I was still living in NY when Drake first began to break. In fact it was a former co-worker (shout to Nickel D.!) who first put me up on the music which I promptly posted on the earlier incarnation of this blog (no bandwagon jumping here, son!).

That being said, as he’s evolved into a legit global hip hop superstar, I have to concede I don’t actually love his music that much personally in full length-sized bites. I acknowledge that he’s extremely thoughtful about how he puts his projects together, they’re not just a couple radio singles packaged up with some filler tacks to make an album, but I’ve found all his albums tough to get through in a single sitting. The beats lack real hip-hop ‘knock’ and feel like aural wallpaper and not in a good way either. Drake has some clever lyrics (still think “the square root of 69 is ate-something…” from “What’s My Name” with Rihanna is actually f-cking genius!) and some interesting song ideas, but his flow gets monotonous and his singing is… passable at best to put it politely. I also don’t get the argument people often make that he changed the game or moved the needle as far as hip-hop music when I find his sound to be warmed over 808s and Heartbreak. I’m happy that Drake has become a hip-hop A-lister who still reps for Canada at all times without shame but on purely musical merits, I find myself deeply, deeply conflicted about Drake still.

I don’t think anyone who reads this site needs a stream of this album ‘cos they haven’t heard it yet (do they??) but here goes anyway: