...:::::...::Real Hip-Hop:::...::.... 2015

[DannyL]

his lifelessness to his music, this airbrushed airlessness, that makes it hard for me to really warm to him.

Nailed it.

One thing I enjoy about rap is that it's free on the manufactured personas that infest most of "celebrity culture". Not that rappers personas are any more "real" or not manufactured - I'm not saying that for a second - but the majority of them don't do that horrible blanding out of all difference and interest which is what I feel when I've been unfortunate enough to listen to Drake. He seems largely to exist to map over rap's creativity onto the mainstream pop market.

I work with 16-17 year olds and I can confirm that Drake's looks are a massive hit with teenage girls. The mopey shit feels like a direct appeal to that market. I realise I'm adding nothing new to Internet Drake Studies with any of these statements but there you go. I'm a bit behind on what the internet says, 'cos I dislike him so much.

And also - I actually cannot and will not believe that someone responsible for the fucking atrocity that is the "Hold On, We're Coming Home" video could ever make a good record. That shit is such a creative nadir it renders the rest of the his career irrelevant. He'd have to do, I don't know, a record with Slick Rick and Bambaattaa that cures cancer to come back from that.

 

[DannyL]

Just fucking look at him.

 

[Corpsey]

He seems largely to exist to map over rap's creativity onto the mainstream pop market.

I work with 16-17 year olds and I can confirm that Drake's looks are a massive hit with teenage girls.

And also - I actually cannot and will not believe that someone responsible for the fucking atrocity that is the "Hold On, We're Coming Home" video could ever make a good record.

1. This is interesting - as far as I can tell he's sortof jacked Migos's flow (which he first did on the "Versace" RMX) and run with it on this new mixtape, or at least added it to his arsenal. Then there are other bits in the tape where he sings a bit like R.H.Quan/Young Thug (understandably, you could say, since he's - at the moment, anyawy - on or under the same label as them). He talks a lot about people "cloning" his style but he seems to me to be an amalgamation of other rappers' styles (Wayne, Kanye, Migos, The Weeknd etc.). I mean, his patronage probably means big money for groups like Migos so it's not like it's a one-way street but as you say I think he is a sort of filter for these exciting new developments in rap who makes things more palatable for a mainstream audience. It is cringeworthy and queasy to hear him "doing" Gucci Mane, talking about whipping up in the kitchen (lol), when he has none of the eccentricity or vitality of Gucci.

2. I can sort of see this but he isn't really that good looking, is he? I suppose he's presentable. He's also sort of non-threatening, which is why it looks so ridiculous when he does gun fingers in videos. The issue of his ethnicity is interesting, also - he himself talks about it on this new mixtape (being picked on at his white-majority school and then not being "black enough" for the black community) and in online discussions about him it comes up a lot. I see this is a possible key to understanding his persona (plus the fact he's Canadian). I watched some of that Bob Marley doc the other night and apparently his mixed parentage mad him feel like an outsider in the Jamiacan/reggae community. Arguably, too, this contributed to his acceptance in the white mainstream - as with Drake.

3. That video was horrendous, so pompous and absurd - saying that, I do LOVE that tune and it's a good example of how despite all my problems with Drake I find some of his music just so well written/produced that its undeniable.

 

[Corpsey]

Don't forget his amazingly shit tattoo collection

Would the correct British term to describe Drake be ''begfriend''? Every rapper wants to be idolised and bowed down to but there's something so strained and needy about Drake, despite his constant "I don't give a fuck" posturing.

 

[DannyL]

Well, to go back to your earlier point, maybe Quavo is writing hooks or verses for him? Migos have got some great hook moments going on with their songwriting - wouldn't be surprised to find this was the case, especially as they've worked together.

he isn't really that good looking, is he?

Try telling that to some of my pupils. What was interesting about it seeing some of 'em respond to "Worst Behavior" was that they'd clearly respond to the intensity of the tune but stylistic unoriginality, questions of authenticity or creativity - these simply aren't their concerns. Drake as a package completely works for them. They're pop consumers - or urban music fans at a stretch - not RAP FANS. I felt like a weird anthropologist (not for the first time).

I think you are completely on the money with "begfriend" but that's part of the appeal.

