Reviewing The Arts

Oh You Fancy, Huh

23-year-old, Toronto-born Aubrey “Drake” Graham’s highly anticipated hip-hop album of 2010 “Thank Me Later” isn’t exactly what everyone expected. A lot of fans including myself have a bittersweet feeling towards the album. Prior to releasing the album, Drake released left and right really hot mix tape tracks with amazing metaphors and catchy lyrics that one couldn’t avoid seeing or hearing, whether on a facebook status or blasting in someone’s car. “Thank Me Later” was so highly anticipated because Drake’s mix tape tracks were on every hip-hop lover’s itunes list without even having an album out yet. With experiencing an unsuccessful singing career, Drake turned to rapping and with the collaborations of his mentor, Lil’Wayne, he became a phenomenon. “Thank Me Later” is a very personal album. He talks about his life, women, fame, family, and his notoriety. His album reminds me of a musical journal or diary almost. On a positive note, Drake portrays himself as a normal, down to earth, self conscious, imperfect, regular guy rather than an overrated cocky jerk (cough, cough Kanye West) like most famous people. Drake claims that he wanted fans to feel the different layers of the debut.

A recent interview with a hip-hop fan by the name of Taye, said that the album was just mediocre. He mentioned that all of the songs sounded the same and that Drake only made music for one type of crowd. “Once you have heard one song, you have heard them all.” explains Taye. One thing that a lot of people notice is that Drake shines the most whenever he has a veteran hip-hop artist featured on the song. The best songs on the album are “Over,” “Up All Night” featuring Nicki Minaj, “Fancy” featuring T.I. and Swizz Beatz, “Shut It Down” featuring The Dream, “Show Me A Good Time,” and “Unforgettable” featuring Young Jeezy. Most of these songs listed had an appearance with an extremely popular or talented artist.

In “Fancy,” women all over would get a sudden boost of confidence when listening to the song. Everyone who had there hair, nails, and everything done were considering themselves fancy. Swizz Beatz sets things off with a crowd-hyping “Go, go, go, go ahead” chant and T.I. eventually jumps in with a relaxing, yet easy type of flow. “Over” and “Show Me A Good Time” seemed to re-energize the album. Perhaps it has something to do with the tracks both being produced by Kanye West. Although “Over” was overly played and was highly popular, Drake dropped simple, yet sharp crowd-pleasing bars. In “Shut It Down,” the Dream heats things up and slows things down in this smooth ballad.

Drake is one of the many few artists who can transition between an R&B sound and a hip-hop flow, and he does it well on this track. The tracks on this album were hits and misses. There a few favorites but the ones that weren’t favorites were skipped. It’s not an album where you can sit and listen to without skipping around. Arguably, “Thank Me Later” is an album that successfully balances commercialism with true hip-hop.

posted by Sara Hunt @ 3:45 PM