I can see people saying So Far Gone but there's a lot of singing on it
I can also see Take Care, but I've seen serious fans say that isnt his best work

The fuck is your point?

you're doing it here, in a separate Rick Ross post and a Nas post in the lesson. have fun

It about placing him above Face...which Ross himself would tell you is absurd.

Thats across the board for many genre's of music

Not to jump into yall's Ross vs. Drake thing but to me, Drake suffers from a similar fault that Ross does. His albums (since "So Far Gone") will have some great songs on them but then that same album has several serious duds. That's a characteristic that I find in both of these artists.

I like Drake and I like Ross. But sometimes, their prolific output ends up watering down some of their better material.

i thought views was ass but i loved IFRT... so I gotta check this out

He got about 6 joints I can rock with.

So this is more "If You're Reading...", than "Views", right?

...carry on

It's like Madonna and her British accent at this point lol

already don't like him anyway.

Lol how is this still being explained to Americans do you guys still only know shit from your own blocks?

That is not how he talks

yall niggas really acting like Drake is American. Half yall niggas commenting aint been outside the country.

Big artists «can't» focus on making the perfect 10-14 track album because of the new chart rules in regards to streaming. I don't know if Views could be considered a classic if you cut it down by 10 songs, but all the big albums coming out now has 20+ songs because of the streaming / chart rules

The days of the «classic» album are long gone

With that said, this album is pretty dope. Passionfruit, Blem, Free Smoke... Skepta joint too is nice. Some good tracks on here, and some snoozers ofc

Hard to knock him for not making a classic album when dude didn't even claim to make an album.

New Rules.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Hoping this means his new album is gonna be good

good simply baffles me.

Portland
Blem
Maddiba Riddim
Passionfruit
Gyalchester
Teenage Fever
KMT
Lose You

it actually made me tolerate Young Thug

if he removed @6 of the fluff joints and had one real big banger then it couldn't be touched

nah im playing. i've flipped back and forth on that line and settled on it being so fucking bad that it's utterly hilarious.

and i'd love to do the DUN NA NA DUN NA part live at a concert.

I could check myself but I'm vibin to shuggie otis rn ;)

I'm a black man, government earner
Could've just slapped man, but he wanted it further
Batman, da-na-na-da-na

like apparently the Batman line is his thing and he's done it before but nah lmao.

UK twitter is irate at how US twitter is clowning that line.

Man Don't Care was one of my favorite songs of 2015 so I've heard Giggs do that Batman thing a lot, wasn't aware it was a catchphrase of his though.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

.

into a ghost?

that shit made me chuckle

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7728843/drake-breaks-apple-music-spotify-streaming-records-more-life

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7728809/drake-more-life-debut-streaming-record

pretty telling you rushed to say "look people listened to the album" and not "wow the album is great", but sure Im salty

Old heads on OKP don't like it. Such a reflection of THE WORLD. Clown.

Salty.

I gave up trying after What A Time To Be Alive

Im on social media with Drake fans a whole lot, not many people are saying either album is good

>Salty.

what am I salty about exactly? his fame or popularity?

Salty.

See what you want to see so you can believe what you want to believe. What are you salty about? Why u asking me you made the salty ass posts, don't ask me why you do what you do. Nobody here knows that's what we are all wondering weirdo.

if you think it's a him vs. the other guy thing, the world has already arrived at a consensus on who makes better music

really I just troll(ed) you about him being lame. telling us how many people listened and typing the world salty over and over/calling names sounds like you dont want to discuss whether or not the music is good

#morelife

10 songs, 35-40 minutes all killer no filler

drake can rap but i prefer this wave from him rn

exactly what I wanted from him after Views (which I liked) was a light hearted party jam that took that silly pool size feud with Kanye and made a record about it. He's got enough fun songs in his catalog at this point it's obvious he could just make a fun album if he wanted to, but even here he feels too indebted to his "trap" side to fully commit; it'll do numbers because it has something that appeals to everyone and, like Views, that's what he needs in the streaming space to make ends meet but man does this thing feel long, unfocused and sleepy despite having more dancy, poppy songs than at least since his debut.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/arts/music/drake-more-life-review.html?_r=0

For almost a decade, Drake has been a star and also a curator, the artist most responsible for hip-hop’s evolutionary changes and the one most likely to spot the next in line for the crown.

He has also been a bit of a formal innovator — he releases albums, and also mixtapes, as well as loosies when the feeling strikes. The traditional album cycle may be on the verge of extinction in the pop sphere; Drake has made peace with that.

His latest project, “More Life” — which had its premiere Saturday on OVO Sound Radio, his label’s weekly show on Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio station, and is available on all major platforms for streaming and sale — is billed not as an album, or a mixtape, but a playlist, a choice that has both rhetorical and business import.

Since Billboard tweaked its rules to include streaming, playlists are eligible to appear on the album chart, something that a handful of record labels have taken advantage of with compilations, but no major stand-alone artist has taken on as a creative challenge — Drake is the first. Having a blockbuster success with something other than a traditional album would encourage other artists to experiment with format. And codifying the playlist as a delivery mechanism for new music, not just for collecting other people’s songs, is a conceptual boon for streaming services, including Apple Music, with which Drake has had a longtime partnership.

