Drake Drake Drake Drake Drake
What a silly guy!
I feel like everyone knows who Drake is based on the amount of radio play songs like “One Dance” and “Nice For What” get, but the people who actually listen to him hate those songs.
I admittedly love “One Dance”, I don’t care. Hate me all you want, it’s catchy as fuck; BUT, he obviously has much better songs and has the capacity to make really great songs and albums.
This album is neither great nor filled with great songs, but there are a couple zingers in there. Oh boy!
P.S. I’m trying to sound as white as possible if you couldn’t tell.
Let’s rock n’ roll kiddos.
If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late is one of my favorite albums ever and literally every song on that album fucking slaps and is iconic, and it’s crazy because both that and this album are mixtapes, yet IYRTITL comes off as a cohesive project. Dark Lane Demo Tapes is pretty much exactly what you’d expect.
The intro track “Deep Pockets” definitely is a strong opening, and “When to Say When” keeps that going, but these tracks become repetitive after a while, which is something that songs later in the mixtape suffer from as well like “Losses”.
Other tracks, like the first stand out song (for me) “Chicago Freestyle” sound like they could exist on an actual Drake album and no one would bat an eye. Drake definitely has a good ear for his features of R&B artists like Giveon here, and on other albums as well like Sampha on “Too Much”, and that’s something I’ve always appreciated about him.
The feature people talk about the most here is Playboi Carti on “Pain 1993”, it’s not amazing honestly but it’s entertaining enough to make my plebeian neurons fire off everytime Carti spouts his nonsense.
All the beats on this tape are really smooth up until the end, when Drake turns it into a drill-fest for some reason with songs like “Demons”.
Going back to those radio play songs I was talking about, “Toosie Slide” is dumb as hell, but I don’t care. It’s fun, it’s mindless, and sometimes (sigh) that’s what Drake does best. Just thinking about “Way 2 Sexy” puts a regrettable smile on my face. I know it’s bad, trust me.
Have I heard Certified Lover Boy all the way through yet? No. But if it’s anything like what I hear it’s going to be, I’m not excited. This mixtape was decent, but we know Drake can do better, and that’s the most disappointing thing. He really phoned it in on a couple of these songs, and the features don’t escape that noose either save for Giveon and maybe Future as well. Anyway I’m gonna go listen to IYRTITL. Bye.
6/10
Personal Favorites:
Chicago Freestyle
Toosie Slide
Desires
Pain 1993
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