 

[trilliam]

i dont even like drake but all these rappers being mentioned are his sons, it's laughable to think any of them could be writing for drake as well, from his first mixtape to now you can see he's always had a way with lyrics. the whole rapping/singing thing thats drake (or maxb). being the everyman, paving way for all these guys with generic this isnt my rap persona honest names that was drizzy. atmospheric woozy trap productions thats drakes producers. end of the day drizzy done a lot for rap, questionable whats good and whats bad but to give new guys in the game respect instead of him thats not kl

especially when drake jumping on their flows/tunes/remixes is a huge part of why they have a buzz now

c/s the mixed heritage marketing but its hardly unnatural is it, the guy is very relatable and his background/emotional wasteman subject matter plays a big part in that

anti c/s the belief that drizzy has to make a tune with ppl like bambata n slick rick before he is 'credible' again

 

[Corpsey]

Re: Drake writing his own lyrics

http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/shi-wisdom-drake-ghostwriter-interview

I dunno how credible this is but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the big name rappers use ghostwriters. In fact there's a notorious account online by a supposed industry insider which claims that major labels sign a lot of lower-level rappers in order to farm them for lyrics for the biggest stars.

I don't even necessarily see this as a problem even if it is true in Drake's case. I remember reading about the creative process behind Rhianna's music, and it basically showed how she has almost no creative input whatsoever. This doesn't take away from her talent as a performer or from the quality of the music. I guess its just more accepted in the R&B/pop arena than in rap music.

I'm fascinated by the question of how free rappers on the commercial level of Drake really are, given their dependence on endorsements and radio play. Drake pays lip service to the problems with police brutality on this mixtape but its really only a couple of lines so far as I can recall. Its impossible to tell from an outside perspective whether this is just a decision on his part not to talk about it or if he's worried what effect it would have on him as a brand.

This is also where his supposed "relatable" persona comes into question, especially when he nowadays spends most of his tracks talking about buying private islands and stuff like that. I guess he does talk about his parents and working night-shifts in supermarkets or whatever but I think - like most rappers, in fact - people listen to his music to fantasise about being as rich as him. This is something I actually read luka saying about grime on his blog - how it isn't about feeling threatened by the MCs but feeling like the THREAT.

I suppose what interests me about Drake, and its a very personal/subjective interest, is why it is I DON'T like him. I wonder if I would like his music a lot more if I knew nothing about him as a person. The weird thing about his music is that, as you say trilliam, he has this very conversational style (rather like Jay-Z) and this "average boy done good" narrative, but he's also nowadays making loads of references to whipping up in the kitchen and running up in his label with a gun. Drake is almost the mirror image of the suburban rap fan, infatuated with all the tough-talk but simultaneously aware of - and insecure about - their own sheltered-ness, their coddled sensitivity etc. Perhaps this accounts for the feelings of repulsion, as well as the feelings of relation, that a suburban rap listener like me feels when listening to his stuff.

 

[DannyL]

anti c/s the belief that drizzy has to make a tune with ppl like bambata n slick rick before he is 'credible' again

That is not what I said. Did you miss the bit where I said I hate that fucking video so much Drake would have to CURE CANCER before I'd listen to him with anything like goodwill? It wasn't a serious proposal.

Going to read Corpsey's stuff now. I don't think it's improbable that a big artist like Drake is ghostwritten, but I'm no expert due to vast dislike. I think that most commericially successful music is the end point of an industrial process, much of which is invisible to us. Ghostwriting fits right in here.

 

[CrowleyHead]

I'm going to sort through this later, but you guys are weird if you can't see Drake isn't attractive to women. Maybe IDK, this is me falling angular on the Kinsey scale or some bullshit, but you can see the guy is gonna be attractive to women and men. ANY MAN can actually be attractive to women, you just have to roll with it. (Its how I breathe knowing that J. Cole has a primarily female audience when he always looks like a sexual predator).

Christ, some of you lot have had partners/girls, and I'm sure you lot aren't all Idrisian specimens.

 

[Corpsey]

Wasn't denying he's attractive, just don't think he's that good looking. He's obviously got a lot of other things going for him - charisma, confidence, talent, fame and tens of millions of dollars. Plus he sings and he his lyrics are on that "you go girl, I know you're really a good girl" tip. His current persona is more Mr Big, innit, the squillionaire womaniser who's deep reserves of sensitive feelings are as hard to access as his palatial mansion.

 

[trilliam]

the rapping artie ziff

 

[CrowleyHead]

I severely doubt Drake has ghostwriters as his lyrical content isn't all that impressive as to require assistance.

