Thank Me Later review

Review: 3 out of 5.







What's happenin',

I'm here again this time to do a review on one of the most recent and best rappers and singers' in the game now from non other than Young Money Entertainment. Yeah, that's right, Lil Wayne's crew. I'm going to do the latest album of the Canadian artist, Drake, this is his first studio album made and it's called "Thank Me Later". Now I first listened to his tunes from his mix tape "So Far Gone", his third mix tape, but it turns out he's been doing some other mixtapes as far as 2006 such as "Room for Improvement" and "Come Back Season", which I definitely need to get a hold of. Some people out there compare this artist to Kanye West. For me, this is really true and I could see the similarity between them. It is from both their mannerisms and their flow that makes them out to be very compariable. To be honest, I felt this album was pretty good, but not as good as his last mixtape. His lyrics spoke a lot of volumes but I just feel this album didn't really jump out to me in the way that "So Far Gone" did. Anyway, the artists features Lil Wayne himself, Nicki Minaj of course, a young abrasive Trinidadian diva, The Dream, Alicia Keys, T.I., Jay-Z and Young Jeezy.

This album was released on June 15th 2010, which has been signed onto the Cash Money, Young Money and Universal Motown label and one of the producers of this was Kanye West. The single is "Over", I've seen the music video of this sometime in April-May as there has been leaks going around on the Internet. That is the 2nd favourite track of mine, the visuals on that video is really good and how it was laid out was really well done. No vocoder crap, I'm thankful for that, keep it real. To me, a vocoder only works on certain artists' like T-Pain but what I'm curious to know is why do most artists' use that? I mean, is it really that necessary or just part of the cool factor the same way visual effects are carried out in some films? Anyway, off topic, let's get back to my review. There's other tracks on this album like "Karaoke", "Fireworks" or "The Resistance", which are more love orientated or independent moving songs more focused on either family and relationships between either hardships with girlfriends or thereof problems faced with friends and parents, mostly domestic. On the other hand, there are tunes such as "Over", "Unforgettable" and "Fancy" that remind us why a majority of us really love Hip Hop. The verdict? Well since there is a track on it such as "Miss Me", featuring Lil Wayne I was dissatisfied with this. I mean Mr Carter, seriously, you can do better than that. It is hard to decide because it was good, don't get me wrong but personally, it could have gotten much better. I will break this down in three stages that I have done in the 4.3.2.1 review.

The Good:

I appreciate all the different beats on it, some of them, "Unforgettable" remind me funny enough of the slow jams from the 90's that we all need to get back to. Good artists should drop the whole quick-album-run-of-the-mill cash making scheme that all have sunk to these days. As stated by David Banner in an interview on Vibe magazine, it's all of the record producers fault who get cardboard cutout musicians and it's not about how good you could rap anymore. This is true and if we don't get anyone to do something about it before it's too late the rap, hip-hop genre will be destroyed. Passion talk for another time, I love the balance in here because most albums I listened to recently don't have that, it's got feel good tunes which make you repeat the words every time and nod your head whereas the others almost tell a story through metaphorical speech which comes off as a small biography. I'm glad he's talking about variable subjects here. "Fancy" has a well good ring to it that could blast off in the nightclub somewhere. I just like the chorus on this.

The Bad:

I would have given this at least a 1/2 in front of the 3, but this didn't really do enough to value that. There was not much depth to his lyrics, not much punchlines and the music felt a little all over the place. It was as though it was contemporary R&B in this mixed with Rap and other things in this, which makes you wonder in your head "What is it I'm listening to?" before checking the label and going yeah "Parental Advisory - Explicit Content". Drake needs to stick to what he knows. No actually I take it back, be versatile with your music, but not too much that it dilutes it with a litre of water of different stuff thrown into it. This means not too many guest appearances and rap with things in good context like what he did on his last mix tape. Those are the main points that had brought this down. Otherwise it was a good listen and I wish the rapper all the best with his music. He's got potential and if he keeps it up could probably be a next Kanye West. This album has pretty good recognition out there and is received very well. He is listed on the Billboard Hot 100 at the top five.

Overall:

Drake makes up for his less construed lyrics in content with a slow paced, relaxed, rap story which keeps you wanting more as he delivers. His vocals help level the balance of his smooth base and takes all of us on a soft cruise back to what slow jams were. The good choice of instrumentals shows us what he is made of and that he cares about the quality. Although it does not help when you are thrust with different vibes meshed together. Those who are more interested in pop are not left behind. There's a little of that in there as well. I would listen to this over and over again, but it's mainly targeted at those who are looking for just a chilled out evening or wants rhymes.

- Written by Kbon