Play Me Some Simpin, Mane: Drake - Nothing Was the Same

"the kid mero"

drake is kind of the rap game alicia keys, just a huge hack who's incidentally made some good music but has convinced everyone he's a genius

That's actually a pretty good comparison, right down to how vague their songwriting actually is

imagine if he played the pie-anna too.

that's a funny idea

actually I retract that statement

can i guess his other 4?

some ugk album
aaliyah
some coldplay or radiohead album
some kind of wu tang related album, probably liquid swords

You forgot Take Care and Thank Me Later.

That's actually a pretty good comparison, right down to how vague their songwriting actually is

― lex pretend, Thursday, September 26, 2013 12:33 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sorry gonna keep raining on the drake hater parade but drake has had a parade of hits that arent so easily characterized as grammy bait

so... Drake's 14 Grammy nominations were all flukes?

sorry 13, I miscounted

drake having his songs in constant rotation on radio for the past five years isn't really comparable to people on the grammy committee who thought alicia keys brought back real soul music with "falling" is my point

like, he's a pop star making hits w/ regularity ... alicia was never that

Exactly. My whole point is that we should now have moved past the phase where we complain about Drake's lack of a singing voice and how Kanye did it first. Dude dominates this era and it can't be chalked down to the poor taste of the record buying public anymore. He's not exactly Flo Rida.

it can't be chalked down to the poor taste of the record buying public anymore

why not?

It's his Achtung Baby, man.

like, he's a pop star making hits w/ regularity ... alicia was never that

Alicia Keys 2001-2004 would disagree with you (ignoring the 2007 resurgence as it wasn't a contiguous year)

Alicia Keys being a critical darling now doesn't change the fact that for the beginning of her career, she was a critical darling AND a big crossover pop act.

My whole point is that we should now have moved past the phase where we complain about Drake's lack of a singing voice and how Kanye did it first. Dude dominates this era and it can't be chalked down to the poor taste of the record buying public anymore. He's not exactly Flo Rida.

well no, he can sell albums

When was the last time someone had a run like Drake's and you could chalk it all down to the poor taste of the record buying public, who apparently didn't notice that their hero could neither rap nor sing?

Are you his producer or something?

well, the way ship tells it no one's had a run like Drake

but since we're talking Billboard placings, which is all about sales, seems to me that it's all predicated on a combination of the record buying public buying what they buy and my not agreeing with their purchases

if you want me to list acts that have sold a bajillion records while being horrible I'll be happy to oblige you

I doubt anyone here wants that tho

Drake had 17 hot 100 singles since '09

alicia had 9, one of which was 'unplugged' and one of which was with usher

[in that '01-04 window]

i know there's an element of support for drake that is on some 'genius auteur' shit but i feel like that's generally pretty overstated ... most of his support is really, at the end of the day, that he keeps making hits. The biggest stream of contiguous massive crossover hits for a rap artist since the golden era of bad boy

an era also oddly predicated on a hero that could neither rap nor sing ie Puffy

Yes. Agreed. He has also effectively shaped how rap hits sound in this era.

Xpost.

Assorted Drake thoughts:

- I'm startled by how critic-proof he's been. It leads me to suspect that he may be very consciously two steps ahead of the critical establishment. Chalk it up to vagueness or chameleon tendencies or whatever, but he's been consistently able to have hate (from more than just pop critics) slide off him like he's wearing Vaseline.

- I think it’s really silly to keep harping on the “soft Drake” meme, when it’s a criticism that’s been leveled at him from the beginning and has never hurt his career in the slightest. I’ve always imagined him as a mentally tough person; maybe not a gun-toting psycho in the MMG vein, but apart from the most hardcore internet Clipse fans, who cares about how much weight a rapper actually moves? Personal qualities like mental toughness come through very nicely on a record, whereas on the other hand you can be an insecure, numbers-obsessed pedant like Pusha and continually make a fool of yourself in search for attention while not really building much of a long-term fanbase. (I don’t know why I have such a bone to pick with Push.)