But the playlist also suggests an aesthetic shift from the album, which in its platonic ideal form is narratively structured and contained, a creator’s complete thought expressed in parts. A playlist in the streaming era, by contrast, is a collection of moods, impressions, influences and references; it’s a river that flows in one direction, ending somewhere far from the beginning (if it ends at all).

This format — relaxed, circuitous, able to take in both his own work and also work by others — is particularly well suited to Drake, who’s as definable by his taste as by his sound.

And so goes the often captivating “More Life,” a nuanced collection of 22 new songs that recall various stages of Drake’s own development, as well as a tour of other styles and artists that he’s partial to. It is both craven and elegant — a collection that’s well matched to the medium and a logical extension of what Drake has been offering for years.

He doesn’t overdeliver on the concept: “More Life” is the length of a very long album, not long enough to accompany a marathon. Where it differs from a Drake album is in how he comports himself and imports others. “More Life” takes a whole host of voices seriously — not just Drake’s but also guests who are given plenty of room.

“4422” is a full song from the aching soul man Sampha; “Skepta Interlude” is a more or less full brute-strength song from the British grime rapper Skepta; “Glow,” a duet with Kanye West, leans heavily in Mr. West’s direction. The tough grime veteran Giggs appears on two songs, shining with a hilariously lewd verse on “KMT.” Young Thug also shows up twice, delivering mystical singing on “Sacrifices” and showing why he’s the clearest modern-day inheritor of P-Funk on “Ice Melts.”

This is a lot of competing energy, and on a traditional album, it might all have to serve a common purpose. But “More Life” is exciting for its detours, its crevices, its relaxed saunter across the various lanes of forward-thinking hip-hop and soul.

Drake is here, too, of course — saving his best rapping for a more formal project, perhaps, but still wound up about being let down by women and also by men. Drake is still in the paranoid and resentful mode that has dominated the last three years, but even when he’s lashing out, he feels gentler and more resigned. “People like you more when you working towards something/Not when you have it,” he raps on “Lose You.” Again and again, his fatigue is a theme, as on “Jorja Interlude”: “Told me I’m looking exhausted/You hit it right on the nose.” At the end of “Can’t Have Everything,” Drake’s mother shows up in what appears to be a voice mail message, cautioning her son against confrontation and anxiety.

Drake loves to hear people talk, both for what they say and how they say it. A scholar of accents and attitude, he lets other people set the mood on “More Life” in several places with sampled spoken interludes. They’re intimate breaks deployed by an artist who’s often said he’s seeking to provide a soundtrack for his listeners’ lives, to get in their heads. (Drake is, almost without question, the single greatest source of perfectly pitched Instagram captions.)

Mouth-to-ear transaction is the level Drake excels at. Consider what Drake doesn’t do: He’s the biggest pop star not named Beyoncé who doesn’t traffic in the trite big-tent on-the-one dance music that’s chart-dominant and soul-killing. He doesn’t make songs for getting lost in a crowd; he makes songs for getting lost in your feelings.

Not that he eschews the dance floor. Instead of aiming for dull festival grandeur, he emphasizes the movement’s black roots — he’s partial to house music (as heard here on the sensual “Passionfruit”), dancehall, Nigerian Afrobeats. His range is as musically meaningful as the one demonstrated by Beyoncé on “Lemonade” — her investigation was intranational, delving into country and slashing rock; Drake’s is international and diasporic, with a keen ear for how the internet has brought even closer black music from North America, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa.

Increasingly, Drake is as much ethnomusicologist as outright collaborator, a shift from the days when he would wield his influence by helping shepherd artists like Migos and Future out of regional acclaim into something wider by appearing on a remix. But even at this more advanced level, he is still scavenging for the latest sound, as heard on “KMT,” where he borrows the jaunty staccato pattern found in the current viral hit “Look at Me” by XXXTentacion. Drake is a teacher to many, but he’s still a hungry student, too.


***


https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/drake-is-making-background-music-and-its-burying-us-alive/2017/03/20/5f509b64-0d7d-11e7-ab07-07d9f521f6b5_story.html?utm_term=.2575573431b4

Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake, you sadistic little mesomorph. Are you trying to kill us, guy? Only an omnipresence this drunk on his own blood, sweat and tears could summon the hubris to stuff a pillowcase with 81 minutes of table scraps, smother our faces with it and call it “More Life.”

The highest-selling pop star of 2016 is also calling his half-alive, entirely overlong new album a “playlist” — as if to suggest that it should be weighted differently in the official Drake canon. What matters more is how “More Life” will be measured on the platforms that began streaming it on Saturday.

As streaming becomes our dominant mode of listening, Billboard has begun measuring success song by song, stream by stream. In turn, pop albums are expanding. The more tracks an album contains, the more coin it can generate, the better the album can perform on the charts. As the container changes shape, so does the stuff that goes inside. And not necessarily for the better.

Check out the Weeknd’s latest, “Starboy,” an 18-track album that feels not just long, but tedious, too. Like “More Life,” it aspires to cool uniformity, presumably in hopes that brain-chilled streamers won’t hear any weird noises and decide to change the proverbial channel. Shrewd move, at least in the short term. Because no matter how handsomely Drake and the Weeknd stand to profit from their new background music, they’re still global superstars responsible for making foreground music. That’s why attentively listening to all 22 tracks of “More Life” might make you feel as if you’re being waterboarded with Febreze.

You might ask, Hey, what about Future? Isn’t he playing the same games? It’s true, the great Georgia psychonaut (and occasional Drake collaborator), has already released two sprawling albums in 2017, “Future” and “HNDRXX,” 17 tracks each, chart-toppers both. But the rapper’s stylistic steadiness doesn’t feel like an attempt to stay on-message so much as an odyssey through his own fogged psyche. The Future songbook is an ectoplasmic river of dreams. The Drake songbook is a self-replicating brand strategy.

Which means that anyone hoping to hear a few renegade thoughts or melodic loop-de-loops on “More Life” is hoping for far too much. Instead of responding to the heavenly sounds of “Madiba Riddim,” in which a twinkling guitar riff tiptoes through a computerized Caribbean pulse, Drake recycles some signature boohoo: “I cannot tell who is my friend,” and then, “Teach me how to love you again,” and then, “My heart is way too frozen to get broken,” and then some more sad-bro lines that wouldn’t pass the Turing Test.

He seems even more oblivious deeper in the proceedings during “Lose You,” a song that allows the most successful rapper alive to wonder why he isn’t being properly congratulated for conquering the world: “I don’t get a pat on the back for the come up?” Moments later, he’s working through his latest radio-eater, “Fake Love,” whining about how the respect he gets is superficial and untrue. Is there anything more irritating than a man on top of the world complaining about how he just can’t win?

Not when they’re sitting this still. Pop music has long provided shelter to the perpetually aggrieved, but artful grousing is acceptable only when the artist is pushing against something. Drake has been plopped in the same aesthetic papasan since 2013, generating a supersaturation of sameness that threatens to erase all the good music he made once upon a time in 2009 — back when his vulnerability communicated his humanity more than it stabilized his brand. Maybe he knows this. In the very last line on “More Life,” he promises to shut up for a while: “I’ll be back 2018 to give you a summary.” Cool, cool. But not a minute sooner. Please.

who the fuck wrote THAT?!

I gotta listen just to hear what the hell.....man


I'm old.

i love sum Drake but cmon, aint nothin p-funk about that nigga

.

other....? .... I get the sense that they're not hip-hop heads in real life...they just "like music"...



"Get ready....for your blessing....."

There's really no point in even reviewing him at this point because it's not like he's going to put out anything that will change your opinion of him.

sound enough at some point in their development that wins over new fans.

Drake still young in this game. I feel like he's at the point where Kanye was right before he released MBDTF.


"Get ready....for your blessing....."

Drake trying to be #1.
Ye trying to be the best.

they both succeeded to me.

>Drake trying to be #1.
>Ye trying to be the best.
>
>they both succeeded to me.
Agree...they both are perfect examples of a success story.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1469-mapping-drakes-international-wave-riding-on-more-life/

Mapping Drake’s International Wave-Riding on More Life

Authenticity has long been a point of personal pride for Drake. Since Meek Mill called his authorship into question in the summer of 2015, Drizzy has recalibrated his approach to music-making, dialing back the raps and transitioning into a style that samples black dance music around the world. Some might call it an identity crisis, if it hadn’t earned him his first ever solo No. 1. His new project More Life, which he’s made a point of branding a “playlist,” scans like 80 minutes of club music from Canada, American, the UK, the West Indies, and Africa on shuffle. It’s a release that accidentally interrogates his authenticity far more deeply than any ghostwriting allegations ever could. As he circles the globe on More Life, Drake ends up posing intriguing questions about art’s lineage through migration and who gets to claim the culture of others.

To understand Drake’s world and map his connections to these sounds, it is important to understand the way the people of Canada, the Caribbean, and Africa are linked. All black culture and music in the wake of the African diaspora shares some similar DNA, despite some subtle recoding in sound and slang by region. A genre like UK grime traces its roots back to jungle and dancehall. Dancehall often shares similar elements with Afrobeat. Through immigrants, the music and its mannerisms reached Canada, where it has seeped into the very fabric of Drake’s home country.

According to Statistics Canada, Canadians from the Caribbean are one of the “largest non-European ethnic-origin groups” in the country. Most of those immigrants made homes in Toronto and Montreal and feel “a sense of belonging,” according to the Ethnic Diversity Survey. Toronto rapper Kardinal Offishall, long an ambassador for Canadian rap with ties to the West Indies, made the relationship plain over the weekend. “Toronto been about Caribbean culture before I did Bakardi Slang. It’s LITERALLY our history,” he wrote on Twitter. “The Caribbean diaspora is alive all over the world. It’s up to fans to learn our culture...not water it down for a mainstream audience.”

Offishall is absolutely right about one thing: Toronto has become a melting pot for Caribbean culture. The lineage has blurred. But he is also the child of Jamaican immigrants, a clear inheritor of island culture. On “BaKardi Slang,” he stood directly at the intersection of these two places. That isn’t to say that Drake, the son of a black man from Tennessee and a Jewish woman from Canada, can’t also be shaped by the culture of the West Indies—which would undoubtedly have been a presence in his life growing up in Toronto—but it would be misrepresentation to call it his own.

It’s worth noting that many people are influenced by the interlocking yet diverse web of black music woven by the diaspora, but Drake is the only one trying to claim all of it at once, which speaks to both the scope of his ambition and the depth of his hubris. One minute he’s using riddims ascribed to the clan name of Nelson Mandela, the next he’s arm-in-arm with UK rapper Giggs kissing his teeth. Sometimes he’s channeling Jamaican patois. Others he’s, as the Brits say, a roadman. On a song called “Portland,” he proudly proclaims, “It’s all Habibis ting.” There’s a song called “Gyalchester.” More Life will make you wonder, Where is Drake from on this song? Canada? South Africa? Jamaica? London? Atlanta? Where will he be from next? Is he at the center of the diaspora, or merely at its furthest reaches, following footprints in hopes of a hit? It isn’t that Drake is unfit to channel any of these places and things (because many of them overlap); it’s that he’s convinced he has a right to every one of them. Culture isn’t an iPhone skin—you don’t just shed one for another because it’s trendy.

For one thing, it might be easier to receive Drake as the conduit for world music if he wasn’t already a notorious wave-rider. He took half the Weeknd’s album to make Take Care; hopped on remixes of Migos’ “Versace,” iLoveMakonnen’s “Tuesday,” and Wizkid’s “Ojuelegba” to share in their moments; torpedoed “Cha Cha”’s chart run with “Hotline Bling” (premiered on OVO Sound Radio as a “Cha Cha” remix); sapped the energies of international sensations for “One Dance” and “Controlla” (which arrived on Views without the leaked Popcaan verse); and fast-tracked What a Time to Be Alive with Future and Metro Boomin to capitalize on their momentum. He’s used Bun B as his Houston liaison and Aaliyah as his unwitting R&B talisman. He’s a swag vampire, a sound poacher, and an identity thief. It’s hard to believe his work as a global ambassador isn’t also mostly self-serving, or at least in service of building his wider OVO brand. In a bit of irony, Drake, who is constantly rapping about people using him for their gain, does exactly that to everyone else.

But Drake safeguards himself from these kinds of criticisms by allying with a well-respected delegate from a given genre or region—often making sure their interests align with his. These relationships are transactional, collabs offered from Drake under the guise of a look but really used to bolster his claim to a person or place’s slang or sound or hype. They provide built-in deniability against detractors who might label him an interloper or appropriator.

With these things in mind, it makes sense he’d deem More Life a “playlist”—like he’s Zane Lowe broadcasting an assortment of songs he’s compiled as the gatekeeper for international vibes. As Drake producer Nineteen85 explained it: “ so aware of what everybody else is doing musically that he likes to introduce new music and new artists to the rest of the world.” He sees himself as a curator and a tastemaker. But really, he’s something of a well-informed cultural tourist. Here are the destinations he hails from on More Life, and the talented friends who stamp his work visas.

/London via Skepta + Giggs/

Though there are mentions of Toronto on “No Long Talk,” the track is heavily indebted to the UK rap and grime scenes. As if to underscore this point, Drake enlists British rapper Giggs for the first of two features on More Life (the second of which, “KMT,” not only dives waist deep into Caribbean slang but also bites Xxxtenacion’s “Look At Me.”) On “No Long Talk,” Drake sounds like a different person calling man yutes and saying they’re on a diss ting. But with Giggs at his back, he’s confident. As if in need of another cosigner on his rep, Skepta later gets his own interlude.

/Nigeria via Wizkid/

Another song on More Life that seems to cross-pollinate culturally, “Madiba Riddim” has a distinctly Afrobeat pulse and gets its name from a South African clan name and Jamaican patois. “People change, I’m not surprised/Devil’s working overtime/Voodoo spells put on my life,” he sings. Wizkid isn’t featured on “Madiba Riddim,” but his presence (or lack thereof) is clearly felt. The song doesn’t sonically stray too far from their past collaborations, including “One Dance” but particularly Wizkid’s “Hush Up the Silence.” Wizkid is something of an avatar for all of Drake’s deepest excursions into Afrobeat. It’s somewhat telling that the two still haven’t met yet.

/Jamaica via Popcaan/

It isn’t a coincidence that Drake opens “Blem” repeating the word “unruly,” a favorite tag of Popcaan, one of dancehall’s brightest stars. The song repurposes the key components of Popcaan’s pop dancehall: it’s breezy and wine-friendly. There’s talk of forwarding to the islands, while Drake deems a lover’s ex a wasteman. The title and hook use UK slang derived from faux patois. Perhaps there’s a (better) Popcaan version of this song somewhere waiting to be leaked.