I strongly dislike this new Drake project because I feel like its representative of a problem with Drake where he's more and more of a rootless thing. I hear him biting from Road Rap (which he's admitted to before), Young Thug, and he's always been nothing more than a Hollywood version of someone making your model 'rapper' from '08-'09 ("So who are the two biggest rappers? Kanye West and Lil' Wayne? What would an amalgamation of both those guys sound like?" You can imagine the boardroom meeting.)

I've never found him having profound emotional revelations. His emotionality is always incredibly shallow and one-dimensional (compare him to a Z-Ro, Starlito, or even a Future and Drake seems more and more hollow with time). His flows are always clumsy, and not even in the looseness of a YG, but the awkwardness of someone who's never truly had the desire to learn how to rap well.

I get that its popular and I've definitely fucked with Drake in the past, but I can't do this shit. Especially because EVERYONE ON HIS ALBUM except Wayne is biting Young Thug, and Young Thug has no "album" out. PartyNextDoor, SEVERE Thug biting. Travis Scott BEEN THUG BITING as I said elsewhere. Drake DEFINITELY Thug biting. And the idea that the label is some sort of a hub of creativity is moot, as Cash Money has proven to be far from a happy home in recent news. If anything, Drake is probably doing just like he did to Keef on "Started From The Bottom" (slow down Drake's flow and put in the drill staccato. Its such an overt bite of the flow Keef popularized I'm still amazed people don't make the connection. Partially because biting is so rampant in this day an age that nobody seems to notice or care); absorbing what's current and putting it through the "DRAKE FILTER", removing all actual direct relations to real problems both romantically and his 'ambiguous criminality'.

Drake literally represents the devouring of ingenuity for the purpose of making money. And you can't say Danny, that its "Pop Music" because he's continuously able to keep himself a very defined presence in the rap game despite not actually competing with regular rappers. He just knows how to constantly appear on the pulse of the music's trends and secure his relevance while others at his level struggle to do so. Normal pop-rappers don't have that sense of awareness.

 

[Corpsey]

I knew Crowley would come through.

The issue of how manufactured Drake was/is seems muddied. I was very influenced in my scepticism towards him by Noz's review of 'Thank Me Later', which argued that Drake was a sort of industry plant due to his uncle being Sly Stone's bassist (I.e. a noted figure in the music industry) and him being signed to a management company that handles Kanye and Wayne. However, people underneath the article are saying he was signed to that management company off the strength of his self-released mix tapes.

Its funny, "Best I Ever Had' is probably seen by some as the sell-out bubblegum nadir of his career but to me its one of - if not THE - high-points. Because it sounds high! Its cheesy and funny and vibrant, unlike his subsequent po-faced music. I remember my mate playing me it and us creasing at that " make your pussy whiiiiistle... Like the Andy Griffith theme song".

 

[Corpsey]

" make your pussy whiiiiistle... Like the Andy Griffith theme song".

Which seems like a very Kanye (or Wayne?) line, doesn't it? A groaner. An eye-roller.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127834096 this is that Noz takedown (or Drakedown)

Whether or not he IS manufactured, and granting that this is a bilious review, I thought this bit was quite OTM in describing the (to quote luka describing Burial) "lachrymose" tone of his music:

"The embodiment of that forced reality, Thank Me Later ricochets uncomfortably between half-baked rap and half-hearted R&B over a backdrop of hyper-sparse synth-hop. It's undoubtedly informed by Kanye's post-rap opus 808s & Heartbreak, except more polished and less compelling. Kanye's record was a one-off, honesty-fueled break-up freak-out, not a well-crafted statement of intent. Stripped-down self-seriousness isn't an experiment or a diversion for Drake; it's the whole of his aesthetic. His is a hip-hop devoid of both fun and truth."

 

[Corpsey]

I strongly dislike this new Drake project because I feel like its representative of a problem with Drake where he's more and more of a rootless thing. I hear him biting from Road Rap (which he's admitted to before), Young Thug, and he's always been nothing more than a Hollywood version of someone making your model 'rapper' from '08-'09 ("So who are the two biggest rappers? Kanye West and Lil' Wayne? What would an amalgamation of both those guys sound like?" You can imagine the boardroom meeting.)

To the "rootless" point, I wonder if him coming from Canada has somehow led to people giving him more of a pass on this stuff? I remember Yams complaining that Mike Dean had given Drake a pass to bite Houston rap while attacking ASAP Rocky for doing the same thing. I mean, the pass could be given for a lot of other reasons (commercial success, and Drake's dad coming from Memphis) but it seems somehow more blatant and flagrant for a New Yorker to bite another region when New York has such a proud and distinctive history of rap itself.

