ("my dick so big it makes the metal detector go off"). Big Sean however was kinda impressive believe it or not. The beat was kinda cool too. But it's definitely a song I wouldn't play continuously. "Pound Cake" featured Jay-Z and because their collaboration was so good on Thank Me Later I was a little hyped to hear this. Turns out it was just average. Jay's verse was so bad . It was just so lazy. Parts of the verse where he could have put lyrics he just fills with ad-libs and stuff like "cake cake cake cake". The beat was very slow and mellow but Drake delivered good enough for the song to at least be average. Okay now I can't even front, a part of me actually likes the second single "Hold On, We're Going Home". It kind of sounds like a re-mastered and much better version of "Find Your Love". It has this throwback 70's funk/disco like beat that's really catchy. The overall sound of it is good to the point where I'm not even bothered by Drake's singing and I normally hate his singing. Well now the fun part....my negatives. Let me first start with what was arguably the worst song on the whole album. "305 To My City". I cannot even explain in words how disastrous this was. Drake has made bad songs in the past but I can't recall him making a song this God awful. First of all, you all know that I loathe repetitive hooks and this had one of the worst one's this year: "I get it, I get it, I get it, I get it, I get it". Over and over again. Terrible beat, terrible chopped-n-screwed samples, and piss poor lyrics. This is easily in the top three worst Drake songs of all time. Another song that wasn't as bad but still terrible was "Worst Behavior". I don't even know where to start. First off, why the hell is he yelling? Is he taking the same medication as Meek Mill now? Second, this beat was atrocious. It sounded like too many sounds trying to be blended. The lyrics were just completely horrific and so was the lazy ass hook ("they used to never want to hear us....remember? motherfuckers never loved us....remember?"). This song sounded like something Kanye West scrapped from Yeezus and gave it to Drake as a gift. I can't believe he put garbage songs like these on the album but left off "5 AM In Toronto". Makes no sense. No song confused the hell out of me more than "Wu-Tang Forever". Now at first I thought this would be something creative like him spitting like Wu-Tang on a Wu-Tang like beat. What this was was a R&B ballad that had nothing to do with Wu-Tang what so ever. Why the title then Drake? He must have thought he was doing something cool and unique by sampling Wu-Tang's "It's Yourz", singing about a girl that's telling him "it's yours", and naming it after their classic album. Stupid. Even Inspectah Deck himself Tweeted about how he shouldn't have titled it that because it didn't have nothing to do with them. Failed song and a failed attempt at a concept. I don't know where this sudden Wu-Tang Clan fascination has come from but Drake makes references to them throughout the album. Then it gets worst as the following song "Own It" is a continuation of "Wu-Tang Forever" but the roles are reversed. Now it's Drake telling the girl "it's yours". However, this brought back R&B Take Care Drake which I did not like. This whole little sequence between these two song was so awfully bad and just awkward. I've never really liked the single "Started From The Bottom". I think it's just so lazy and effortless. Lyrics wise and beat wise. It's like all he cared about was making it catchy. Plus it's hard to take that song serious when we all know damn well Drake didn't "start from the bottom". I'm sure he's never seen any kind of struggle growing up in the rich, suburban neighborhood's of Toronto. He was never at "the bottom". I feel like "The Language" could possibly grow on me but right now I'm not feeling it. He used the same fast paced flow he had on "Versace" and still he's taking shots at enemies, haters etc. It seems like he let's these people get to him too much. In closing, Drake still never ceases to amaze me. Continuing his emotional roller coaster over ex girlfriends, anger towards haters, his imperfections and spewing his braggadocios and cocky attitude everywhere. I give this a final grade of a B-. Like I mentioned, one thing I do respect to the fullest about Drake along with his hustle, is his honesty. He doesn't hide the fact that he is over emotional. However, I feel like he shouldn't let it get to him when people call him out on it. If he himself knows he's like this why get mad when someone else says it? He needs to just own up to it when people mention it instead of pouring out frustrations about it through his music. He just overall needs to get all his emotions together. I respect Drake as an artist but I think once he does that, things will run much more smoothly for him and his career. He's already in his own lane with no one else. That's because no one else has the courage to rap and sing about the things he raps and sings about. That is why today, Aubrey Drake Graham is hip hop's biggest star, because he dared to be different. It worked. End.
Final Grade: B-
CREDITS
Executive Producer
Aubrey Graham
Dwayne Carter
Bryan Williams
Ronald Williams
Lead Artist
Aubrey Graham
Production
Noah Shebib
Jacob Dutton
Noel Fischer
Dacoury Natche
Jason Beck
Majid Al Maskati
Ross Birchard
Matthew Samuels
Allen Ritter
Anderson Hernandez
Sampha Sisay
Paul Jeffries
Jordan Evans
Dwane Weir II
Collaboration
Jhene Chilombo
Majid Al Maskati
Noel Fischer
Shawn Carter
Sean Anderson
Tauheed Epps
Label
OVO Sound/Young Money/Cash Money/Republic
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