Every few years an artist comes along that makes me reevaluate hip hop as a whole. Let’s face it, what’s hot and relevant one year is passé only a few months later. Punch line rap, gangster rap, cocaine rap, backpack, skateboard, trap, ringtone, it all comes and goes and comes again until it’s so muddled you can’t really put anyone in a box. Rap is less about the subject matter these days and more about the construction of a good song and then the ultimate test– a good album.
First things first. No one raps about shit. NO ONE. Common is a great rapper, but he’s so far removed from “Can I borrow a dollar” that I don’t really give a fuck about the politically charged bitching and moaning of a man who stars in Romantic Comedies with Queen Latifah and goes home to a mansion every night. The Underground is filled with a bunch of over analytical weed heads with flows that put me to sleep, the Hoods of the East are stuffed with niggas who still think The Clipse and State Property won. Guess what, they lost, and no one wants to listen to that shit either. The West is so niche it’ll never buzz beyond a regional hit ever again, and the South has proven that it’s more concerned with quantity not quality, and is in danger of over saturating its own “swag”.
So in this fucked up era of disposable, directionless music what makes a good artist? Someone who can rap enough to impress those who still put weight in lyrics yet is accessible enough to have a song played on the radio and bang in a club. If that wasn’t enough we ask that artist to please construct a full length album that entertains for at least twelve tracks. hmmm.
I could relate to kids going straight to the league/ when they recognise that you got what it takes to succeed/ and thats around the time that your idols become your rivals/ you make friends with Mike but gotta AI him for your survival
-Drake “Thank Me Now”
Let me thank Drake now for his debut album Thank Me Later. Is it Ready to Die, Reasonable Doubt, and Doggystyle wrapped in one? Fuck No. But it doesn’t have to be. Drake armed with a Kanye west flow, Lil Wayne drawl, and Trey Songz melodies has crafted an album that proves you don’t have to rap about what “rappers are suppose to rap about” or even rap at all. Mobb Deep’s Infamous is about Hustling in the projects of New York, losing friends, and surviving. Young Jeezy’s Thug Motivation 101 is about Hustling in the trap, losing friends, surviving, and flossing on niggas. Those two albums are more than ten years apart but little changed thematically. Thank Me Later is about fame sucks, fame rules, loving women, hating bitches, and flossing. Not one mention of hood life or gun play, because for the first time a rapper isn’t afraid to not be gangster.
With that said I welcome Thank Me Later to the legendary
“LIST OF 15”.
1) The Blueprint
2) Doggy style
3) Ready To Die
4) Get Rich Or Die Trying
5) The Marshall Mathers LP
6) Come Home With Me
7) Trap Muzik
8) All Eyez On Me
9) Thank Me Later
10) The Score
11) Aquemini
12) Thug Motivation 101
13) College Dropout
14) It Was Written
15) Only Built For Cuban Linx
15)Hardcore