Drake is, begrudgingly, on my top 10 favorite rappers list.
I say ‘begrudgingly’ because he has too many songs that mean too much to me for me to ever say I hate him. Drake songs remind me of moments in my life, women I let slip through my fingertips and grand plans that didn’t work out the way I thought they would. He’s been a part of my rotation for over 10 years at this point. To say he’s not one of my favorites would be a lie. Because of that I can never judge people for saying their favorite show is “The Office” or how blown away they are by “Black Mirror”. Drake is my basic bitch love and I will stand by him. I look at Aubrey the way most people look at their “dumb” friend from college, they’re not be as mature as you’d like them to be but they’re always there for you so you’ll always support. So when I found out that Drake was dropping a new tape, I dropped everything and pressed play.
With that said, let’s get into “Dark Lane Demo Tapes”.
This feels like a fun Zoom call that goes on too long.
There are some great points on this tape; it starts really strong and Drake is arguably at the top of his game. My favorite version of Drake is 33, his bones hurt more than they used to and he’s tired of shenanigans. He says some really relatable things and I’m impressed at his ability. When he wants to be vulnerable he can be and I love it. There are songs on this album that literally made me think “wow we really are both scorpios”. This is music you listen to when you want to send a special someone wine to get ready for your FaceTime date. At times I was having so much fun with this album I forgot that his tattoos are pretty wack and he texts the girl from “Stranger Things”. If this album was a 6 song EP it would be PERFECT. However…it goes on 8 songs longer.
There’s a good 4 songs on this tape I never want to hear again. All that deep shit Drake talks about at the beginning and end of this tape is muddled by the middle. It’s like having a profound conversation with someone at a bar only to watch them order a Long Island Iced Tea. goes from songs for people in their 30s to songs for people who want to throw parties during the quarantine. Drake calls it a demo for a reason, however because of who he is it will never be seen as that. The biggest rapper in the game dropping a “demo” is like watching Dave Chappelle at an Open Mic or LeBron James at a scrimmage. Even though we know things are lax, our hopes are up to see greatness perform at great levels. I wish that this tape had more of a mixtape vibe, an annoying DJ talking over songs, shoutouts from rappers peppered in, even a “DAMN SON WHERE’D YOU FIND THIS” to remind us all that this isn’t a finished product. This tape is like eating cake batter out the bowl, sometimes you get something sweet and sometimes you get some egg that hasn’t fully mixed.
On a 14 track tape Drake has 8 pretty good songs and 6 atrocious ones. If it was a football team he’d be the Dallas Cowboys. This isn’t a tape as much as it’s a heat check. Drake’s throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. He’s got some grown songs for his older fans, some trendy songs for his young fans, and some appropriating songs for the people who wish they were “exotic”. It’s a testament to his ability to make music that a bad Drake song would still be a pretty decent song for almost anyone else. However some of these songs really should’ve been made by someone else. Drake doesn’t need to be the voice of the youth, time has proven that he just needs to be the voice of himself.
As a guy who also got hot after he grew a beard and got tattoos, I’ll always support him. I know that he has a dope album on the way this summer and this tape isn’t to be taken too seriously. But since it’s out I still gotta rate it so I give it 5 fake British accents out of 10.