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Fighter: Drake

Trainer (Gym): 40 (Cash Money)

Cut Men: Noah “40” Shebib, Boi-1da, PartyNextDoor, OB O’Brien, Sevn Thomas, Vinylz, Syk Sense, Frank Dukes, Most High, Amir Obe, Wondagurl, Daxz, Eric Dingus, Jimmy Prime, Travis Scott, TM88, Illmind

Weight Class: Rap Superstar/Lyrical Heavyweight

Notable Fire: Know Yourself, 6AM In New York, 6Man

Notable Trash: Legend, Madonna

Tale of the Tape: It’s been a year and a half since October’s Very Own saw himself in this space. But on a random night in 2015’s first quarter, Drizzy decided to release a full length project unbeknownst to everyone. Needless to say, Drake had the internets going nuts.

Is it an album? Or is it a mixtape? That was a common question being asked by the general public after the release of If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. So was, “what the hell is that title supposed to mean?” Okay, maybe that was just yours truly. Still though, Drake sparked more questions with this project than a The Mountie could shake a cattle prod at. Why now? Why out of nowhere? And why did DeMar DeRozan break the news of this project to the world? And what the hell happened to the Raptors in the anyway???

Playoff basketball digression aside, Drake fans once again find themselves in the age old query when listening to his latest: How much R&B Drake is too much R&B Drake?

It’s difficult to be overly-critical of R&B Drake considering how good he is at it. It’s reminiscent of Deion Sanders playing centerfield for the Atlanta Braves. Had he focused all of his time an energy on baseball, Prime probably could’ve been one of the elite leadoff hitters in the game during his time. As it turned out, Sanders conceded a good baseball career to be a legendary football player. If he tried, Drake could possibly be the best male R&B artist in the game. But “Rapper Drake” is like Deion on a punt return— the second you realize it’s happening, you know there’s potential that you’ll witness something special.

This is precisely what happened on “6PM In New York”, the last and lone track on IYRTITL where “Rapper Drake” decided to wield his lyrical powers. Aside from the occasional “Oh, you gotta love it,” it was mostly Drake slaying the mic…and Tyga, his own labelmate whom he sonned for his “relationship” with the underage Kylie Jenner after Tyga called Drake “fake” in Vibe Magazine.

Sidebar: What does it mean when you have your own Wiki page for all the rap beefs you’ve had? What does it mean when that same person has a stigma for being the softest MC in the game attached to him? Meh, I don’t know either.

Besides telling the lil lil homie, “You need to act your age and not your girl’s age,” Drake sprinkled in several quips over a Boi-1da beat including, “My career is like a How-To manual,” “I’m with a girl whose ass is so big, it’s partly embarrassing,” and “‘Best I Ever Had’ seems like a decade ago/ Decadent flow and I still got a decade to go.”

Sadly, this is the only track like this. If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late was mostly “R&B Drake” and some other hybrid version of Drake, where he’s rapping, but not spitting like “6PM In New York”. Instead, “Hybrid Drake” uses each track to experiment with different melodies and cadences, seemingly searching for his next flow that could be a home run (like the staccato flow he perfected on Migos’ “Versace” two summers ago). This is mostly beneficial to him, but the listener is occasionally forced to sit through average music (by his standards) — like “6God”— while Drake figures it out, in lieu of more “Rapper Drake”.

There were some other bright spots, including “6Man”, which contained the opening line “Boomin’ out in South Gwinnett like Lou Will/ 6 man like Lou Will/ Two girls and they get along like I’m…Like I’m Lou Will,” a rhyme that is just awesome for so many reasons (even if Lou’s progressive family didn’t live happily ever after). The second half of “Know Yourself” easily provided the dopest instrumentation on the project, and although Aubrey wasn’t saying anything on this particular record, he did give us the noteworthy tagline “Running though The 6 with my woes”.

If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late got off to an inauspicious start with the unimaginative “Legend” and had other underwhelming moments such as “Madonna” (I could all do without anything involving Drake and Madonna). But above all else, IYRTITL seemed like an agenda record. In other words, its release was driven less by the artist’s need to create and being moved to share a story, and more the result of wanting to introduce fans to much Drake’s October’s Very Own crew, as stated by CL Palmer on our joint podcast.

As CL pointed out, something bigger is brewing. While Drizzy still seems to roll with Lil Wayne (who appeared on the record) and Nick Minaj (ostensibly), IYRTITL was largely a showcase for OVO Sound, with the bulk of the production work being handed by Drake’s in-house team, and multiple features from his promising pupil PARTYNEXTDOOR, or as I like to call him, “Canadian Future”. HHSR has already chronicled the Wayne/Birdman rift, and Drake’s relationship with Weezy is still solid, so it stands to reason the Birdman’s treatment of Wayne didn’t sit well with Drake, which if it ends up costing Baby the hottest rapper in the business, would be a colossal F-up on his part. He’s also openly throwing shots at a labelmate on one of the tape’s signature songs.

The lyrics on “Now And Forever” absolutely read like a farewell letter to Cash Money and YMCMB. The project was also A) reportedly uploaded to OVO’s official SoundCloud upon its initial release but was removed, B) was made available for sale on iTunes and C) had the label responsible for dropping IYRTITL updated ONLY to reflect Cash Money on its Wiki page. All this would lead one to believe IYRTITL is strictly a Cash Money release and, despite its pseudo-mixtape status, would add to Drake’s album count to satisfy and potentially end his Cash Money contract.

This was all pieced together through listening and effectively reading both the tea leaves and between the lines. Then in prep for this edition of the Tale Of The Tape, this article from Business Insider was discovered, basically confirming everything mentioned above, while adding a crucial piece of evidence: Drake’s thank you credits for the project, which omitted both Cash Money and Birdman himself.

And then there’s the title, yes. If You’re Reading This Its Too Late or, “If you’re listening to this record and reading these credits, Cash Money, it’s too late. I’m bouncing to start my own label. I don’t need you anymore.” It all makes sense now.

Fight Night: Loss By Unanimous Decision

The expectations are higher for Drake given his immense talent. Other than the fact that IYRTITL sounds like a collection of songs primarily created to hold down Toronto, the songs all sound better individually than they do as part of one larger project. And even the good ones, like “Know Yourself”, aren’t great— random talking in the middle of the song messed that up.

Overall, even though nearly every song was at least decent, not one song was truly memorable. While attending a birthday party for a polished 24-year-old in downtown Chicago six weeks after IYRTITL’s release, I noticed only one track, “Preach” featuring Canadian Future, was spun all night. That’s Drake’s wheelhouse, yet his lack of an imprint on that particular affair says a little something about the reach of this LP/mixtape.

Drake will likely continue to offer up dynamite features (most likely for his own label), like “Tuesday” for ILoveMakonnen, as that lane appears to have occupied some of his focus now. If You’re Reading This Its Too Late was Drake’s version of The Decision; now Drizzy is taking his talents to a new team and is going back home (so maybe it was more like The Decision II?).

A seismic shift appears to be on the horizon for rap as Drake exits YMCMB for his own OVO imprint. His new album Views From The 6 is in the works and should be released later this year. As Beyoncé is supposedly making a guest appearance, Drake appears to take a page out of her husband’s book: He’s betting on himself. But at this point, you either mess with Drake, or you don’t (Paul Pierce clearly enjoys messing with Drake).

While not his A material, If You’re Reading This Its Too Late is ultimately a net gain for rap’s biggest star, who is still among the best whenever he chooses to be. So even though the Toronto Raptors were dropped from the playoffs in a shockingly embarrassing fashion, 2015 should still be a good year for the “6Shooter”… okay, that one was made up.