Review Summary: Lacking cohesion
Some hip-hop collaborations are a match made in Heaven. You have projects like Kanye West and Jay-Z’s special blend of egoism, charisma and cockiness, “Watch the Throne,” and Mos Def and Talib Kweli’s underrated masterwork of a duo, Black Star. But then Drake and Future drop a surprise mixtape together, “What A Time To Be Alive,” perplexing many, myself included. I’d imagine Drake would synergize much better with a rapper like J. Cole instead of Future. And if you had asked me a year ago, I would’ve said Future shouldn’t even have a career in music, but his technical progression on his 2015 album “DS2” was a monumental leap forward. Still, the single from that album “Where Ya At” featuring Drake didn’t show off a ton of chemistry between the two, so a full 40 minutes together seemed slightly misguided. Luckily, it isn’t a complete misstep, but it doesn’t warrant it’s own existence.
The album starts off disorganized and lacking identity with the first two tracks. The opener, “Digital Dash,” has this awful, twinkly synth that bounces all the wrong ways and this bass pattern that’s way too syncopated for its own good. Future doesn’t have the technical flow to stay on time with a beat like this, and even Drake, who usually has an impeccable flow, flubs a few lines. The second track, “Big Rings,” sinks even lower. It has this asinine, annoying hook performed by Drake with an awkward cadence overemphasizing the second half of each bar. What’s worse is that this is essentially the title track since both rappers reference the album’s title in it. Thankfully, those are the two worst tracks this mixtape has to offer, but the highlights are few and far between.
As surprising as it is, Future comes out as the more consistent of the two halves. “Live From the Gutter” has Future shine when talking about the end of his relationship with singer Ciara, and he emotionally connect quite well on “Scholarships,” as well. Drake drops a thematically similar verse on “Diamonds Dancing” talking about an ex-girlfriend, but the lyrics hit much harder on paper then in-track. Drake does completely own the best track, “30 For 30 Freestyle,” but Future doesn’t even show up on the track. It would probably fit better on a new Drake album. It does contain the album’s hardest hitting line though with, “The pen is working if you niggas need some ghost lines/I thought you wanted yours like I want mine,” perfectly acknowledging the ghostwriting rumors started by Meek Mill and throwing it back in his haters’ faces. Aside from this track and a killer verse on “I’m the Plug,” which feels more like a guest verse than a collaborative effort, Drake doesn’t really spit a lot of fire. The few times he reverts to his half-sung, half-rap motif works well with Future’s similar style, but there isn’t nearly enough of it to justify 40 minutes, and he doesn’t use it frequently enough to capitalize on it and create real cohesion between the two.
This is a Future mixtape with Future-style production with a few drizzles of Drizzy mixed in, mostly collecting in the final track. Fans of Future will probably enjoy this more than Drake fans, but I’d recommend both of their separate outputs in 2015 over this project. Like sprite and codeine, some things are better off left separated for their own good.
