Simpin Ain't Easy: The Official Thread For Drake's Sophomore Album, TAKE CARE

andy what do u think of this record? v interested to know

My two cents. I could careless about his authenticity, personal narrative or technical rapping skills (whatever the fuck that means). His voice is boring and personality-less. He's ok when he sings, but as an MC he's completely humourless which is something I like in a rapper. His rapping isn't much different than Childish Gambino with worse punchlines (yikes). His choice of topics comes across as a little #1%problems which doesn't interest me either.

can people itt expand on what they mean when they say they don't care about his technical rapping skills? isn't that a pretty important component in a rap album?

the doubletime on 'make me proud' is so, so painful

http://nbrhd.com/TheGreatEstate/files/2011/02/tumblr_lh5idbpN3O1qekog0.jpg

"u will all be thanking me later."

Explain what you mean by technical rapping skills.

meter, flow...

I've never understood the concept of 'flow' as an objective quality of a rapper.

????

one of the technical qualities i look for in a rapper is that he be a corny ass whining clay face

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/California_Raisin_claymation.jpg

Flow seems completely subjective to me. I guess, if pressed, certain flows require a certain amount of skill, but it seems to me that there's a lot of room for creativity within a fairly minimally complex flow, and that choice of flow need not reflect on the skills of the MC. Either which way, if having a nice flow is required for being a technically good rapper, then this does not seem to help Drake's case any (though he's getting better).

i don't think anybody's suggesting dude has to be rapping Big Boi levels of complexity to have good flow.

every time i see this album cover i think he's eating a big turkey leg in a renaissance castle and then my eyes focus and it's worse

if i were drake i would give chino xl a guest slot on my album

what quality of a rapper is objective?

As an actual rapper hes not doing anything new. Except subject matter. Which is exactly what doesn't interest me about him. If he had a novel style it would be one thing but his subject matter is what hes built acclaim from

OTM

http://www.egotripland.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/TakeShit.jpg

...

ha

Calling Flocka strong on technical skills is a reach IMO but he has a much better voice and stronger energy/presence, and has developed a sound that plays to those strengths really well. So in his best moments Flocka is exhilarating in the way I expect the best hip-hop to be, which Drake--though more technically skilled--rarely is. Drake's always reminded me of Tim Duncan, can't deny he's effective but never feel moved to jump out of my seat for his latest 8-foot bank shot.

lolling @ take shit

so i assume you guys read caramanica's piece?

he actually would have me going for a minute & then he'd drop a bomb like talking about how weeknd made some of the best music of the year instead of calling it a budget indie the-dream, or he would say asap rocky is one of the most talented rising stars or w/e, and i'm like, o right, this is an alternate universe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TotbU952HNk

i like this lol

ooh that's a great beat.

let me play it again......yeah, nice

so i assume you guys read caramanica's piece?

lol why would you do that

because generally when the new york times talks about rap i read about it

not so much bcuz i expect it to be good, mind you. but caramanica's been writing about rap for ages & his perspective is one that critics are going to gravitate towards

was he the guy who commissioned/wrote that piece about pitchfork reviews reviews?

yeah.

like i said i'm not defending his writing or taste here dude. stop pretending you can ignore everything you don't like as if it's not a part of the conversation

whose conversation? i don't care to be beholden to a conversation with parameters and subjects set by the straightwhitemen of rockcrit thanks all the same

not that i'm saying anyone should go down their own personal rabbithole à la certain other critics, but slavishly following what "the crowd" is talking about is nagl x a milli

and yes of course you can ignore what you don't like if you want. we all do it all the time

who is slavishly following what the crowd is talking about? you are so weird

you!

you live in such a bizarre fractured world sometimes dude. yes, i cant believe that i would read a review of what is going to be one of the year's biggest selling records in the genre that i cover in the country's paper of record.

at a certain point, your perspective stops being about go-your-own-way iconoclasm and becomes irresponsible journalism

otm

i thought this posts by tom ewing were smart albeit brief descriptions of drake that i don't see many critics observing in the mad rush to observe how not-hard he is

https://twitter.com/#!/tomewing/status/136823800967856128

https://twitter.com/#!/tomewing/status/136824596463751169

http://www.egotripland.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/TakeOut.jpg

looooool @ "irresponsible journalism"

looool @ the idea of ignoring people you disagree with instead of thinking critically

tend to side w/ deej here... maybe lex doesn't care about the NYT bcuz he's not american? idk

I don't ignore people I disagree with (after all I'm talking to jordan here, right?), I ignore people who are bad, basic writers and thinkers and therefore irrelevant to me. Esp if I don't find the artist they're writing about particularly interesting.

I don't read every Guardian article either!

And I'll reiterate - we ALL do this

Jordan is kinda right re britishness but it's drake who is not a big deal here, not year gray lady

*your

i didn't read carmancia's piece cuz altho i think he's a good writer i've definitely hit take care fatigue. i'll get it to it at some point tho.

take care fatigue meaning reading about the album, not listening to it

caramanica is always worth reading period, even he's really gone to bat for some bullshit in recent years