'Nothing Was the Same' Review -- Nothing Was the Same is Drake's 3rd studio album. Despite some definite skip-overs, I feel like this is his most complete hip-hop album yet. Surprisingly this is more rap-oriented than a typical Drake album, which may have been foreshadowed by pre-album cuts like Versace (Remix), Jodeci and All Me where he showed he's ready to rap again. Although his singing shows his versatility as an artist, it definitely hinders him from releasing a hip-hop classic. I'm a big Drake fan in terms of what he did for Toronto hip-hop culture and when it comes to his music I tend to be open-mindedly critical, which is definititely an oxymoron but you get it.
His first two albums were just OK albums to me. Thank Me Later was a solid debut and a good introduction; but unfortunately didn't have much innovation in terms of sound and rap. He definitely wanted to start off his career showing his versatility, but in the process cranked out some forgettable R&B tracks. Take Care was again a rap album with too much R&B--I would even say it was a strategic album to usher Drake into the mainstream, which it did. Prime example if on it he had a track with Lil' Wayne and Andre 3000 and opted to throw them on an R&B track about saving a stripper instead of showing his chops as a rapper..lost opportunities.
Anyways, NWTS starts off with a bang with Tuscan Leather; a heavy rap intro to the album, which is definitely a promising thing to hear. As far as rap tracks, this is one of the highlights of the album and one of my favourite songs. Drake is trying to send a message with this track, but at the same time he has fun with the verses showcasing some decent wordplay. I'm glad he chose to start things off rapping.
The next track, Furthest Thing, is a very 'Drake' track musically; mellow, quick-tempo-singing hybrid rap. This is actually one of my favourite tracks on the albums as well. Drake raps about being in a middle phase. In the first verse, a very contemplative Drake provides introspection into his current mind state. Feeling like you're at a middle ground, but not exactly where you want to be at the end--I guess that being lost aspect of the first verse is what struck a cord with me.
There's one track that really erks me, mainly because of the title choice. The Wu-Tang Clan is probably the greatest and most important rap group of all time. Known for their cut-throat, raw and rugged lyrics. Even if it's intended to be arbitrary, having a track entitled Wu-Tang Forever carries something with it. You have to come with that Triumph-type rap or maybe something more relative than an off-put piano chord in the background. The name and reputation of the Wu warrants at the very least your coldest, boombappiest, machinegunniest flow and definitely not rubbish about a girl saying she's all yourz with a RZA sample? Meh. The track is decent, but it's really hard for me to get over the title choice--it has nothing to do with the music, but at the same time it has everything to do with the essence of the song.
Worst Behavior is probably the most ignorant rap track Drake has ever made. I feel like he dipped into the Waka realm as far as he could for this one. This beat actually bangs though and grew on me. I enjoy listening to these screw-face type tracks once and a while, more so when there's some actual rapping. Hmm, you know Kendrick could ride a beat like this and do a hook like this and never compromise his flow as a rapper. 300lbs-sounding Drake on the other hand doesn't actually rap until the last verse. Not even mad at that one verse though after he's done borrowing Ma$e's flow to set the tempo--he probably knew he had to squeeze a solid verse in to stop this from being a complete write-off. The beat is just so dumb ignorant though I mess with half this track, but tenfold in the whip.
If I never heard Drake's Versace Remix, I would mess with The Language track harder or give it more attention. The 'Versace flow' is hard, but The Language is definitely a more toned down vessel. He had the opportunity to at least switch it up, but chose to keep this flow throughout the track and recycle thoroughly. Another track carried by this flow is 305 in My City which has Future's less (or more) retarded cousin, Detail yelling the hook. Man, I thought it was Drake slurring out the chorus and it just left so much of a bad taste in my mouth that I couldn't take in the track properly. But when I saw it was a feature it helped me to better separate the two artists, or rather, separate Future's cousin on bath salts from the artist. But ultimately this gets dashed into the skip pile. Womp.
Overall I think this is Drake's most complete album of the 3. I don't consider it a classic by any means, but just his closest thing to a complete hip-hop album. I think the key was that this time around when he did crank out an R&B track, he made them count. Drake's attempt at normal, tired R&B hurt his previous albums as a whole. I hope he keeps going in this direction until he finally keep the singing tracks to 2 or 3 thoughtful ones and can maybe crank out a hip-hop classic with that formula? After that he can have an entire Marvin Gay attempt of an album for all I care. Drake needs to keep on progressing hip-hop culture and assist the more competent of his peers in defining their era.
I'm out like on-call stripper rescue teams...
