Drake
If You're Reading This It's Too Late

Release Date: 2015 | Tracklist

Disclaimer: I 5’ed Nothing Was the Same. It is not a 5/5 album. I subjectively 4’ed this album. If I were a nitpicker staff member who only listened to 311, then I would give this an objective 3.7. Ya boy rounds up.

Disclaimer 2: This album is a big “fuck you” to YMCMB head "Birdman" (Bryan Williams, unfortunately not Michael Keaton). Some of it might feel rushed, but that is because it was rushed. It had to be rushed. I will only somewhat take this into account, but there are certain aspects of this tape/album that I will definitely gloss over because of the Baby situation. The rumor that Weezy might leave YMCMB pretty much confirms it: Birdman/Baby is a fuckboy.

(I personally prefer Paths of Glory)

“I cannot really dig a track unless I dig the beat,” my boy said to me one day while bumping King by T.I. Despite the superb consistency and quality of that album, he insisted we listen to “What You Know” on repeat. This perfectly sums it up; I would say “What You Know” is definitely up there in terms of all-time production quality (as far as trap goes), so it makes definite sense to dig the track over the rest of the album, despite the subpar (even for T.I.) lyrics and flow. He also loves Jeezy’s “I Luv It,” which certainly falls under the same purple light as the majority of T.I.’s tracks. Both artists are known for forefronting the “trap” sound (see: T.I.’s influential Trap Muzik). The beats can easily make or break the tracks because the lyrics are, more often than not, nothing special (“see Gucci that’s my mofuckin nigga…”).

Beat dependency has unfortunately seemed to become more apparent and almost mandatory in recent years. As much as I love A$AP Rocky, there is no denying the fact that his beat choices absolutely push the quality of his tracks tenfold. With up and comers like Hit-Boy and Clams Casino, it is quite hard to overlook how the production can sometimes overshadow the smooth ass flow that Rocky is known for. Just peep Deep Purple in comparison to Live.Love.A$AP. and to a lesser extent Long. Live. A$AP--the difference in quality is astounding, and you can definitely blame the production on tracks like “Get High” for the (generally agreed upon) garbage that is Deep Purple.

I digress.

...ANYWAYS.

Drake is on a fuckin’ roll. 2013’s Nothing Was the Same was a massive step up for Jewish/Canadian/former wheelchair-bound tv-star type of hard-ass nigga ~Aubrey Graham~ in terms of finally diversifying his sound. His usual R&B/rap combo went from expectedly “pretty good” and standard to unexpectedly intricate and forward-thinking. He still had that curiously-interesting droll-style with some faux-drab scattered around (at least at face value), but it oddly worked quite well when dichotomously compared to the “conscious rap” (in the positive sense) parts of the album. He no longer constrained himself to the purgatory between solid R&B and...pretty good rapping. He expanded both ways, showing off a quite impressive R&B progression (see: “Hold On, We’re Going Home”) and a...pretty good progression in regards to his...pretty good rapping (“Tuscan Leather”).

His production style has certainly expanded since then, solidifying his preference towards a more hazy (or cloudy, hehe) type of beat a la Main Attrakionz or Friendzone (this was first clearly seen in the Nothing Was the Same standout track “Pound Cake”, unsurprisingly produced by Boi-1da). This ethereal near-cloud rap style of production unexpectedly worked/works so well with Drake, showing his sheer diversity in which you can clearly tell he could rip a track up using any type of flow he has to give. It seems as though “R&B Drake” is somewhat heading towards “cloud rap Drake”--then again, those two personalities definitely have a similar type of atmosphere, at least nowadays (see: The Weeknd).

Right off the bat, you can pick up on this The Weeknd-esque flow, and you can certainly sense the Miguel/J. Cole style (found in Cole’s hit single “Power Trip). Opener “Legend” continues the theme from Nothing Was the Same of perfectly showcasing what you are in for: solid rapping hidden behind an R&B vocal style (alongside an incredible overuse of “nigga:” 15 uses in Nothing Was the Same’s opener “Tuscan Leather” and 9 uses in “Legend”--at least he is learning)?

perfectly touched upon

here--> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFh8f17W0Nk

and

here--> http://www.lilwaynehq.com/forums/drake/46393-drake-saying-nigga.html

(sarcasm...Obama is a halfski)

Unfortunately, much like his previous albums, If Youre Reading This… is just too damn long. Despite the overall quality of each song, there is no denying the repetition and ever-so-noticeable drag found around the ~45 minute mark. He has the right amount of material to make an album, but unfortunately it is curiously quite prevalent in hip-hop to throw a shitload of songs onto an album and have listeners stomach ~20 more minutes than necessary. Migos’ 2014 mixtape Rich Nigga Timeline clocks in at 80 minutes. I love trap music, but god damn having to stomach shit like:











is near impossible. I fuck with Migos, but god damn do they need to shut the fuck up sometimes.

