Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Drake's Progression



Ask and you shall receive. I told you guys that if you want me to review something or look something over just let me know and my man told me to review Drake's Take Care. This thing is like a year and a half old and there have been many reviews for it like this or that, so ima do something kinda different. I'm going to chart his progression from his breakout tape through his first two studio albums. Now i haven't ever listened to one of his projects all the way through and i hate his nasally voice but maybe by giving him a chance i see where he is coming from and if the stuff spewing out of his mouth make sense and if he really did start from the bottom. Now just because i don't like listening to the guy doesn't mean i don't think he has talent. I mean the dude is obviously doing something right but we'll see. Or who knows maybe he does have everyone under a spell.


Like pretty much everyone else i first heard drake because of his 2009 breakout So Far Gone mixtape. He had a couple before this one called Room For Improvement and Comeback Season. If you're a fan go to datpiff and download those two. The first two songs are significant for a couple reasons. 1 is that it is actually pretty consistent with him nowadays or at least on his tracks where he isn't bragging about ridiculous shit. And 2 is that the first two songs are painstakingly boring. The first he talks about some Captain Save A Ho sucker shit so yeah he hasn't changed. There are some qualities like humbleness and loyalty that are good to keep while becoming famous but being a sucker. That is something you gotta shake when you're like 21 at the latest. I understand becoming an adult is a process but seriously dude is like almost 30 and still making it rain at strip clubs. Why? Why are you encouraging girls to be strippers? Then the second track comes in and another 2 things dawned on me. 1 is that this three and a half minute intro is the cure for insomnia and 2 is that this dude's hook writing style has not changed at all. Just repeat a couple words until it gets ingrained in your head. Brainwashing techniques. Houstonatlantavegas makes me not even wanna ever visit those cities. Captain Save A Ho. That being said i can dig Successful. Shit who doesn't want money, cars, clothes and hoes? I don't know if that's what they are saying success is or are mocking it but i can bear this homage to materialistic bullshit. He then tried to get his Houston on and failed miserably. Just because you chop and screw the hook don't mean its a Houston song. Stay in your lane, although i see where Kirko Bangz got his inspiration. Halfway through and i can't tell if this dude is trying to make an r&b album or legitly trying to show he can rap. His nasally voice just kills it for me. Best I Ever had is probably the worst song i ever heard other than Every Girl In The World. The problem i got with him is that he is obviously catering to chicks which is cool but trying to come off hard at the same time. C'mon man nobody is buying that. Stick to one or the other. You can't do everything. Not going to lie i cried when i heard Bun B on one of the tracks. Why Bun? You're a legend, you don't need to be jumping on anyones mixtape, especially one that already has cosigns from Lil Wayne who still was the biggest dude in rap at the time of this tape. Drizzy just trying to appeal to everyone i guess which is some what can you do about it shit. Sooner Than Later Came on on about halfway through i stopped listening. I just skipped the last few tracks because i had enough of it, i couldn't take it when he said "You just showered and your hair looks perfect." Dude is a real sucker, i mean don't get me wrong there isn't anything wrong with saying that to your girl, but he is trying to put his "ass on a pedestal" (his words not mine) and make himself unique acting like he is the only one that says that stuff to his girl. What i got from his breakout tape was that it was over rated. If he didn't have that Lil Wayne co-sign then this would not have broken out but props to the two sides for making it happen because at the end of the day he is successful. I do give drake credit for a couple things things. He did change the mixtape game as a way to break in to the mainstream. Before if you made your name off of mixtapes you were pretty much destined to stay there but he made it. Unfortunately people now try to copy his recipe for success which takes away the point of being an artist which is individuality. Also he proceeded to create the new genre of bitch-hop. That's just watered down rhyming to the max. Hip Hop is the music for the young generation there is no denying that. The young kids and young adults want to be part of something that is cool but the problem is a lot of rap was terrible and young people could not get behind it. Then Drake came along and was "real" with his feelings and emotions. It gave people who didn't like hip-hop a reason to like the genre and stay cool and hip. I was unimpressed with the breakout tape and believe the reason it got such huge buzz was because it was different than what was being heard at the time so for that i give him props.


