Drake (feat. Lil Wayne & Tyga) - The Motto (Young Money, 2011)
How Wayne manages to look the most suspect in a video with Drake and Tyga, I’ll never know, but the video itself succeeds thanks to some finely timed cameos and Tyga’s weird methods of space travel.
Also, Chase N. Cashe. Seriously, this dude’s work as of late has been excellent, and I can’t wait for 2012, which will undoubtedly be an even bigger year for his production.
Drake - Chop Care (Swishahouse, 2011)
OG Ron C’s latest masterpiece is gonna be a controversial one.
Kendrick Lamar - Buried Alive (Young Money/Universal, 2011)
I know a lot of people have really praised this verse, and for great reason. From the moment I first heard it, it sent chills running down my spine, and continues to upon each subsequent listen. I’m not sure if anyone’s really discussed all the elements that really make this not only a fantastic verse, but one that’s absolutely twisted.
Kendrick Lamar was rumored to have issues with Drake for years - so far as subliminally threatening him on Look Out For Detox - and I certainly believe there’s truth to those rumors. Drake, at least during Kendrick’s rise to underground prominence in 2010, seemed to represent almost everything that Kendrick seemingly despised. On O.D., still one of the best albums in recent years, Kendrick was a struggling young man from Compton who was too wise to get caught up in the streets, and far too rough around the edges to fit in with the mainsteam mold at the time. He’s changed a bit (Section 80 is about as safe as you can get after O.D.), and it seems his views on Toronto’s own has as well. This maybe due to Drake reaching out to Kendrick personally, though.
Kendrick is literally calling Drake the death of me on Buried Alive. By that, he means the Kendrick of old, the kid who once went by the moniker of K-Dot and was virtually unknown out of LA underground circles (and a small part of the C-Section at 2DopeBoyz). He details the encounter of meeting with Drake for the first time, and all the joys of commercialism that Drake promised him if he were to make that leap. Kendrick expresses great regret, remarking how he has been leading a double-life as of lately due to his underground appeal and recent mainstream acceptance. At the end, the former dies, and from the ashes rises the phoenix that crafted this brutally honest verse.
Kendrick has had a great year in the public eye, but quite the rough journey when it comes to discovering himself as both an artist and person. Buried Alive perfectly chronicles this split-diagram, and may stand as the best verse of the year when it’s over.
I will be writing about Take Care. I just don’t know where yet.
Drake & Slim K - Take Care: The Prelude (Chopped & Screwed) (datpiff, 2011)
There was a time where I would’ve been worried about including Drake’s music on this blog, because despite being a longtime fan (and writing about his music in this blog’s early incarnation - when no one read it), the readers I garnered never took kindly to young Aubrey. Nothing’s really changed about that except for the simple fact that I rarely contribute anything on the internet anymore, so I’m going off the notion that no one is paying attention.
Slim K is best known around our circles for his beautifully slowed renditions of ASAP Rocky’s leaked tracks. It seems only right that Slim would also be able to expertly screw Drake’s music, not only because Rocky will be on Drake’s forthcoming Club Paradise tour, but also due to both artists’ similar quiet storm aesthetics.
Dreams Money Can Buy was already melancholic before Slim got ahead of it, but with the tempo slowed to a snail’s pace, it takes on a new life of its own. The same can be said of Marvin’s Room and this tape’s highlight, Trust Issues, which strikes even more of the paranoid-laden notes it was attempting to reach than the original. Even Future, 2011’s MVP, has his hit single Tunney Muntannah get a new life breathed into it by Slim’s treatment. And Drake’s verse doesn’t sound as out of place here! (it’s still a pretty awkward place for a Drake verse, but it’s something, y’know?)
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