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What A Time To Be Alive (iTunes)
All Hail the King. No, not Drake. But the Trap King, Future. Or Future Hendrix. Future Vandross. You get it. Unless you were being proactive in your life, then you heard Future and Drake dropped an album called What A Time To Be Alive. Folks over-hyped it as usual. It has maybe two good songs, but it’s meh as a whole. And because it was meh, it got me thinking. Drake been dropping albums left and right to get off Cash Money (so obvious), but it’s the sound of these albums that I’m questioning. Not just the writing but the actually tempo and flow.
Forget Quentin and whoever else is writing for Drake. Lets discuss the actual sound, shall we. It’s a well known fact that to survive in Hip-Hop, you have to somehow incorporate the new trend into your music. Whether it be the hot new rapper or the flaming new producer, you got to stay above the wave. That is how Hov survived for 20 plus years. Now there is incorporating the sound into your own version and there’s simply just imitating the trend. That’s what Drake has been doing. And this boys and girls makes him a dick rider, someone who takes advantage of a popular trend. I’ve noticed when The Weeknd first hit mainstream, how Drake’s flow kind of switched. Not the singing rap style because Drake has been doing that before The Weeknd. I’m talking the nature of the tracks. It’s like he embodied Weekend’s style for Take Care. (Go listen to So Far Gone, House of Balloons, and then Take Care) But since they are in the same camp, I can see their styles intertwining. However, things changed up again after his work with Migos. Especially on If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, you can hear that Migos / Trap flow. And we all know that no one traps on Degrassi. Now on his latest project with Future Wonder, you would’ve thought Aubrey came up in the trenches of East Pointe Atlanta. It’s like he went home and studied every Jeezy, Gucci Mane, and Yo Gotti tape. Then when the microphone turned on he became them.
Is Drake considered a Culture Vulture? Of course. That Houston style is all through his raps like he’s from the third ward and not from Toronto. His last two efforts has him gunning for the trapper of the year award and he probably learned what a trap house was from a rap song. Aubrey is the ultimate dick rider but no one points it out because the music is good. I’ll admit I bop to his music, even though his albums have the life expectancy of Chinese food. My only concern truly is, when the real Drake will show up. Not H-Town Drizzy. Not North Memphis Drake. No Bompton Drizzy Drake. Nor College Park Aubrey. When will Toronto’s own Aubrey ‘Drake’ Graham show up to the mic? Only time will tell. But until then find Future and Drake some really big rings. –Pooh Bailey
