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In this article, Peter vents about his hatred for Drake's inconsistency as an artist.
Drake and His Inconsistent Music Career
Drake and His Inconsistent Music Career
By: Peter Easterwood
By: Peter Easterwood
Aubrey Graham, also known as Drake, is a Canadian rapper known around the world. He gained international popularity with his third mixtape, So Far Gone, with the two prior compilations, Comeback Season and Room for Improvement, being forgettable. Many people today know Drake as a musician but, during the early part of his career, he was an actor in the Drama series Degrassi, playing the role of Jimmy Brooks. After the release of So Far Gone, Drake dropped Thank Me Later on June 15, 2010, which would be his debut studio album. The album featured well-known artists like Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, and Alicia Keys, all being mainstream artists running the show during this time. Thank Me Later continued what So Far Gone laid out, with one song being a methodical, slowed-down R&B song, followed by a fast-paced, back-and-forth rap. A little more than a year later, on Nov. 15, 2011, Drake released his magnum opus, Take Care.
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At this point, Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye was running the show in the underground R&B landscape. Both Drake and The Weeknd grew up in the same place, Toronto, so after being introduced to The Weeknd’s talents, Graham went to his House of Balloons listening party to fully introduce himself to Tesfaye. This seemingly small encounter would not only boost The Weeknd’s popularity but also boost Drake’s artistic work. Take Care utilized Drake’s singing voice more than any other one of his albums. It is obvious he used auto-tune to help make his voice sound appealing, but the obvious autotune sound adds to the emotion of the album. Even after Take Care, Drake continues this consistent streak of good albums. With Nothing was the Same, which received a 77/100 on Critic Score and a 76/100 on User Score via AOTY (an album review site that connects user and critic scores for many albums). Afterward, he proceeded to release If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. To many, it is his greatest album. It would be nice to say Drake, after the release of If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late would stay on the same trajectory of constant good album after good album, but he did not with his next EIGHT albums.
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What a Time to be Alive, while not offensively bad, is nowhere near as consistent as If You’re Reading This. The blame can not be put all on Drake, with Future also being a part of this album, counting it as a collaboration between the two rappers. The interesting parts of the album are forgotten with boring track after boring track suffocating any kind of life in the album. Then, there is Views, another boring album, with one actual stand-out song being “Hotline Bling”, but that does not make up for the three prior tracks being the most boring run in the whole album. Drake would then follow up with More Life, a modest album with some hits, but the consistency part still haunts Drake on the album. Then there is Scorpion, Drake’s most bloated album. With a run time of one hour and 35 minutes, listeners would think there would be a reason the album is so long, but there is not. The most recognizable track on the album would be “Gods Plan”, with spectacular lyrics like, “She say, ‘Do you love me?’ I tell her, ‘Only partly. I only love my bed and my momma, I'm sorry” (lyrics from Genius.com, a website filled with lyrics from millions of songs).
The consistency of meh albums/mixtapes goes on for three more albums with Care Package Dark Lane Demo Tapes, and Certified Lover Boy– until it reaches a sudden halt with Honestly Nevermind, Drake's worst album ever released. He tried to create a house-music-type album following Beyoncé’s well-received Renaissance album, but fell short. Honestly Nevermind showcased Drake’s lack of push to create something new and exciting, and Her Loss continues that narrative. Her Loss is said to be a “collaborative album” between Drake and 21 Savage, but it is more of a Drake album featuring a lot of 21 Savage. It is filled with bangers like “Major Distribution” and “Privileged Rappers”, but is ruined by disgusting songs like “Treacherous Twin” , a repetitive song where Drake calls someone his “Treacherous Twin”. Finally, his latest album For All the Dogs, puts the nail in the boring Drake coffin, with another bloated album filled with a lot of misses and few hits.
Drake has proven time and time again that he barely cares about his music career, releasing meh albums left and right to collect his paycheck. After For All the Dogs, he would release a mixtape to extend the album named For All the Dogs Scary Hours Edition. The mixtape is altogether forgettable, with Drake calling out Taylor Swift on the song “Red Button” being the most notable part of the mixtape. His fall from grace is a tragic tale, but Aubrey Graham knows that no matter what he releases, he will still make tens of millions from it.
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