If you were to cut out maybe 20 minutes of music here, it would be much easier to digest, in turn making it a much more enjoyable listen. Nas’ debut album Illmatic, often topping those unnecessary “greatest hip-hop albums of all time” lists, is barely 40 minutes long, and there is not a single filler track. It would be quite easy to increase the overall quality of If Youre Reading This… by merely cutting out the little green dribbles of shit that somehow enveloped this delicious PB&J:

• Lose “Know Yourself”

• Realize “No Tellin’” does not need to be 5 minutes long

• Obliterate “Preach” and pretend that it was an old Future track that somehow ended up on the album

• Cut most of “Company” and move the Travi$ Scott verse to previous track “Now & Forever”

• Realize no one really likes A$AP Rocky b-sides and get rid of “You & the 6”

Phew--only 5. If anyone can tell me what is up with the whole 6 spiel...

If you were to make these changes, then you could take the album’s modest-but-unnecessary length of 63:57 and take it down 20:46, leaving you with a 43:11 album. That is, in my opinion of course, a prime length for a hip-hop release.

The cuts made would not necessarily even be a purge of lesser tracks; the only track that I would really consider bad would be “Preach,” and even if that is kind of a stretch. The rest are relatively solid tracks, but not only do they hinder the album’s flow, they also hinder the album’s overall sound and theme. Tracks like “6 Man” and “Know Yourself” seem to unnecessarily force the R&B side of Drake down your throat. Drake could have easily reworked the 3 track single for “6 God” and in turn put these contextually hindrances onto a completely separate EP. I find “6 God” to be an easy highlight personally, perfecting the trap-like flow that we have seen sprinklings of since Drake’s feature on the remix of Migos’ “Versace.” It seems like a waste to bog the track down with two other mediocre-at-best co-tracks. This in turn unconsciously affects listeners’ perception of the track (“6 God”) itself. I feel as though a 5-track EP of these “B-sides” would not only increase the quality of the mixtape, but it would also make a pretty solid EP. See:

Live.Love.6

• Know Yourself

• No Tellin’

• Preach (eh)

• Company

• You & the 6

A definite improvement.

Despite If Youre Reading This… more so seeming like a mere collection of tracks versus a well thought out listing of necessary tracks, the tracks themselves remain great. You get your standard Drake R&B tracks (“Legend”), you get your standard Drake R&B/hip-hop crossovers (“Star67”), you get your standard Drake hip-hop tracks (“10 Bands”), and you actually get your new (and hopefully more prominent) Drake near-trap tracks (“6 God”). His flow variation is all the more apparent here (despite being brought down by potential filler and/or poor track placement), and songs like “6 God” and “Used To” (despite just being a Weezy remix with a Drake verse a la “Club Goin’ Up on a Tuesday,” originally by newcomer ILoveMakonnen) show a definite horizon-broadening progression towards the “trap” scene; this can also be seen in the 2014 Boi-1da -produced banger “0 to 100.” I sometimes lay restless in bed at night thinking about how dope that track is. I fell asleep at 7 AM last night/this morning thinking about how I should prolly sign to Hit-Boy cause I got all the hits boy.

This is not Drake’s classic. Views from the 6 probably will not be either. But that is part of the justified appeal of Drake: he does not have to be the “best” to actually be the best. He has the track record of a rapper ready to drop something big, but he is still wading around in the “pop rap” end…

...and that is completely fine. I love “Forever,” and I also love “0 to 100.” I love “Wu-Tang Forever,” but I also love “Crew Love.” He has got his own flavor, and he easily has potential to throw some kiwi in with that solo strawberry. He can do it. He will do it when he wants to. Here is to hoping that it is sooner rather than later--I would love to objectively justify 5’ing a fucking Drake album.

Disclaimer: I 5’ed Nothing Was the Same. It is not a 5/5 album. I subjectively 4’ed this album. If I were a tyrant staff, then I would give this an objective 3.7. Ya boy rounds up.


Some post-review “liner note” thoughts:

• Riff Raff does an intro and outro on “Used To”, and they are naturally both perfect

• Wondagurl (came up through her production on Jay-Z’s “Crown”) throws a silenced PP7 sample (N64 Goldeneye) in there somewhere

• The features are all great. Bar “Preach,” I would give high scores to all of the features here, Travi$ Scott in particular

• I remember hearing someone here say that they did not really fuck with the interlude because they had been listening to the sample for a while beforehand--as someone who did not, I find the interlude to be phenomenal.

• The “Star67” sample sounds eerily similar to the “Bass” sample by A$AP Rocky.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/15/drake-tattoo_n_6688600.html

>tfw

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3.5 great