HATS HOODIES KICKS

In the last few years, projects that I’ve heard in the world of hip hop that I can actually consider “good” are few and far between. The latest compilation I can add to that category is “So Far Gone”, the latest mixtape from Toronto’s new face of hip hop, Drake. For those of you not in the know, Drake is one of the next biggest names in hip hop. He is working with Lil’ Wayne’s Young Money label, and has gotten co-signs from a few more established artists. Enough about the man though, shall we get on to the music?

I walked into the mixtape a bit sceptical of what the quality of the music was going to be. Long story short, I keep this disc in heavy rotation...I actually have tracks that are starting to skip. Contrary to the status quo, Drake has put together a disc with a variety of tracks, ranging from lyrical braggadocio to thought provoking gut-spilling vents to your girlfriend’s new favourite song. This also helps the listener identify with him as a person; rather than having some star talk for an hour about how he blows his money, you actually get layers and a bit of complexity from the artist.

Apart from doing a great job rapping, Drake also does quite a bit of singing on the mixtape. The difference between him and the leading brand of rapper is that Drake can actually sing, rather than abusing Auto-tune until the sun burns out. Drake also manages to recruit a solid line-up of features on this tape, including Lil’ Wayne, Bun B, Lloyd, Santogold, and Trey Songz. Despite some big names as features (Mr. “I sold a million copies my first week”), Drake allows his guests to compliment his music him rather than outright stealing the show.

In a nutshell, the mixtape is dope. Drake successfully delivers over every track, including beats he borrowed from Jay-Z and Kanye West. I’m really looking forward to seeing Drake’s career develop after hearing this. It’s such a breath of fresh air to have a compilation of music with some layers, rather than the bulk of garbage we’ve seen in hip hop for the last 4 years, give or take. I strongly advise checking out one of the shows on his tour in the coming months. Honestly, I’d much rather not tell you how good this mixtape is, and then I would get to talk behind your backs about how musically sheltered you are. But that wouldn’t be very nice.

- Chad a.k.a. Chaddington Bear

Labels: chad, drake, music analyst, review, so far gone

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 03:34. You can skip to the end and leave a response.