Music: Drake - The Next Big Thing

I've been jamming the hell out of this kid, Drake. He's a really talented rapper and R&B singer who's bound to blow up very soon. He's also apparenlty really tight with Lil Wayne, which certainly can't hurt an up-and-coming rapper's career.

He's a Canadian kid who used to be on this Canadian tween show called Degrassi: The Next Generation. I'm not gonna rehash his entire background when you can just check his Wiki page.

I'm really blown away by his rap abilities. He's very Lil' Wayne/Kanye-esque in that he uses alot of clever lyricism and multi-syllabic rhymes. It's also refreshing that he's not one of your typical machismo-exuding studio gangstas. His lyrics are quite introspective, deep and soulful.

I'd heard his name a few times here and there but didn't really hear any of his music until last weekend when I heard "Successful feat. Trae Songz and Lil Wayne" on Shade 45. It's a great example of the new sound he's bringing to the rap game.



This song is featured on his latest mixtape called So Far Gone. I use the term "mixtape" loosely because it's not your typical DJ screaming, sh*tty quality mixtape you're used to. It's actually a very professional, well-produced album. I think they just used several samples that would be very expensive to clear so they just decided to put it out there as a "mixtape" and pump up his following.

So Far Gone is quite easy to dig up via not-so-legal channels all over the internets, so you shouldn't have a problem downloading it. And I highly recommend that you do.

But if you wanna hear before you try to track it down, someone has uploaded every track from the album to YouTube. So I'll do you a favor and link to each one. Enjoy.



Drake - So Far Gone

01) Lust for Life
02) Houstatlantavegas
03) Successful feat. Trae Songz and Lil Wayne
04) Let's Call It Off feat. Peter, Bjorn and John
05) November 18th - (samples the CLASSIC "June 27th" 35-minute freestyle session, which is considered beyond legendary in Houston rap - how would a Canadian kid know this many Dirty South references? must have had help form Weezy, right?)
06) Ignorant Sh*t feat. Lil Wayne
07) A Night Off feat. Lloyd - (epic sex jam - you might have seen this arguement between Joe Budden and his girl set off by this song)
08) Say What's Real
09) Little Bit feat. Lykke Li
10) Best I Ever Had
11) Unstoppable feat. Santo Gold and Lil Wayne - ("Ain't on the fence about it, I ain't Mr. Feeny")
12) Uptown feat. Bun B and Lil Wayne
13) Sooner Than Later - (very beautiful R&B song, great lyrics)
14) Bria's Interlude feat. Omarion - (samples the classic sex jam by Missy and Ginuwine - "Friendly Skies" - I must be getting old if the stuff I used to jam when I was a kid is now getting sampled by today's stars)
15) The Calm
16) Brand New
17) Outro