Drake has already told us that he is done with acting and that he is now more in touch with the music, but…oh boy, he done did act like Beyoncé this time, dropping a shit hot album while we were snoring or tossing and turning if you are an insomniac. Something he can afford to do, because like Mrs Carter, Drake is at the apogee of his career and he is not vacillating about his reign as a young king. The jury is still out on whether this an album or a mixtape, the last time we heard from camp Drizzy, the album was on the way and it was going to be called ‘The View From The 6′, ” The 6″ being Drake’s hometown, Toronto. So to avoid any further confusion, let’s just say Drake has dropped a surprise mixtape called ‘If You Are Reading This, It’s Too Late’, a borrow from Pseudonymous Bosch’s book of the same name about three kids trying to escape the grasp of their parents, an issue Drake is wrestling with if you listen to ‘You & The 6′, he’s grateful for how his mother raised him but, he is crying out to be his own man, he’ll take her advise but he won’t take the girls she is trying to hook him up with.
True to his astonishing thematic consistency, here is another offering that is as musical as it is emotional, solemn and austere, it’s poignant and introspective without self pity, like all of his albums, there is subtle aura of sadness. You can call Drake a cry baby but you can’t dispute his extraordinary magnetism and charm. He raps about repellent subjects like loneliness in a holding-up-the-mirror-to-society kind of way. He doesn’t rap about sociopolitical issues like his contemporaries, J Cole and Kendrick, but he does rap about black male identity and its complexities…you know?like acting tough and lying about where you are from and what you did for dough. His break-up songs are predictable and repetitive, whoever she is, I am sure she has heard about his leaving and never coming back too many times, even he sings ” I swear I keep telling you over and over again” on a song called ‘Now & Forever’. His fixation with ex-girlfriends and strippers is a bit…um, boring, like, dude, get over it. But, his preaching is on point, there really is a difference between doing it and do it right, so pay attention to a song called ‘Preach’ featuring his latest signee PartyNextDoor, it’s both mellow and melodic.
Listening to this tape, it’s easy to pick up that Drake is imbued with agitation about achieving longevity and perhaps, even immortality, take a listen to ‘Legend’ and ‘Know Yourself’. He is also concerned with friendship because he has experienced bad friendship. Some of his fake friends tried stabbing him in the back but, he pulled out that knife and slit their throats with it, as a result, , he has reduced his inner circle to a few “niggas” he grew up with, the type of friends his is happy to share 15% of his profits with. On ‘6 PM In New York’ he raps about fame and vanity and the uselessness of all that nonsense. Some of the lines on that track, for me, are a perfect description of Kanye West, especially the part about how some rappers would call paparazzi on themselves so they can show off their outfits, Yeezy would do that right? I share Drizzy’s sentiments about how sad it is that we have come to that, I remember when it was music that gave these rappers all the attention they need, but, then again times are changing, who are we kidding. Thank God we still have Drake.