Tha Lime Light

Final Exam: Drake- Thank Me Later

Whoever would have ever thought the hottest rapper in America would be from another country? Not since 50 Cent’s debut, your last forty ounce of malt liquor, three long island iced teas, and two shots of Patron™ has the rap game felt a buzz than the one created by the Canadian-born, Aubrey D. Graham. Using the middle portion of his government name, Drake stepped away from his acting role on the television show Degrassi and made a much larger name for himself in the hip-hop industry.

The introduction to Thank Me Later sparks off with the appropriately titled “Fireworks.” With Alicia Keys playing the Janet Jackson to Drake’s Tupac Shakur as he poetically justifies the hype surrounding his highly-anticipated debut. Drake admitted that a part of this song was inspired by a short fling he and international superstar Rihanna shared which was climaxed with an intense public lip lock.

“I could tell it wasn’t love. I just thought you’d f*ck with me/
Who could’ve predicted Lucky Strike would have you stuck with me/
I kept my wits about me luckily/
What happened between us that night, it always seems to trouble me/
Now all of a sudden these gossip rags wanna cover me/
and you makin’ it seem like it happened that way because of me/
But I was curious, and I’ll never forget it baby. What an experience/
You could’ve been the one, but it wasn’t that serious…”

From the start, Drake effortlessly transitions through his stanzas and sets the tone for the rest of the album.

Between tracks six and eleven, Drizzy manages to clump in a slew of hit artists ranging from Nikki Minaj and Swizz Beatz to Young Jeezy and The Dream. By far the worse verse on the entire LP was delivered by the hottest rapper in Rikers Island, i.e. Lil’ Wayne, on the song “Miss Me.” After his verse on that song, many will answer “no, we actually don’t miss you, Weezy.” It seemed as if the New Orleans native was so comfortable just being “Lil’ Wayne” on the track; he didn’t challenge himself nor was he able to match Drake’s line-for-line lyrical spew. T.I., Jeezy, and Jay-Z had no problem lacing verses on what may be considered a classic unveiling album.

The Dream and Drake duo song “Shut It Down” seems as it would serve as a great alternative tempo-slower in an adult entertainment establishment. The smooth and simple beat puts you in the mind of an early 90’s all-male R&B group as the two go back and forth delivering crafty wordplay in harmonious tones. Drake will be the first to admit that he’s not a great singer. However, when you fuse his melodic tone over the right rhythm, there will be something special concocted.
For those of you wishing to hear that same sick and metaphorical lyrical ability as you heard on the So Far Gone Mixtape/EP, Thank Me Later will not disappoint you. On the contradictory omega track “Thank Me Now,” Drake playfully toys with the idea of how rookies have to sometime defeat the ones they looked up to as they were up and coming.

“and that’s around the time that ya idols become ya rivals/
You make friends with Mike and gotta A.I. em for your survival/
Damn I swear sports and music are so synonomous/
Cuz we wanna be them, and they wanna be us…”

The lone sour note of the entire album was the leadoff single, “Over.” It is not apparent why the song was unjustly saturated in rotation all over the major markets in the entire United States. Drake’s voice came off extremely annoying for some reason and the instrumental becomes too redundant and will annoy a perfectly sane individual after thirty seconds into the song. To top it all off, the chorus is less than mediocre. To say the least, if this song is the worst thing about this album, Drake is set to shock and awe a lot of skeptics.

Overall, Thank Me Later has more highlights than an episode of ESPN’s SportsCenter® and your neighborhood beauty salon. Not since Chicago’s R. Kelly and Brooklynite Jay-Z’s Best of Both Worlds have we seen such a beautiful blend of hip-hop and R&B. But this time it has been accomplished by a multi-talented solo artist. If Get Rich Or Die Trying was geared to the streets, Thank Me Later may be pointed toward the sidewalk. The album can simply be defined as a music-listener’s album. Providing anthems for the backpackers, ladies, and gangstas, Thank Me Later should leave very few people disappointed. For this magnificent addition to the hip-hop archives, simply thank Drake now.

Report Card/4.0 Scale
Lyrics: 3.5
Production: 3.9
Content: 3.2
Mass Appeal: 3.7
Creativity: 3.8
Overall GPA: 3.62

~Mach’ Boogie