Review: Drake – So Far Gone
The most exciting thing about Drake’s release, So Far Gone was the fact that as an Interscope artist there’d be good production. Cynical? Yes. True? Yeah.
Actually, it gets more cynical the more I think about it – I may need a trip to Disneyland. The surprise though, for such an apparent cynic, was the sound that came through my headphones when I was listening to the mixtape.
The sound you get off of the initial track, Lust For Life, is a spacey, far-off sound with a drum sample from the Tears For Fears’ song Ideas as Opiates – far from the traditional R&B sound. The 2:56 track is slow and pensive – as is Drake’s flow. A parallel could be drawn to 808s and Heartbreak but the differentiating factor is the lack of a hard hitting beat. Ye keeps his rap roots alive by including a heavy hitting backbeat while Drake takes a melodic approach by using the naked production style to complement his voice.
Lyrically, he covers his rise to where he is now with vague lines about not stopping his hustle and the pop star life as well as personal issues and the transitory nature of the music business. The beat segues into the next track, Houstatlantavegas, proving that the stripped-down, minimalistic, catchy electronic sound is the mixtape’s musical theme and is going nowhere.
The pre-Kanye Daft Punk meets The Postal Service baby that is the mixtape’s sound finds itself accompanying Successful, the third track featuring Trey Songz and Weezy, which chronicles Drake’s dream of being just that. Everything on the track, and mixtape, is very “surface level” as far as comprehension goes and pleasing to the ear. Drake croons on some of the songs and raps on other; the remake of Ignorant Shit featuring Lil Wayne was a great joint to listen to, Drake’s flow is paced well and Uptown, the best song on the release, was riddled with lines with more punch than Robert Carne’s fists to Suge Knight’s face. “And shawty want to party, so don’t let your girl up out the house or they’ll be shots on TMZ of me giving her mouth to mouth/now she’s famous and the paparazzi starts to shoot her, I drive two black cars I named them Malcolm X and Martin Luther.” Pseudo-intellectual? Admittedly. Entertaining? That as well.
Drake takes us to church on the organ-laden track with lines like, “Have your cow money/going duffle bag crazy/sippin’ on Pink Floyd and puffin’ Wayne Brady/damn whose line is it anyway, I’m in a daze, you been amazed/ya’ll seem to be stuck on that beginner stage, I’m on fire I’ve been ablaze.” His use of assonance showcases his rapping chops well but they’re underused on the release as a whole.
That being said, the instrumentation on the mixtape is a shock. Sooner Than Later starts with and Outro ends the mixtape with a love song style piano line that makes you think of John Legend wooing your girl more than the basketball star from Degrassi. Overall, the release – if I may break a rule and risk having my high school journalism teach pop up out of nowhere and smack me in the back of my head – seemed fairly unique. Drake’s ability to sing as well as rap on the same release, and make it sound legitimate, is an asset to his career. The fusing of minimalistic electronica with R&B overtones produced a pithy, serious tone to the mixtape that is rarely found without sounding overly sad – even if some of the lyrical content was everything but.
The cons: Drake the Snake is in the “average” bin along with so many others on both accounts. Sure, he can sing and rap better than me, but he is no Usher Raymond and he is no Mighty Mos. If I were a betting man, and I’m not going to get into my personal habits, I’d say Aubrey Graham is here to stay, eh.
For more info on Drake check out his page at www.myspace.com/thisisdrake
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