http://www.smashmouthfm.com/2013/09/27/drake-nothing-was-the-same/



What is there to be said about Drake? Nothing that you have never heard, and that I haven’t already addressed in my previous offering. So i’ll get right to the music…Drake – Nothing Was The Same, 2013.

1. Tuscan Leather – I’m tired of these niggas and their song titles. wtf am I missing with these song titles? Prolly some hipster shit. Anyway though, when Drake raps….okay, I know this is going to sound rather old and out of it no mater how I say it so fuck it here it goes… When Drake raps like…traditionally…like regular niggas…He good. That beat switch on the second verse was mean..and this nigga listens to Cappa…none of his fans do, but I fucks with this shit. 4/5

2. Furthest Thing – This is the Drake shit that goes into my recycle bin. All of this: mylifeisindisarraybutitsgoodandigotbitchesbutineedyouandifuckeditupandithurtsmebutithurtsyoumorebitch! shit…nah. But then Jake One comes and saves this shit. If a joint is half nice then that mean its half wack. If you don’t know that reference…stop reading now. 3/5

3. Started From The Bottom – This shit was ass when I heard it back in January, and it’s ass now. He mentions borrowing his uncle whip to go do something…sound familiar? lmao 2/5

4. Wu-Tang Forever – Now I suppose I should give my little take on this joint being called Wu-Tang Forever, right? I don’t really think anything about it. I mean, he could have called this shit WTF simply because they sampled ‘Its Yourz’..who knows. At the end of the day, I liken this to the laziness of a lil wayne punchline. He references Wu in a method that pretty much has very little to do with Wu. But I ain’t mad. In fact, he might get some of these niggas born in the late 90s to go download and listen to some Wu shit. You ain’t even gotta go to Summer school, just pop in that Wu Tang double disc and get all the education you need nahmean… anyway, as far as the actual song goes…Its wack before his verse, its wack after his verse…his verse pretty cold though. 3.5/5

5. Own It – In somewhat of an extension to WTF, own it is a furthermore of ‘it yours’ …and i’m like not feeling this shit like at all. rhyming good couldn’t save him this time. How this nigga gonna say “niggas talk more than bitches these days….let that sink in” as if 1. Niggas haven’t been saying that for decades now and 2. You rap for a living, not many people talk more than you. …3/5

6. Worst Behaviour – Swear to the gods this is a Kanye West song. High ass, somewhat delirious, his stans call this the artsy Kanye though…not the great Kanye. I kind of like it in a..this shit weak, but… kinda way. One thing though…Serena Williams…yo, she thick and all, but she look like the fucking love child of Wendy Williams and Djimon Hounsou in the face. Whatever though. 3.5/5

7. From Time feat. Jhene Aiko – Like..I really hate the entire Drake R&B package. The melody in which he sings sucks, his lyrics usually just ramblings in melody (niggas be liking that shit because its ‘honest’ and he ‘says how he feels’..I have an actual quality standard though) and it doesn’t change regardless of who is singing it…because this chick just sounds exactly like Drake on helium. He is pretty J Cole-esque in how he only ever raps about 3 things.. a specific but usually nameless women (even when he is talking about someone different it is still denoted with singular pronouns like ‘she’ and ‘you’), personal life introspection, and haters hating his success. Like general verses from him become a mash up of these three topics. I be like aight then. And then there is the second verse where he just comes pg Marvin’s Room. This nigga raps like he the narrator on The Virgin Suicides…or Sandlot. I picture the stories he tells in black and white on 35 mm film and shit. Aesthetically, this shit was good though. 3.5/5

8. Hold On, We’re Going Home feat. Majid Jordan – Frank Ocean must have been too busy to sing the hook that he wrote. I like this song sonically, and hate it vocally. Thats all I really have to say. 3/5

9. Connect – siiiiiiiigh, I’ll tell you why some cats consider Drake pop and say this such as he is a pop act..because he sells his shit the same way pop acts do. The beginning of this song sounds like he’d be in the rain with arms extended toward the camera.. this is that type of song that no puss and relationship getting/having niggas claim they can ‘relate to’ Yea..you let women run over you just like R&B Drake huh? lmao… Anyway, this shit aint sweet…i’d drink and drive in an 18 wheeler…and run over this joint. But this is what you get when niggas learn R&B from 808s & Heartbreak. 2/5

10. The Language – This one of them mash up the three topic joints…this is an album joint that niggas will be ‘relating’ too. Don’t have much to say about it except that I don’t really like it. 2.5/5

11. 305 to My city feat. Detail – Oh, another rap song where niggas say shit like ‘I get it’ a thousand times…this is what rap needs right here. Nigga channeled his inner Rick Ross on this joint to make a pretty weak Rick Ross rapping sounding song. I’ll pass. 2.5/5

12. Too Much feat. Sampha – I hate this nigga voice. Not as much as the nigga from ‘Cold Outside’ on OB4CL2..but still. Man this stretch from ‘Connect’ to this joint really kinda sucks the wind out of the bit of excitement that the first half of the album generated. His second verse was dope though. 3.5/5

13. Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music 2 feat. Jay-Z – I want yall to google Paris Morton when yall get the chance. I did, and I sighed. Anyway, the initial beat is pretty dope. Drake did his 1,2 on this shit though…very good verse from the kid. Jay-Z on the other hand…this nigga struggling to catch the beat. His lyrics are like borderline awful… Its seriously about time this nigga considers retirement. Now on this second Drake verse… he makes a lot of claims that I’m not standing by, and that I don’t think he should either. I’ll let you be the judge. 3.5/5

14. Come Thru – This song is not good, but it doesn’t suck. The only standout thing about it is the transition in the beat. Meh, 3/5

15. All Me feat. Lmao…Big Sean and 2 Chainz – This song has all the makings of a wack ass song that niggas will like even though its wack and act like it says something about you for not liking it as opposed to saying something about them for liking this wack shit. 2 Chainz verse was predictably wack. Big Sean one of them niggas who can write some dope lyrics and make them shits sound wack when he raps them…but on here his lyrics was wack and he sounded wack rapping them. Drake did his normal pretty good rapping. 2.5/5

Conclusion: This album has its moments, but it has more downtime. Drake has as much potential as any other rapper save for a few major exceptions, but as a couple of niggas pointed out to me, he has an audience he caters to..why would he not continue to do so (This is in the midst of them calling Jay-Z, Raekwon, and Nas niche rappers. Also stating that Distant Relatives and Life is Good was Nas catering to his audience, while neglecting the fact that DR and LIF and two totally different albums in sound and content and that proves that Nas has a broad fanbase that revolves around him being able to do different things as an artist.)? This is a good question…why would he? He rich as fuck, popular as fuck, polarizing as fuck…what’s the point? I’ll tell you the point..because his mainstream rap music counterpart has an album under his belt that this current generation will be putting in their hip-hop cannon, whereas most people don’t even know whether or not to call Drake hip-hop let alone having a discussion about he and hip-hop classics. Hip-hop history will be more kind to those who upheld its general standards to coincide with their popularity. Read what I just said a few more times before you accuse me of saying some shit that I did not say. None of this is to say that Drake doesn’t make hip-hop music, or that people will disregard him because he sings, but if you pay any attention to hip-hop and its history than you know…this nigga gotta rap more. For the reason i just stated, and because the R&B shit he does simply brings the quality of his music *down*- Not because I don’t think he should be singing because he’s supposed to rap.. but because Drake is a very good rapper, and a mediocre R&B singer. I can’t believe that I know dudes that grew up in the age of Raphael Saadiq, Lauryn Hill, etc. be sitting around talking about Drake is a great R&B song writer. Now i’m rambling…point is, Drake’s potential is great, but his output is just average, because he wants to be Mike Tyson, the finesse fighter. Nigga wanna be Tyson who takes his opponent 12 rounds. I spend my time listening to his albums….angry that he ain’t rapping half the time. But its his music, *that* is his audience, and the shit ain’t for me…It is what it is though.

3.5/5

-Thelonious Funk

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Twitter: _TheloniousFunk
Instagram: thelonious_funk_

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Twitter: _TheloniousFunk
Instagram: thelonious_funk_