Review by Darren Cahill
On February 12 Drake shocked the rap world
by dropping what he described as his fourth
mix tape entitled “If You’re Reading This It’s
Too Late”.
He had previously stated that his fourth
album was to be entitled “Views From The 6″
but having been released on iTunes it is
considered an album by some despite Drake
stating it is a mix tape.
The mix tape opens with “Legend” in which
Drake declares “If I die I’m a legend”. The
second track is “Energy” which sounds quite
similar to “Started From the Bottom” but with
a darker mood to it. On “10 Bands” Drake raps
about the money he has stacking up,
“Know Yourself” and “No Tellin'” are pretty
generic Drake tracks, however track 6
Madonna is dark and smoky and something
different. Again “6 God” and “Star67″ are
generic Drake tracks.
Two PARTYNEXTDOOR collaborations
follow starting with “Preach” and then
“Wednesday Night Interlude”, which are two
personal favourites, especially the latter of the
two.
“Used To” marks the only Lil Wayne
appearance, at least vocally anyway. It is then
followed by two more generic Drake tracks in
“6 Man” and “Now & Forever”. Not to say
there is anything wrong with any of the generic
Drake tracks, just that there is nothing really
new in them.
“Company” featuring Travi$ Scott follows.
This is a stand out track on the mix tape. It is
dark, like most of the album and it features
good stuff from both Drake and Travi$. It also
sums up the new direction Drake has gone in
for this release.
“You and the 6″ pays homage to Drakes
mother and is lyrically one of the deepest
songs on the album. You can feel the heartfelt
verses and the focus is on lyrics. “Jungle”
4.0
samples Gabriel Garzon-Montano’s 6 8 to
maximum effect. It is a love song with Drake
talking to his ‘one and only’ checking if
they’re ‘still good’.
Finally the album ends with the third
instalment of Drake’s “In The AM” series. In
this track Drake disses and and attacks a
number of fellow rappers, including Tyga, and
the song also features no hook.
Overall, it is a top notch mix tape and could
even be seen as a decent album. Drake
switches styles throughout but still maintains
a dark, smoky sound throughout. It starts
strong but in my opinion the second half of the
album is superior with strong collaborations
with Travi$ Scott, Lil Wayne and
PARTYNEXTDOOR.
Check out: Company, Madonna, You and the
6, Jungle, Energy and Wednesday Night
Interlude
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