So loyal blog readers will most likely know that I am a fan of the hip-hop. Or "rap" if you will. I have layers of white guilt about this, co-opting black culture and all. But that's a subject for another post. Right now I have but one goal...to get everyone on earth to respect how great of a rapper Drake is and how he will one day run the hip-hop game.
My love for Drake all started with his sadistically catchy single "Best I Ever Had" (which I posted about a few days ago). It's the epitome of a summer banger; up-tempo beat, super catchy chorus, bitingly clever rhymes. It's a perfect jam. But if you look below the superficial and really dig deep into Drake's wordplay, you hopefully notice what I did: a sense of brutal honestly and a relatability that's missing from a lot of commercial hip-hop being made right now. For example, instead of your usual barage of "my girl gives good head" lines or something equally simplistic. Drake has the wits to lay a line on us like this:
"You ain't even have to ask twice
You can have my heart or we can share it like the last slice.
Always felt like you was so accustom to the fast life
Have a nigga thinking that he met you in a past life
Sweat pants, hair tied, chillin' with no make up on
That's when you're the prettiest
I hope that you don't take it wrong
You don't even trip when friends say you ain't bringing Drake along
You know that I'm working late I'll be there soon as I make it home"
It almost reads like a diary entry on paper but Drake has the flow to pull it off with swagger and make it fit right along side the sing along chorus "you the fucking best, you the fucking best, you the fucking best. Best I ever had, Best I ever had".
Exploring the deeper cuts on his "So Far Gone" mix-tape, a different and more complex image emerges even further still. It is an image of young rapper laying his heart on the line and truly foregoing the bullshit so prevalent in 90% of hip-hop. Sure, there's an underlying swagger and an occasional throw away line...but the pulse of the record are songs like "Successful", in which he sings,
"I want the money, money and the cars, cars and the clothes, the ho's...I suppose. I just want to be, I just want to be successful".
It's a testament to the trust he builds on the record that you can't help but believe him. And in case you don't quite buy it, he sells it in the line "I want things to go my way, but as of late a lot of shit been going sideways". In the age of so many MC's going on and on about how much fucking money and clothes they have, it's so eye opening to hear somebody honestly admit that they want to be there (who doesn't?) but might not quite be there yet.
Without harping on the honesty factor in Drake's rhymes too much, I have to give praise to the stunning centerpiece track on "So Far Gone", a song called "Say What's Real". The track clocks in at a little over 3 minutes and features no chorus, just 3 minutes of straight, raw flow. My personal favorite moment of the entire album comes at the mid-way point of "Say What's Real":
"I quit school and it's not because I'm lazy
I'm just not the social type
and campus life is crazy.
Understand I could get money with my eyes closed.
Lost some of my hottest verses down in Cabo
so if you find a Blackberry with a side scroll
sell that motherfucka to any rapper that I know...
cause they need it much more than I ever will
cause I got new shit
and I'm gettin better still"
It's one of those bravura performances that make you think "I am witnessing the birth of a game changer". In fact, I think Drake himself sums up how I feel about him and his place in the future of rap, in the closing moments of "Say What's Real":
"I think this got that "making of a legend" feel
problem with these other niggas they
ain't never real".
