Drake - If You're Reading This It's Too Late

Drake is one of the few modern artists who fits into one style. Kanye West did emotionally raw and self conscious, but he did it on 808s and Heartbreak then moved onto a different style. Drake called 808s one of his biggest influences, not for any particular album, but for the type of music that has defined his whole career so far. Not that he hasn't changed, his first album, So Far Gone, was more bombastic, the production matching the melodrama Drake created out of every moment. In the six years since, Drake's productions have become more bare and minimalistic, his songs have moved further with each release from traditional hip hop, and his lyrics have went from expressing nervous enthusiasm towards his newfound fame to confidently dismissing any sense of fun in the celebrity lifestyle.

This trajectory continues on If You're Reading This It's Too Late, to what I imagine is the furthest it can be pushed. An easy comparison to an album so raw would be Kanye West's Yeezus, but that was angry and out of control; Too Late is as slow and controlled as Drake's ever been. A better comparison is 2Pac's 7 Day Theory - 2Pac had recently got out of prison and felt manipulated by the music producers around him and the media; the production meant very little, it was simply a background to put 2Pac's thoughts to. Too Late feels similar, it's a 17 track think piece, about fame and the current rap game and how much Drake isn't buying into any of it. The obvious difference is, 2Pac had a reason to be angry, so had a lot to say - Drake is the opposite: the production means very little, but so does Drake's words.

I've heard arguments defending this before, that Drake's lyrics, narcissistic and seemingly uninterested in anything beyond his field of vision, hold up a mirror to modern culture. That Drake's self-centered nature yet harsh self criticism reflect social networking - that the emptiness of his boasts is like the hollowness of the average tweet. I'll admit I've always liked Drake's lyrics, his melancholy raps always felt true. You could like the guy because he never asked you to like him. The lyrics on Too Late are something less interesting; he repeats "Oh my God, oh my God/If I die, I'm a legend" again and again on the opener. It's another piece of honesty pulled straight from his id, but hard to get along with on a song so repetitive and colourless. Too Late opens up the realization that part of the reason it was so easy to let Drake's attitude off the hook all these years was it was wrapped up in some great music. Too Late has no major guest stars; the least notable production of any album I've ever heard; and a feeling of complete disinterest from its creator. Drake's empty brags do for once sound empty.

It's clear Drake knew this wasn't his best material: despite Too Late being an album, Drake's said it isn't an album, it's a mix tape. Drake's fourth album is set for release later this year, and was announced before anyone had heard anything about Too Late. It's an unrelenting album, an onslaught of Drakeness - maybe it was just something he needed to get off of his chest. I didn't care for most tracks, even after a few listens I can't remember almost any of them. There's a few highlights: "Know Yourself" is great, Drake's chorus declaring he's been "runnin' through the 6 with my woes" sounds like the rapper closer to the edge than ever, and it's crazy fun to listen to on repeat. "You and the 6" is an ode to Drake's mother, and has some of the rappers most lovable, yet emotionally raw lines: "Ain't been returning the texts, so she been reading the press/She got Google Alerts, them shits go straight to her phone/She worry 'bout me from home, you know she raised me alone". The rest of the album feels like it's from a different person. It's Drake's least listenable release yet, but there's a hypnotic quality that made me find the whole thing worth listening to, like not listening would be missing out on something important. He just might make a legend of himself yet.