/South Africa via Black Coffee + Bucie/

For a slight change of pace, Drake ventures to South Africa for this Afro-house cut, linking up with breakout producer and DJ Black Coffee. (South African singer Bucie also has a songwriting credit.) “Get It Together” has a distinctly African flavor with thumping polyrhythms that propel the track forward. “The African rhythm, even when it’s not obvious, is in our music,” Coffee told Pitchfork in September. “I think our responsibility now is to make sure that it goes to the mainstage, and it’s not pigeonholed to ‘world music’ or put on smaller stages as ‘world music artists.’ We can be where everyone is.” It’s safe to say this collaboration is putting those words into practice.

/Atlanta via Young Thug + 2 Chainz/

It often goes unrecognized because the Atlanta sound has become so prevalent, but Drake has made himself at home in the city. The Toronto nickname he adopted—“6 Man”—also works with a zone on Atlanta’s Eastside, underscored by his Gucci Mane flow on the If You’re Reading This… track. Then there’s the whole “Versace” remix, and What a Time To Be Alive (which at one point Future claimed “never happened”). Not to mention that at least one Atlanta rapper literally wrote raps for him. On “Sacrifices,” Drake enlists tourmate Young Thug and longtime collaborator 2 Chainz, two of Atlanta’s greatest treasures, to do much of the heavy lifting. It isn’t heavily indebted to trap the way opener “Free Smoke” is, but it is a prime example of the way Drake turns connections into cultural capital—capital he’ll spend the next time he needs cool points to mend his image.

the similarities are endless

it's why Toronto has one of the best grime scenes outside of the UK - we relate to the slang

this write-up starts really well and then loses a lot of steam when providing examples in the second half

For one thing, it might be easier to receive Drake as the conduit for world music if he wasn’t already a notorious wave-rider. He took half the Weeknd’s album to make Take Care; hopped on remixes of Migos’ “Versace,” iLoveMakonnen’s “Tuesday,” and Wizkid’s “Ojuelegba” to share in their moments; torpedoed “Cha Cha”’s chart run with “Hotline Bling” (premiered on OVO Sound Radio as a “Cha Cha” remix); sapped the energies of international sensations for “One Dance” and “Controlla” (which arrived on Views without the leaked Popcaan verse); and fast-tracked What a Time to Be Alive with Future and Metro Boomin to capitalize on their momentum. He’s used Bun B as his Houston liaison and Aaliyah as his unwitting R&B talisman. He’s a swag vampire, a sound poacher, and an identity thief. It’s hard to believe his work as a global ambassador isn’t also mostly self-serving, or at least in service of building his wider OVO brand. In a bit of irony, Drake, who is constantly rapping about people using him for their gain, does exactly that to everyone else.

http://i.imgur.com/b7pOX75.jpg

>For one thing, it might be easier to receive Drake as the
>conduit for world music if he wasn’t already a notorious
>wave-rider. He took half the Weeknd’s album to make Take
>Care; hopped on remixes of Migos’ “Versace,”
>iLoveMakonnen’s “Tuesday,” and Wizkid’s
>“Ojuelegba” to share in their moments; torpedoed “Cha
>Cha”’s chart run with “Hotline Bling” (premiered on
>OVO Sound Radio as a “Cha Cha” remix); sapped the energies
>of international sensations for “One Dance” and
>“Controlla” (which arrived on Views without the leaked
>Popcaan verse); and fast-tracked What a Time to Be Alive with
>Future and Metro Boomin to capitalize on their momentum.
>He’s used Bun B as his Houston liaison and Aaliyah as his
>unwitting R&B talisman. He’s a swag vampire, a sound
>poacher, and an identity thief. It’s hard to believe his
>work as a global ambassador isn’t also mostly self-serving,
>or at least in service of building his wider OVO brand. In a
>bit of irony, Drake, who is constantly rapping about people
>using him for their gain, does exactly that to everyone else.
>

You keep young fresh hungry and motivated minds around you to help keep you relevant, to keep you on your toes, to stay on top. To think a long runs of being on top are done by doing it on your own in any medium is such a stupid myth people have in their heads. Its ridiculous.

Kanye:
Consequence, Common, Talib Kweli, Mr Hudson, Kid Cudi, Travis Scott, Hudson Mohawke, Arca, John Legend, Chief Keef. Chance The Rapper, the list can go on.

Jay-Z:
Memphis Bleek, State Prop (especially Young Chris), Kanye (there was a good run of years at Kanye's peak where everything he did Jay did), Fu Schnickens, BIG, the list can go on

All the top guys sign, collab, keep guys they are inspired by close because they like what they have but know they can do it better and make it bigger.

You really think any of those guys listed above on their own could present those characteristics that were "stolen" or "borrowed" couldve made it just as big on their own? LMAO Thats fucking laughable. Its very fucking rare that the influencers to great artists can present what is great about them in the same way to the mainstream. Very rare.

Look at Kid Cudi who most recently went off on the same rant that he was being used and ripped off artistically by Kanye who thought he could be just as big or bigger on his own because that sound was his. Nope. Album flopped. Look at Travis Scott, HUGE success but Kanye still was able to do it bigger using Travis' sound on the last 2 albums.