For his studio "debut" Thank Me Later (since So Far Gone was eventually re-released for retail and for damn sure Trey Songz and Lil Wayne weren't going to be recording in any low budget studio) i thought it was cool. I only fucked with one song on the previous but this one i mess with 3 of them: Find Your Love is cool and a perfect example of him doing some jedi mind tricks to me. It's one of the worst hooks over yet it's stuck in your head. If he didn't declare his love for Nicki Minaj on Miss Me, which almost made me puke and confirming his status as Lieutenant Save A Ho, that would of been my favorite on the album. And Fancy is cool for nostalgic reasons because of a certain someone dropping jello in the pudding at Fresh Choice. And can we get a petition to get Fresh Choice back in business because idk about you guys but i know of no other place to get your buffet on for like $11. I wish on the opening track, Fireworks, that Alicia Keys had a bigger role. Only thing she said was "all i see is fireworks" and that disappointed me because she is one of the most talented artists we have today, male or female. Then he started bragging about how he sets down his napkins and cutlery which got me wondering why Alica Keys would agree to go on then i remembered he was on her previous album Element of Freedom, so he was probably begging her to get her on the album to return the favor a la what he did to Kendrick and The Weeknd and every artist he ever "helps." Then i finally understood what the great Cocaine Biceps meant when he said Drake sounds like a rapist. Listen to Shut It Down and ladies, if that is the kind of guy you want to date don't go complaining when he stalks you after breaking up with him. And the last problem i have with the album is on Over. He complains "I know way too many people here that i didn't know last year." NO SHIT. What did the man expect? Why would anyone know who you are? Nobody watches the American version of Degrassi, why would anyone watch the Canadian version. And i have never seen that show listed anywhere on my TV guide and i got that cable package that come with like 1,039 channels and i never came across that. Plus he had the nerve to admit that he "blew up overnight" in the same damn song. So he is admitting he came out of nowhere but complains no one was with him from the beginning. I'm not even going to say anything else about that. Not only that but the punchlines are garbage. The words "rosetta stone" and "Ebert and Roper" were used in the song. that says it all. Everything else on the album is tolerable. Up All Night though almost got ruined when he said "Toodles to you bitches." Again that is something i don't have to explain. He surprised me with how much he actually rapped and once i got beyond his nasally voice i see why people like him. Last thing is fuck him for comparing himself to ODB. So he did improve quality wise from his first album in terms of rapping and less singing which is a good move for him music wise, maybe not so much business wise. I like how he generally spoke on the same topics as So Far Gone because shit what else could he have spoken on. It showed to me he was the same person even after he blew up but after this is when things went south for him.


Take Care is a terrible album. He sings way too much and i don't know why he insists on doing so. He is not a good singer. I guess its relatable because most people aren't good singers so they all relate like "oh this dude is successfull and i sing just as good as him." The first track is the worst opening track i have heard in a while. Idk if he is speaking on the perspective of someone else but i really hope he is because he is so out of character in this. He is someone who builds himself on being "real" and "true to himself" but he is saying nigga probably more than ever in his life that "Over My Dead Body" is bullshit that a deaf person could hear. Then he references Mac Dre which i know is not the only time he has so he needs to keep his name out of his mouth. He just uses it to gain more fans in the bay because we know bullshit right away and don't fuck with him. I bet he can't name 5 songs of the late great Mac Dre, TIP, and i'll spot him Thizzle Dance and Feelin' Myself. The next song comes in and he's doing his bullshit singing again. It's sucks and someone needs to tell him he is not good if they're his "real niggas." I know he makes doe but that doesn't mean he's good at singing. It's called artistic integrity. Vernon Wells makes $126 million but that doesn't he's good. Then he tries to gets his spoken word on which is cool when done right. Drake is doing it just to do it and show he is an "artist" but c'mon dude i see right through you. Just because someone dresses up a dog in human clothes doesn't make them a human. I couldn't take it anymore so i stopped listening to the album plus the fact so many of the tracks have been on the radio anyway so i've heard most of them. The only one i would listen to again is the instrumental version of Headlines. Idk maybe i just gotta be in a sad/emo/rapey mood to enjoy it because i don't see the appeal at all. And to all the bay people that like The Motto get your head out of your asses, that song is terrible. This version is better anyway. It's the song that started Yolo and for that reason only i will hate this song forever. Yolo pretty much encourages stupid ass behavior. There's a difference in spontaneous decisions and ignorant decisions though and people use Yolo as a justification to be ignorantly spontaneous if you get what i'm saying.

he's been eyeing that dress

I actually give Drake a passing grade for his first two albums but Take Care he morphed, or his true colors came out, into some creepy stalker teenage girl. I wasn't feeling that at all. He doesn't have a voice for rapping but there are moments when he does get his flow on every now and then. Listening to him actually changed my opinion on him because i thought he was just straight trash after that last album but i now know he can get busy in his own way. It definitely did not do anything to earn a rotation in the ipod and will be deleted right when the last letter of this post is typed and proceeded to be thrown out of the itunes library right onto the trash but at least i know now what he kinda was. Oh and Started From The Bottom is turrible too. If by the bottom you mean middle class upbringing in toronto with acting gigs on Degrassi to always fall back on if the whole music thing didn't work out then yeah he did start from the bottom of the barrel. Well he is successful so props to Drake for making your money just don't claim to be hip hop ever again. Claim pop or bitch-hop because no hip hop fan fucks with Toronto's favorite son. Let me know if there is anything you want me to look at, sports wise or music wise. Shout out to Pig Nasty.



Mac Dre- Since 84


Mac Dre & Andre Nickatina- My Homeboy's Chevy



De La Soul feat. Redman


Motherfuckin Dave Chappelle

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