Full disclosure, I’m not a big Drake fan myself, but I wanted to start us off with an artist that everyone knew and who was interesting (or divisive) enough that people would actually have opinions. I doubt he’s going to be that positively received here, but we’ll see.
Also suggest who the next artist we should look at is, I dunno, maybe monthly, in your comment below and let’s see if we can get some conversation happening in this community. Or conversely also tell me if you hate this and want it to die on the vine here and now. Cheers and happy listening, folks
Take Care was probably the first rap album I ever cared (heh) to listen to, and he was my favorite artist at the time. I was in high school and just branching out from my rock roots. I still enjoy Crew Love and Marvin’s Room, but I’ve honestly moved on from Drake as an artist. I kind of liked Nothing Was the Same, but I wasn’t really feeling where he was going. Felt cockier and lazier. IYRTITL was where I could tell that trajectory was going to continue and checked out. Checked out God’s Plan and wasn’t impressed. I saw a show for the Summer 16 tour and that was probably the last time I cared about his music. I had already been moving away, but the lack of enthusiasm I had at that show solidified a lot for me.
Moved from him to Kendrick, then started exploring old school hip hop and other, less commercialized stuff. Now I honestly have way too much excellent music on my plate from a ton of genres to care about what Drake is doing.
TL;DR: Liked his old shit, either grew out of him or he changed or both, and now I couldn’t give a rat’s fart.
Yeah I mostly agree with all this. I heard somebody say once (I don’t remember where; maybe Fantano?) that Drake was interesting when he came out because he sounded like somebody struggling with douchebag tendencies while trying to stay a decent guy, but today he just sounds like the guy who lost that battle and now he’s the guy who sings about how hard (but also awesome?) it is being a douchebag. I think that’s a pretty accurate take on him, and why his earlier stuff is much more appealing but also lessened from what it used to be by today’s knowledge of where Drake has gone.
I never thought about it like that, but that makes a lot of sense. I liked that, it seemed like he was going through tough times but was going to come out a better, wiser person and now it feels like he learned nothing. I’ll check back in after another 10 years, see how he’s doing, but I’m not holding my breath. Lost that battle sounds about right.