To sit there and think this is something Drake is only doing to be successful is just you living in the myth that all great artists do it on their own, This has been going on for years and years in all mediums and in all worlds as it should be. Not every can be the "star". Nor does everyone have it in them. Thats the "everyone is special and unique" Danny Tanner fucking talk LOL

I think Drake being Canadian and half-Jewish makes it more glaring and easier to criticize.

Doesn't just happen in hip-hop, either. I mean shit, Bowie was a wave-rider too lol

biting gets ya ass beat and tossed on the railroad tracks.


everybody's under the influence of influence but you can't just TAKE my $hit

Like's to roll like its gonna be hella songwriting credits, label deals, etc...


...then treats em like Baby (c)Rawse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzSUo8iPp4M

I certainly don't agree with the NYT article. They went wayyyy overboard with the Drake praise. I fall a little closer to the Pitchfork and WaPo articles but I'm not afraid to admit that he's actually talented.

"More Life" isn't my favorite Drake effort. Not even close. There are some bright spots on it though. In my opinion, it's way better than "Views," though.

Geez

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

was actually "take care, i'm done making good music"

http://www.essence.com/celebrity/drake-sade-photo-instagram

I hope they do a song together. It will be glorious.

>http://www.essence.com/celebrity/drake-sade-photo-instagram
>
>I hope they do a song together. It will be glorious.


this comment sums up my feeling on this picture

"Bro i genuinely hate drake now with ALL my soul. Sade is a dedicated RECLUSE. And he is in a photo with her. WOW lol"

"yall think Drake talked to Sade in his British accent or his Nigerian accent?"


"Get ready....for your blessing....."

my fav in long while

really didnt like views at all but havent even finished this one and i think its dope

yes...he's a wave rider

so was kanye

that doesnt bother me anymore than code-switching honestly as long as it's dope

Went from folk calling him a 1 hit wonder to creating a whole sub-genre of music that birthed successful artist

Borrowed nyggas styles when they were using it wrong and made hit after hit

The most influential artist since the nygga that influenced him (Yeezy)

Most versatile and talented artist in the game

Lebron of this rap shyt

And just like Bron folk get so used to seeing greatness it starts to look mundane

____________

Dallas Cavericks LETS GO!!

This sounds like Life of Pablo 2.0....


matter fact bout to put that on right now....

still not my cup of tea (my exact words about Future's Hendrix album
too) but it's got some joints.

Update us in a year.

release, I'm finding my interest in the dude is waning. Not to say that he's not good at what he's doing. Just feels like I'm losing interest in what he has to offer.

For now though, it's working. Not playing it as much as I am the Ross album. And I just copped the Sampha joint which I can see spinning ad nauseum for a minute.

What album u still bumping all the way thru for an entire year?
____________

Dallas Cavericks LETS GO!!

____________

Dallas Cavericks LETS GO!!

Your cuddle buddy's album post is at least a week

Jeez lol

i mean atruhead still busy ignoring Drake by replying 1st but still


____________

Dallas Cavericks LETS GO!!

simple question, not comparing him to anyone else.

its not like u can have a discussion being that u go out your way not to listen to anything he drops

ur terrible at not caring

but to answer ya question SFG is a classic to me

it changed the direction of music and was the beginning of a new sub genre

also changed the whole mixtape game where rappers really started making them like albums and not just leftover tracks off their albums and freestyles over industry beats

u going to argue with me over that answer and continue not caring?
____________

Dallas Cavericks LETS GO!!

>its not like u can have a discussion being that u go out your
>way not to listen to anything he drops

I heard every last album and stopped after hearing What A Time To Be Alive
starting with So Far Gone, that's 6 attempts to give him a chance

He has a few songs I really like (Worst Behavior, How About Now, Too Good etc.) I even thought Back To Back was fire, Meek started something he couldnt finish even if Drake made an example out of him because bruv was the weaker party

>ur terrible at not caring
>
>but to answer ya question SFG is a classic to me
>
>it changed the direction of music and was the beginning of a
>new sub genre
>
>also changed the whole mixtape game where rappers really
>started making them like albums and not just leftover tracks
>off their albums and freestyles over industry beats
>
>u going to argue with me over that answer and continue not
>caring?

no argument at all. you're either the biggest or second biggest fan on here and you think mans has 1 classic out of 8 mixtape/album/playlists and I've only missed out on the last two

i mean i guess i could be like Kenny stans and call every damn project a classic a week after its out

i dont do that shyt tho




>no argument at all. you're either the biggest or second
>biggest fan on here and you think mans has 1 classic out of 8
>mixtape/album/playlists and I've only missed out on the last
>two
>
>
>


____________

Dallas Cavericks LETS GO!!

http://www.thefader.com/2017/03/23/makonnen-coming-out-gay-migos-drake-ovo-interview

On Drake running up on him at the VMA's for just clarifying he left OVO and didn't get dropped (that's all)

FADER - This was in New York, right?