It's kind of interesting to think of Drake's music as being a spin on southern rap where instead of sweltering temperatures you have blizzard conditions. I also think it's interesting that this emotionally chilly music can work as pop music in this day and age. Maybe it's that Drake is aimed more at moody adolescents than kids - so he's sort of like Eminem (who became as humourless and strained as Drake in his later years, but even more so), appealing to the sulky and misunderstood. But I also wonder if it ties in with the same cultural shift which produced those ultra-dark, po-faced Batman movies. I'm often put in mind of David Fincher films when listening to Drake/Weeknd - this sort of high-definition gloom that saturates everything.

I do quite enjoy the aesthetic of Drake's stuff (the beats + his singing), it just seems to be begging for a more interesting subject matter to fit in with the atmosphere of it.

 

[Corpsey]

Someone posted this Jacka compilation under Martorialist's tribute post: http://www76.zippyshare.com/v/V9k75hwJ/file.html

I was completely unfamiliar with the Jacka's material and I love a lot of what I've heard of this so I'd say it must be a good starting point! This one in particular, apparently off a Cormega-compiled compilation album:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dTJd8As4ebQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[CrowleyHead]

To the "rootless" point, I wonder if him coming from Canada has somehow led to people giving him more of a pass on this stuff? I remember Yams complaining that Mike Dean had given Drake a pass to bite Houston rap while attacking ASAP Rocky for doing the same thing.

There's two details to that.

Number one: J. Prince of Rap-A-Lot has revealed himself to be Drake's mystery 'daddy', riding out viciously in the media against Suge, Puffy and EVEN Birdman. This explains how he has found himself such easy access to Pimp C's catalog. Perhaps Drake was bestowed upon Prince (a known 'gangster' figure in the music business) with some 'gravitas' and Drake has to pay him back in some ways. Rocky has obviously never done this, and as Dean is of course VERY VERY tied into the Rap-A-Lot world he was probably informed "Yeah, this is our meal, don't talk shit" or perhaps he could gain the impression.

Number two: Rocky has never been in Texas I do not believe that Houston Old Head song for a minute. Drake at least does the sort of effort of doing Screwed Up Click homages, singing hooks for Pimp C post-mortem songs, doing the work. But he did that back in 09 when it wasn't a typical thing to do for a 'foreigner'. Rocky started doing that two years after Drake, which could be seen as Drake biting (which it is, in a sense), but he's also never really paid homage. I mean, they were claiming to love Screw, and then ASAP Ferg got exposed for not knowing who Z-Ro is (Its not like he was obscure, the guy has like maybe 15 albums and he's sold a million records). ASAP as rappers were literally all just Yams little puppets and how was Dean going to respect that? I give Drake this much, HE DOES THE WORK of being a pirate but establishing ties. He's not a Rick Rossian "I have just discovered this man Lex Luger and his sound magically and now have a new style eerily similar of Waka Flocka Flame" 'bumbling' appropriator.

 

[Corpsey]

Your post has reminded me, this thread off the coli is full of juicy (albeit unsubstantiated) gossip concerning the Houston rap scene, supposedly from a scene insider:

http://www.thecoli.com/threads/so-w...ter-p-c-murder-pistol-whipping-pimp-c.114524/

 

[carmen]

regardless of TLDR, Drake right there on original rls of most relevant/remixed riddim of 2015

https://soundcloud.com/di_hooligan/di-hooligan-truffle-butter-freestyle-truffle-butter-riddim

 

[CrowleyHead]

Yeah, turning bait house from Maya Jane Coles into a "The Motto" rehash. Such a hot riddim.

:/

Lets also not act like this wasn't some sinister shit. He saw that Nicki's album didn't have enough straight forward club rap songs and therefore can't really make a dent in urban radio. So now, her only big urban hit in the last year is going to be an OVO Produced effort that Drake probably gave her, and is going to reneg on and say "Look, she only kept it as a bonus track! And its hotter than anything on her album!" (Because all Nicki's more aggro rap stuff is not going to be taken seriously and her pop-rap is pop-rap)

Watch, in a year, Drake is going to be very diva-ish in interviews when he leaves YMCMB talking about "I had to make sure EVERYONE survived, in order to keep the label afloat, I did SO MANY FAVORS... Honestly, I was the label!"