Creativity is King

I wanted to take a quick minute to introduce a new kid on the block, geared up to take over two spectrums of the music business and a possible above average acting talent as well. I ask you: What, in this market, has the ability to break through and turn the entire entertainment industry upside down? Hopefully your answer is the same as mine was: A 23 year-old, canadian-born, rapper/singer/actor triple-threat phenomenon.

I introduce to you – Drake.  Call him what you wanna call him. He considers himself an actor, singer and rapper and is not shy about intertwining all three skills. Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Graham, writes all his own stuff and has even written on recent works for Hip-Hop big wigs like Lil’ Wayne and Dr. Dre and been featured on tracks with the likes of Kanye, Jay-Z and Robin Thicke, amongst others.

Some people, myself included, are just finding out about Drake and his recent contributions to the music game over the last year or two. Others recognize Drake’s mug from his long time contributions to the Canadian Television drama series, Degrassi: The Next Generation, which saw mild popularity here in the US and which he’s had a significant role on since 2001.  Drake played Jimmy Brooks, a physically disabled junior high and eventually high school student. I had never really heard of Degrassi before doing some initial research on Drake when, about 6 months ago, I began seeing him as a recurring theme on the thousands of Weezy mixtapes I download each day Turns out, it’s like the most popular television series to ever hit the Canadian kid’s TV market and has won like every award there is to win for a TV series in Canada (take that for what it’s worth).

Anyway, although initially surprised, I forgot about the Degrassi thing real quick when I began to hear him outshine Weezy himself in a few songs that Drake had only been asked upon to complement. Check out tracks like “Ignorant Shit” or “Uptown”, which I understand may be tough for many of this blog’s readers since they both feature Weezy F but just fast-forward if it’s so damn unbearable and get to the Drake verses. His lyrics on these songs are on point and his punchlines and delivery, although unconventional, come out great over the right beats.

Refusing to see himself as only a rapper, Drake even goes as far as actually singing the choruses on some of his rap songs to attempt to show his versatility. Drake displays his vocal range on slowed down, R&B  tracks on a few of his mixtapes as well but they, like a lot of his stuff thus far, have been hit or miss. Either way when he hits, Drake hits hard and I would be very surprised if we didn’t see him make an impact on a more mainstream level this year…rumors have even started that he may be currently comforting Rihanna after the tumultuous last six months or so she’s had, so he may be getting an early start on the publicity tip.

Anyway, the next project coming from him will be his debut studio album, “Thank Me later” which is slated to drop in late 2009. So, if you can, check some of his stuff out, whether it be his own mixtapes or one of his many features on other’s tracks, and let me know what you think. And if it’s your steez, hit up some cable re-runs of Degrassi cuz that shit runs 24-7 on that channel “The N.” Either way, I don’t believe you’ll be disappointed with his lyrical skills and I do believe you’ll be hearing from both Drake and myself sometime soon, whether you like it or not.

I’m out.

Stop Snitchin, Stop Lyin.