Makkonen - It was in the middle of the goddamn afterparty at the Up&Down club. Everybody that was in there was in there. I’m in here around these Vanguard Awards and I’m accepted and I took pictures with Chainsmokers and G-Eazy and everybody and we all friends. And I’m here in the middle of the floor, no security, and they coming and I just step to the side and they see me and stop and the biggest motherfucker in the game goes, woo woo woo, “Next time I’ma fuck you up!”

And all security and everybody stop like, “What the fuck.” And the guys with me was like, “What you do?!”

FADER- What was the last time you saw Drake before that?

I’ve only seen him probably like three times. I’ve never been able to bring him out on stage and do my song featuring him. I’ve only been able to go feature on his stage with my song. Other than that, and at the video, it ain’t no convo. Because the tweets and all this land of miscommunication …

FADER- So why do you think OVO started a relationship with you?

Makkonen - They needed a hot song. That’s it.

FADER- It sounds like maybe you feel it’d have been better if he’d never gotten on the song. Maybe it could have just grown into a hit organically ...

Makkonen - and-so and I had to go off to try and chase them around. And y’all telling me to come to Canada to deal with y’all, and you know I’ve got a record and can’t even get out the country right now.

Why you wanna play these games? When you got the goddam mansion out in Calabasas that I came out to and played y’all songs and ended up making you scared because you saw I could make songs on the spot? Why y’all wanna play these games? Why didn’t you just tell me you didn’t wanna fuck with me anymore and just let me go about my way? Why’d you make me chase you all the way the fuck around? And make me look like a fucking fool? Why would you do this?

This when I got signed. He’s all in my face telling me, “You one of the greatest songwriters ever,” da da da. Just blowing me up, bruh. And I’m the little kid from tragedy right now. You could see it. It was written all over my face! I’m depressed as fuck!
And then when I’m like, ”Can y’all tweet out my mixtape? Can I get a feature? Can I get production?” No, no, no. So I’m just over here in prison?! Am I in prison?!!

put out another mixtape. that No Ma'am track been my shit. he always got a few songs i fuck w/ on every release

Going back to the Pitchfork article above, can't be all industry rule 4080 incarnate and be whining about how everyone is shady towards you, lol.

Plus it always irks me when niggas intentionally sabotage a career. Couldda let him rock with his hit and that's it; I remember reading an article talking about how he was looking at Father's wave and couldnt ride it/do shit with him because Drake was cockblocking.

>put out another mixtape. that No Ma'am track been my shit. he
>always got a few songs i fuck w/ on every release.

He's better then most give him credit for, but it looks like all the industry things got him fucked up...while Portland is probably nice as shit he needs to be in Atlanta filing through beats and meeting young beat makers. I want him to win.

but why are we acting like he made ANYTHING close to Tuesday...

can you imaging being in the land of hits in Calabasas.. PartyNextDoor cutting records.. Majid Jordan cutting records, Roy Woods....

and then you play them this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ5ZcPBdfns

Sorry man... he scaled quick... and didnt have that WORK.... and when OVO realized it they were like coo

Where they at?

Drake:
https://goo.gl/BS06SJ

Kendrick:
https://goo.gl/lgh40B

J. Cole
https://goo.gl/G4GMTh

Meek:
https://goo.gl/q3NEYI

Nothing scientific, but interesting.

to this and be mad because they hate this too.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

I don't listen much to the trappier songs on this...all that monotone bass-driven drone beats does not make for good music outside the club to me...but the rest of this is pretty dope.

"Blem" is the cut that will get the most play in Toronto.
Which songs do y'all see blowing up more than others in your city?

Ps I love Young Thug's verse on "Sacrifice" which might be the first verse of his ever that will stick in my memory. Something about the cadence on flow on that beat is on the money.

I need to re-listen.
Thanks

https://stillcrew.com/the-record-breaking-more-life-streaming-numbers-are-a-hoax-we-all-want-to-believe-92b735337bbe

The biggest artist in the world right now is from Toronto and that makes me so damn proud. No matter where I’m at in the world, people ask about the impact Drake has had on the Toronto music scene; and after More Life dropped on Saturday, March 18, interest is at an all-time high. As an artist, he has captivated listeners from the suburbs of London,to the Sheikhs of Abu Dhabi, and even the hypebeasts from Tokyo. His popularity is visible with every passing OVO owl-hoody on the street. That being said, there are some questions stemming from his Apple partnership that need to be addressed before things get out of hand.

Before we dive in, let me unequivocally say the new record is fire. I’ve supported Canadian music for decades and was screaming “The City is Mine” long before Ben Baller was icing out Aubrey’s G-Shock collection. This isn’t a review of the album, but I have to state most of the tracks get a rewind and I understand the rest of the joints aren’t for me, they are for soccer moms who needed “Hotline Bling Part 2.” It’s a business, we get it.

Earlier this week, reports dropped that showed first-week sales and streaming and, because I am in the business of making sure Canada’s music business expands globally, it was in all of our interests to see big numbers. Naturally, The Boy delivered in spades with another no. 1. With 505,000 equivalent album units moved in the first seven days, Drizzy reportedly sold 248,000 album sales (digital) and the remaining 257,000 “sales” were driven through 384.8 million streams of the 22-track project. This is where things get interesting, though.

