Time for another very late album review. I promise I will eventually return to doing these reviews when the projects actually drop, but for now, expect some serious lateness. Today, over a month after its release, I am reviewing Drake's new album, titled If You're Reading This It's Too Late. Drake, arguably the most popular man in hip-hop right now, has had an interesting rap career thus far. Amidst countless amounts of controversy and hate, he has dropped some great music. His 2011 album Take Care was one of my top five favorite albums of that year, and his 2013 album Nothing Was The Same, while not amazing, was solid. IYRTITL is his new, surprise album and even though he is saying its a mixtape, he did put it on iTunes for a price, so it is essentially an album. How will Drake's new release be after consistently dropping good projects?
No matter how bad the rapping may be, Drake's albums have always had fantastic production. Constant Drake collaborators 40 and Boi-1da return on this album, bringing some great beats to the table. The production on this project is great, and I didn't hear any beats that were bad or hard to listen to. The first track, Legend, made use of some cool vocal samples and loud, high hat drums to give it an interesting contrast. The track Know Yourself also had this contrast, with banging drums to give it a real hard, hip-hop feel, but also high pitched synthesizers floating in the background to make it sound elegant. There were some tracks here like 6 God and Used To where the beats are fast, gritty, and loud, but also songs like Wednesday Night Interlude, Company, and Jungle where the beats are more traditional Drake: slow, melodic, and a real R&B feel. This project definitely has more variety than Drake's other albums, and I think this is his best production yet.
Like the production, Drake's rapping is extremely varied and interesting on this album. The first thing that jumped out to me was the style and flow Drake uses on most songs. Right from the intro, Drake combines singing and rapping, having moments where he will randomly break out into singing during a verse, or moments where he will rap a lot slower to make it sound more melodic. This is a bit of a mixed bag, but on most tracks where he does it, I like it. On Legend, he sing-raps pretty much the whole track, and I loved it. This is also present on 6 God, a track where the production is a lot more high-energy, but the sing-rap style still really works. Some other songs on this album are good simply because of how catchy they are. Know Yourself has an infectiously awesome hook and I think this was the most memorable song on the project. Energy, 10 Bands, 6 Man and Company also are great because of their great hooks. Company in particular was one of my favorite tracks on the album because of the way Travi$ Scott is utilized. This guy, one of my favorite rappers right now, brings a whole new dimension to the song, singing and rapping in a menacing, dark way. Speaking of features, there were very few on the project, but all of them were good. Used To with Lil Wayne was solid, and R&B talent PartyNextDoor gets his own track with Wednesday Night Interlude, which I thought was absolutely fantastic. He killed it. Finally, I thought Drake was killing it lyrically on this album, covering a wide range of topics. He came with a barrage of metaphors and wordplay on No Tellin, rapped to his mother on You & the 6, and fired disses to Tyga on the closer, 6pm in New York. Overall, IYRTITL may be Drake's second best work behind Take Care. This album was extremely varied, and Drake found a new style and swagger on it. There were only a few tracks I didn't like, and with the amazing production, you have an incredible project.
IYRTITL WRAP UP
+Drake sings and raps with success, sometimes doing both at the same time
+Covers a variety of topics lyrically
+Great features
+Fantastic production
Best: Know Yourself, Wednesday Night Interlude, Company
Worst: Now and Forever
Drake- If You're Reading This It's Too Late
8.6/10
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