but not a legit claim to rap's throne imo. I've sat with this album for a week and I think the hype hurt it a bit. My expectations were a bit high considering it was Kendrick that he was being pit against...

This includes Jay and Kanye "crowning" him as the "chosen one" which kinda felt like a setup if you ask me lol. None of the free releases besides imo "Hold On.." and "SFTB" were truly STRONG. I know Drake hasn't been known to drop outright standout tracks as far as first singles (Headlines was a grower for me) but they dropped an uncharacteristic number of free songs (about 7 or 8 if I'm not mistaken). I got the feeling like no one out of their camp was sure what fans were looking for so it was like a test the waters type of situation. I mean Drake back in 2012 said he was going to work with Jamie XX and that they were already in the studio. All of a sudden the album got harder, darker and rap-pier as the rap mainstream landscape got more "lyrical" or whatever, lol. This was definitely intended to be the "rap album" ppl wanted from Drake as opposed to the album Drake really wanted to make. The WU influence all over the record was pretty apparent. I wonder if he listened to a lot of WU while making it so as to sound hard or get that hard vibe over it lol.

As far as cohesivity and sequencing the lp wins. "WTF" sounds A WHOLE lot better in the context of the album for me now than as the release it was. I don't care for "The Language" & "305" (these 2 just drain the momentum from "Furthest Thing" on down. Didn't care for "All Me" either (never liked that song, still sounds like other ppl feat Drake). I think Drake really shone on his introspective tracks - "Too Much" "Furthest thing" "From Time." I enjoyed "Worst Behavior" for what it was, the beat knocks and Drake has the right approach to it. I was disappointed with "Tuscan Leather." That too suffered from hype (beat sampled 3 different ways and whatnot). The first beat sounded like a Heatmakerz reject. That chimpunk sound they did couldn't stand the test of time, pretty disposable (even though Dipset did have some great songs from it). Things didn't get interesting for me until the 3rd switch up but by then you're already let down sonically and you really don't want him to keep going "for an hour over this beat." I agree with dafriquan, sonically some of the beats were just okay. I expected a lot more out of "Pound Cake" but it still works for what it is.

Rhyming-wise Drake came with it. I like that he tried different flows from what we're used to but as far as lyricism I didn't hear a lot that screamed - the best rapper out. At times it felt like the pressure of being touted as the best was getting to him so when he would take aim at critics he'd say things like "oh your album/music isn't good" "I got a bunch of money, more money than you." Very Jay-Zesque to me which isn't surprising but still...kinda lazy....like give me a reason why you're better than the rest not just by pointing out this person's art sucks but showing why you tower over everyone else. Case in point - part 2 of Furthest thing, great beat there and I'm expecting a murder scene and all I get is some brag rap about how he wants to go out to the beat..I dunno, maybe I'm judging hard but I just didn't hear a lot that moved me like someone who wants rap's crown or is wearing it for that matter. I don't think NWTS is better than MCHG or Yeezus, both of which I liked but had their share of flaws.

Compared to "Take Care" which I actually dug a lot minus a few songs the lp could've done without, he corrected the mistakes, made it shorter and tighter, trimmed the fat, no sighting of Weezy anywhere lol (though Baby was on there). 4/5 as of today...