Hey ya’ll, hope everyone survived last night’s riot at the Sounds Like Paper event.  The madness that ensues when people are given free live music!  Ms. Cottontail made it up to you later in the night, however, and provided the bouncing NYers with a free, exclusive show at Polar Lounge, and boy did she throw down!  Anyway, I hope this isn’t a “too soon” moment, but today’s New Music Tuesday is all about Drake’s debut full-length album.

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So I admittedly felt pretty stupid yesterday when I look out my window as I here screams coming from the Union Square Best Buy down the block from my building and had no idea what (or who) it was for.  Lo and behold, the Drake hysteria started there as he signed copies of his new CD at the entertainment store.  I say I admittedly felt stupid because I had no idea his CD was dropping yesterday, BUT to be fair, how long have we been waiting for this CD, I mean reaaally? The actual happening of the release seemed as promising as the release of an Arrested Development movie, right!?  Well well well, I immediately hopped on my computer and put my ears to WORK as I cruised through the CD entitled Thank Me Later.  I’ve always had respect for Drake because he’s unlike other rappers in the game today, because he can hold his own throughout an entire song where he doesn’t need a vocalist to carry the chorus, I mean boy can SING! Sure, Kanye does this, but before I let him finish I gotta say that Drake has one of the best voices in the rap game of all time… hehe. Thank Me Later starts with a Drake and Alicia Keys collabo called “Fireworks,” which is a beautifully melodic track.  Little did I know that this track is a precursor to the rest of the album, where most of the songs are of a slower tempo with an entrancing beat, a la “Fireworks,” “Shut It Down (feat. The Dream),” “The Resistance,” and “Cece’s Interlude,” which all have sounds reminiscent of Kid Cudi’s music.  What separates Drake from Cudi, or any other rapper for that matter, is that while he has a soft, melodic singing voice, his rap voice commands the track over the head bopping beats like in “Thank Me Now,” “Miss Me (feat. Lil Wayne),” and “Fancy (feat. T.I. and Swizz Beats).”  Looking at that last list of tracks, a note on the collaborations featured on this CD must be made.  Drake calls on Alicia Keys, T.I., Swizz Beats, Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne, and (my favorite collaboration) Nicki Minaj.  In “Up All Night,” Drake again commands the track with his rhymes, but then Minaj enters and exudes the same moxie as Drake.

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All in all, I better find Drake soon, because I don’t know if I can thank him later for this album, I gotta thank him now.

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-xoxo-

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