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Originally Posted by Severian
Hah.
I haven't heard it all yet. It became available at midnight and I went to iTunes (which featured a sliding horizontal banner containing NOTHING but VIEWS promos... Like, fucking SIX different promos for the same album... seriously) and listened to a snippet of the track Kanye produced (co-produced? It's unclear) and thought it was pretty legit.
But then I sampled the track with Rihanna and heard that motherfucking GOD AWFUL pretentious "singing" bumfuckery he's always limping back to, and the line "last naaaiiiight/ I got as high as the expectations" and I laughed out loud and stopped right there and said "fuck this, maybe later."
One thing is clear, though. Well, no, actually two things are clear. ONE: DRAKE'S VOICE IS TERRIBLE AND SUPREMELY ANNOYING. It's only passable when he raps, and then only if he tones down the braggadocio, because frankly I just don't buy any of his bragging bullshit.
TWO: Drake is not what makes Drake records (occasionally) good. Not the fuck at all. It's his producers. If anything, his presence makes everything worse. The reason IYRTITL was better than his other albums is because it was rooted in very precise, minimal beats that were well assembled and arranged by all those Canadian fucker's he hangs with like 40.
The beats on that album demanded a less ostentatious vocal performance from him, and kept him in check. I still think that's a good album. Really, I do. But the whole "Drake is a genius" thing? No. Nope. Not a bit. Opposite of, if anything.
I'll give him this: he has a good sense of humor and he can laugh at himself, which is good. I saw him on Kimmel and he wore a beard and pretended to be a journalist and asked people about Drake, and he remained pretty stone faced while people dissed him to his face, and laughed about it later. That's good, because if he couldn't laugh at himself he'd be the worst human being in the world.
HOWEVER. He takes "his music" super seriously, and pets people believe that he's a one man music industry, when he has NOTHING to do with the only part of his music that works - the production.
Drake's self-seriousness and ridiculousness on record makes me grateful for the chaotic and bewildering behavior and music of Kanye West. I'd rather have a choppy, half finished album roll out painstakingly over two months and result in fucking incredible music than hear this branded, bearded fool drop this "masterpiece" where everything is put in the right place by a bunch of OVO geeks, and the whole thing is radio milk that is ultimately of no consequence whatsoever. I'd rather have Pablo any day. Drake is incapable of making true artistic statements because he's not a true artist. He's a bad singer who can rap -- slowly and often poorly -- and that's it.
He's incapable of making a Yeezus. He's incapable of making challenging music, because he doesn't make music. He's a pop star and he's fucking ridiculous and he's lucky to have one good album to his credit.
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Nailed it.
You know, 40 is great but I feel like he finally ran out of ideas. A lot of this album just sounds like one long song. Drake sings too much on this album, even though like you said - he absolutely shouldn't. The half rapping half singing shtick always kind of worked for him, but here there are parts where it seems like he legit believes he can be a full time singer. The mixing for some reason isn't as good either, as I often hear Drake getting drowned by the production.
The rapping suffers from it too. Somehow Drake decided to put rapping skills and lyricism aside and just focus on creating a "vibe", whatever that fucking means.
The result is the most boring album of 2016, hands down. Is Drake gonna put out more music? Because that's the last thing I want from him in the near future. I'd like him to take a long break, perhaps try some acting, and come back when he's inspired.