- I also think that Drake's lackadaisical attitude, so infuriating to some, is the reason that I don't really see him gunning for anything like “significance” in the some dude sense. He doesn't seem terribly concerned with the approval of strangers, where I see “significant” albums like The Chronic or Illmatic or MBDTF or Good Kid as products of artists who have a million things to prove to everyone. I think the insecurity of artists like Dre, Nas, Kanye, Kendrick, etc fosters a neurotic perfectionism necessary for these beautifully crafted albums. I don’t see any of that neurotic perfectionism in Drake. He’s obviously concerned with quality, but not to the obsessive degree that these other artists are. That’s a lot of his appeal to me - just that he seems like an ultimately chill dude. I’m sure that plays a lot into the “relatable” thing that his fans seem to enjoy.

fwiw that was singles as a lead artist, not even counting guest spots like 'i'm on one' or 'stay scheming'

i would argue w/ that last point in that i think the mentalities that produced the chronic and illmatic were v v diff from those that produced mbdtf and good kid

the latter way way more conscious of the idea of a canon & the creation of a Classic

- I'm startled by how critic-proof he's been. It leads me to suspect that he may be very consciously two steps ahead of the critical establishment. Chalk it up to vagueness or chameleon tendencies or whatever, but he's been consistently able to have hate (from more than just pop critics) slide off him like he's wearing Vaseline.

I've always found this strange. anyone who is an enthusiastic drake supporter from day 1 = suspect imo

I totally loved So Far Gone but semi-hated Thank Me Later. I need to revisit it soon as I've started suspecting that the internet power blogger contempt for Drake at the time might have had me swayed. We'll see.

Also, agree that the self-obsessed neurotic Drake meme is hilariously overblown. He seems extremely relaxed to me, very confident in his own abilities, never chasing a hit like so many of his contemporaries (Push is an excellent example) and yet not trying to alienate people either (like Kanye of course). The way he has handled this whole Kendrick thing has been pretty exemplary, acknowledging the competition, using it to pull out a bit of aggression now and then, but really just making sure that the game remains his.

When was the last time someone had a run like Drake's and you could chalk it all down to the poor taste of the record buying public, who apparently didn't notice that their hero could neither rap nor sing?

― longneck, Thursday, September 26, 2013 4:43 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so you think Katy Perry is on the level of Michael Jackson in the '80s? because that's what the numbers say. you NEED to respect Katy Perry. math demands it.

Sigh.

i'm just sayin'. i think the popularity of an artist says something that's worth examining and to some extent taking seriously, but i don't think it implicitly validates everything they do or invalidates criticism.

Well I guess part of my issue with that review is that it I think it goes to lengths in trying to invalidate Drake's presence in contemporary rap. And that's kinda something else, no?

*omnipresence

i dunno i thought i gave him credit for an impressive career even w/o being impressed by the music

i mean, Muse have the #1 and #3 most played songs in alternative rock radio history. if i wrote about that, would i have to be completely reverent of that accomplishment and be wary of implying anything negative about the state of alt radio?

Well I guess part of my issue with that review is that it I think it goes to lengths in trying to invalidate Drake's presence in contemporary rap. And that's kinda something else, no?

but what if you don't think he deserves the omnipresence?

I mean, too much crit takes omnipresence for granted, you know?

Of course, but I read Ship's review more along the lines of "well, he's been omnipresent but only because the people have no ears" - and that strikes me as sorta insufficient.

haha sure but that's a position implicit in every reevaluation

it's not really a mystery to me why a "non-threatening" rapper would come to so dominate the barren pop landscape, although his longevity and omnipresence is certainly unusual. he's taken it really far.

my question upthread about what he would have to do to destroy his career was genuine btw. I can't think of anything

ehh if i was writing about his entire career i'd be more charitable about what the appeal is. i think NWTS is lacking in a lot of things about his music that have appealed to people besides the Sad Millenial Spokesperson aspect.

If he started to sound old and out of touch, people would move on. But so far he's been the guy writing the rules.

i mean i think a lot of what is unique about Drake (in good and bad ways) has been normalized to the point that we don't talk about it. but like, the way he goes from rapping to singing the exact same way in every song is kind of hilarious and bizarre.

If he started to sound old and out of touch, people would move on

I fear dude will just move (back) into movies and tv where he will be until we die

insert sadface

that "you feel like you miss those happy days well" ::abrupt shift into crooner mode:: "that makes twoooooo of uuuuuuus" flow xp

so good

my question upthread about what he would have to do to destroy his career was genuine btw. I can't think of anything

Obviously I was naive, but once I was thinking the same of Lil Wayne.