Apple Music paid Drake an insane eight-figure sum in a partnership that would see him draw listeners into their radio station platform, Beats 1. This might sound drastic but they shelled out $3 billion in 2014 to purchase Beats by Dre and inherited the Beats Radio product alongside, so a marketing and promotions budget like the Drake deal isn’t much on top of that. By attaching some star power to a nascent programming roster, they catapulted themselves into the cultural spotlight by creating captivating moments for the world to consume.

More Life debuted on Beats 1 radio on OVO’s Saturday show. Without a doubt, people changed their schedules to be present for the stream. This is powerful because while some artists have huge fanbases, they don’t have the ability to activate them. If Gucci Mane tweeted his sixth mixtape of the month was going to stream for the first time at LiveMixtapes on Sunday night, how many people would cancel dinner to be there? Artists who can activate their audience have deeper engagement, and Drake has an emotional connection that gives him massive persuasion powers with fans.

When Apple reported in December that they had hit 20 million subscribers (paid and trial), they allowed us to approximate the growth of their customer base since they had announced their 17 million mark in September 2016. This week, they announced that More Life had been streamed a remarkable 300 million times on their service in just one week. The project, which runs over 80 minutes, shattered the record he set with VIEWS (it saw a similar growth in streams on Spotify). This was great news for the “playlist,” for the OVO squad, for Toronto strippers, and even for the Canadian industry, as it further cemented our international star and strengthened the city’s image as a musically talented metropolis.

But wait—Spotify has over 100 million subscribers with more than 50 million paying for the service. Employees suggested to me the service’s total base to be closer to 130 million, which makes sense given how many valid, paid subscribers they have managed to secure. Why does this matter? Drake did 255.6 million Spotify streams in the first week, which broke Ed Sheeran’s record the week before. Notably, Ed does not have a contract with Apple.

If we analyze Apple Music numbers, we find out that every single subscriber (paid and trial) must have listened to the album over 15 times, front-to-back, in the week it dropped to achieve the 300 million reported streams. For an album that lasts an hour and twenty minutes, this means every single one of their 20 million users listened to one project for over 20 hours in the first week of its release. Meanwhile, Spotify’s subscribers, a number which is more than five-times Apple’s subscriber base, didn’t even come close to that mark.

At this point, it should be noted that unlike BDS radio spins, retail scans on physical albums, and other antiquated tracking systems, nobody has the ability to verify Apple’s streaming numbers. A source from the Los Angeles Apple Music team confirmed that users listening to OVO Radio would count as streams toward the total, but even those are unverified. It would be a beautiful thing if these numbers were 100% accurate, but when compared to an arbitrary streaming source, one that didn’t invest almost $20 mil into the artist, one that doesn’t have a vested interest in seeing him succeed, things look shaky.

In Tommy Mottola’s book, he described his tumultuous relationship with another global superstar that broke records with every release: Michael Jackson. When The King of Pop was renegotiating with Sony, Mottola offered him the moon and the stars. Eventually, they agreed on an eye-popping $35 million deal, but at the last minute Jackson balked. He would only sign the paperwork if they issued a press release and publicized the deal as a “Billion Dollar Deal.” You see, my friends, the entertainment game isn’t quite like it appears on BET, YouTube, and your favorite local blog.

If the “Billion Dollar Deal” sounds like a familiar range, it might be because VIEWS was positioned as the first project to earn over a billion streams on Apple Music — ever. If we remember the user-base that Apple Music had back when the project dropped last year — somewhere around 15 million—that means that every single user listened to the project about 66 times from front to back.

Again, this assumes that every single Apple subscriber, old and young, was listening this much. The Boy is popular, but this would mean every single registrant was a die-hard Drake fan — millions of homogeneous listening preferences with something as personal as music. And for every user who wasn’t a fan, that means the rest of them must have been listening to the project even more. Effectively, Apple Music would have to be a Drake Fan Club with millions of people tattooing his name on their faces for these figures to be true.

These numbers don’t add up in the worst way. As stated at the outset, I am a massive fan of the project, the artist, the camp behind it, and the Toronto scene that benefits from this release being a smash. My concern with staging theatrics like this is that a slippery slope detracts from the actual narrative behind the project. When we start fabricating figures, we taint the legacy of the project, which could have stood strong based on verified no. 1’s (make no mistake, “Passion Fruit” is this summer’s “One Dance”), hit videos, and sold-out world tours that connect continents by featuring all the artists from the album.

In an era of click farms, Snapchat Story bots, alternative facts, and Tinder catfish, are we ready to accept the application of Instagram filters over our facts?

>
>In an era of click farms

Ever since the 1,500 streams equivalency was announced, I've been real curious how many big artists have farms set up that just constantly run songs back on a loop to boost their numbers. I wondered it before with some of the insane Youtube numbers from the onset of Vevo, but I really wonder about it now. Especially with Drake, an artist who I can never think about without thinking back to a video of clothing company Crooks & Castles going to a Best Buy and buying every single copy of Thank Me Later:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5b4YMoUJYk


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

the record company going out and buying 150k physical copies back in the day.