When you decide to listen to Drake, you’re making a conscious decision to listen to rap music you can cry to in the shower. That was the case until If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late made its bold debut last month with a surprise release. After drying his tears, Drake hits hard with tracks like “Legend” and “6 God” with an unapologetic, braggy swagger. The album also calls out the painful demise of Cash Money Records in “Star67,” another “sorry-not-sorry” from a guy who won’t take any more sh*t from anyone: “Walk up in my label like, ‘Where the check, though?’/ Yeah I said it.” He dismisses his old self in more ways than one, fixing up each track with deep, dark samples not typical of his radio singles and weaving together lyrics that throw away any notion of modesty. And if that doesn’t do it for you, he blatantly tells you who he isn’t: “Please do not speak to me like I’m that Drake from four years ago.
But the most important part of If You’re Reading This… arguably lays in its consistency with the old Drake. In “You and the 6,” Drake has an emotionally charged conversation with his mother about her disapproval of his love life and him asking her to forgive his father. At times it feels like we are over at his house in the midst of that painfully awkward moment when Drake and his mother start fighting, and when it’s just about time to leave, but you can’t seem to look away: “I really hate using this tone with you momma.” The concept is intuitive considering we still manage to see that sensitive side of Drake as he drops emotional bombs seemingly out of nowhere, redirecting the attention to his personal struggle: “I mean I kill ‘em every time they do a song with me momma/ I sing a hook they sing along with me momma/What more they want from me momma?”
Well, what more do we want from Drake? We’ve gotten everything from a heart stitched onto his sleeve to a braggadocio well deserved in its entirety. I think by now, the goal isn’t to cast a light on what’s next for Drake, but to understand what he’s become already: “a motherf**king legend.”