who is drake?
hogginthefogg
6,098 Posts
Seriously; I had never heard of him until the troll thread. Between him and Charles Hamilton, I'm feeling pretty good about being disconnected.
Comments
"I do not think that means what you think it means."
It's trash... as one might expect based on the dudes stanning for him
This is the best mixtape I've heard in 2009 and I say that with all certainty:
I had nothing to do with it, unlike many opinions around here dude probably just doesn't have his head up Soulstrut's peehole.
b/w
I've been telling you to check that mixtape since it dropped. And definitely listen all the way through because it's not on some isolated bangers shit, the dude has depth.
How wrong is ya' boy?
"Hate the Drake."
Questlove was just twitterin about how he wishes he was at that show...I need to hear this music i guess.
Uninformed hateration is dead.
This is why I like you, sir.
DREW N-I-C-E FOR MODERHATTEUR!
OK, I just listened to it, and I think it's terrible. At least I'm informed now. He vacillates being trying to be Kanye (and doing a pretty good job of sounding like him) to wanting to be The-Dream Lite (and failing miserably).
And as far as Bun taking the stage with him, let us not forget Bernard's highly suspect taste in cameos (Talib, Dizzee Rascal, Travis Barker...).
Incidentally, if you want a better mixtape by a rapper who reminds me of Kanye:
http://www.crossfadedbacon.com/2009/04/23/playboy-tre-liquore-store-mascot/
with this reasoning, Asher Roth would be the next coming.
Bun B took the stage with him in Toronto too but it didn't help Drake perform any better. He's just not that good or interesting to me - and trust me, I would love to be blown away by someone new. I'm not going out of my way to hate.
Maybe when he has his own style...
From what I hear on there, I think Drake's making good new music and has a triple threat of sing/rhyme/writing skills with the potential to help move pop/rap/r&b in a different direction. There are many styles on that tape and he goes between them with relative ease, like he could do an album of any of them. (it seems that you suggest his versatility is a weakness)
I got a chance to listen to this pre-radio hype, right before he blew up and am judging him from the perspective of fresh, untainted by bullsh*t talent. Dude is not afraid to be purely himself and do his own thing. I think people are responding to that. It's also refreshing to hear somebody who's at least semi-introspective about their life and that which likely awaits them after success in the industry. That said, if I never heard anything else from Drake, I'd be satisfied with just having heard "So Far Gone". There's no telling what could be next.
Glad that you checked it out.
I'll see your "fair enough" and match it with one of my own. I just don't think that he has enough of his own style (shouts to Bassie) to pull off any aspect of the tripe threat, at least not yet, but I'll give him credit for trying.
File under "swagger not yet credible."
This Drake stuff is kinda tap-water. I think what drewnice is hearing as moving "between [styles] with relative ease," I'm hearing more as superficial engagement with all the various signifiers of the Eclectic R&B Dude?? archetype that has become so commercially potent. It's like dude's got a copy of West's Elements of Epaulet Soul and is running it straight down: "Step 5--It's okay to over-emote, but make sure you're doing it against a chilly, faintly European-sounding track. This will make you seem complex."
I'd agree with you, drew, that stuff like this might have some sociological interest as the work of the first wave post-Kanye kids, but I cannot agree at all with the idea that this guy is somehow "fresh" and "purely himself" and "untainted." It's competent r&b. Nothing wrong with that, but nothing really special with that, either.
The "fahr" / "thahr" rhyme at the beginning of that "Night Off" jernt might be the most preposterous thing I've heard this week.
(p.s.: drew, I'm embrassed to admit that it's only recently that I've realized that your username is two words--"drew nice." For the longest time I was thinking it rhymed with "Eunice." Oof.)
That's a graemlin waiting to happen.
I will refrain from making an "guts" joke and just take the L (that I left out of "triple") on this one.