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This week saw the surprise release of Drake‘s latest offering, a 17-track mixtape following on his success of 2013’s Nothing Was The Same and building on his statements set out in 2014 with a sprinkling of huge club singles (‘0 to 100′, ‘Tuesday’, ‘How Bout Now’, etc). Rumours circulated regarding a Drake release due early this year, but it came as a surprise for many that this (on first glance at least) appeared to be a proper LP going straight to iTunes for $12.99. Speculation based on some of the lyrical content here seemed to point to this being connected to the recent Cash Money beef and smacks of an attempt to fulfil his contract early with the label, headed up by Birdman, whom Lil Wayne has recently revealed is behind the delays in his long anticipated Tha Carter V (demanding $51 million in a lawsuit requesting not only his own exit from the label, but to take Drake and Nicki Minaj with him too!).
Rap beefs are an unexpected theme across this tape, Drizzy’s really opened up lyrically here and fires shots at some of his piers who’ve been biting him over the last few years (Tyga, Baby, Kendrick & Diddy). He mentions he’s grown now, and we’re witnessing a new era in his musical career, so thankfully this tape really feels like the perfect lay-up for his full album Views From The 6 supposedly coming later this year…
Light on the features but heavy on the production this tape expands on the spacey, melodic and club-ready sounds developed on Drake’s previous LP by Noah ’40’ Shebib and explores this framework enlisting help from a wide pool of producers with Boi-1da generally taking the reigns. Samples underpin the swirling synths in the form of catchy riffs and vocal effects but rarely take the centerstage lending more of a supportive role to the elaborate drum programming and warm basslines. In some cases whole beats have been recycled and re-produced to fit the aesthetic of the tape (notably; ‘Now & Forever’ by Eric Dingus & ‘Wednesday Night Interlude’ originally by Ekali)
Opening with ‘Legend’ produced by OVO affiliate PARTYNEXTDOOR, the sample of Ginuwine’s ‘So Anxious’ is the first thing we’re given while Drake amps up for one of his untouchable hooks (“If I die I’m a legend”) and this same Ginuwine track re-appears a few songs later in 40’s first appearance on ‘Madonna’. Next up is ‘Energy’ produced by Boi-1da & Drake’s new protégé OB O’Brein which samples a well used drum loop from Original Concept’s ‘Knowledge Me’, some vocals from the intro of Eazy-E’s ‘Eazy-Duz-It’, and a soundboy shout from Cutty Ranks in a running theme across the record taking inspirations from Jamaican soundsystem culture. ‘Know Yourself’ produced by Boi-1da, Vinylz & Syk Sense opens with a snippet from OVO Nico’s recent visit to Kingston, Jamaica (here at 3:39) and samples a brilliant glockenspiel piece called ‘Tinted Glass’ by Network coming in when the beat evolves and Drake’s biggest hook of the tape is unleashed (“Running through the 6 with my woes!”).
‘6 God’ produced by Boi-1da & Syk Sense was previously seen late last year in a random batch of three tracks put on the OVO website and contains one of the coolest samples we’ve heard in a long time, looping up an 8-bit string snippet from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest! ‘Preach’ takes inspiration from Henry Krinkle’s ‘Stay’ (also recently used in Nicki’s ‘Buy a Heart’) and moves into ‘Wednesday Night Interlude’ which is formed on a beat made by Ekali called ‘Unfaith’ which in turn takes vocal snippets from Ciara’s ‘Body Party’. Next up is ‘Used To’ which appeared earlier this year on Lil Wayne’s Sorry 4 The Wait 2 and features a friendly nod to UK Grime artist Skepta and his summer smash ‘That’s Not Me’.
‘6 Man’ features Drake back with 40 and ends with a replay of ‘You Got Me’ by Erykah Badu, and ‘Company’ sees the appearance of a new friend of the OVO camp, Travi$ Scott, whom we’ve previously seen working heavily with Kanye, and coming through with one of the standout full lengths of last year with Days Before Rodeo. Reaching the end of the record we come to ‘Jungle’ which sees 40 flipping up one of the more obscure samples here taking a vocal loop from Gabriel Garzón-Montano’s track ‘6 8′, speaking to Complex recently, Garzón-Montano was pleasantly surprised to hear Drake & 40 worked with his music describing what he was doing when he first caught wind of the sample,”I was in Berlin, on the tour with Lenny Kravitz. It was so strange because I had been listening to “How About Now” and “6 God” a bunch.”
Words – Ethan Illingworth (@illersss)
