On February 12th, 2015, Drake did a surprise release of his mixtape titled “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late”. I can actually say that in the week and a half that this mixtape has been out it has worked some serious magic on me! The thing that blows my mind is that this isn’t even his real album, the real album does not yet have a release date. This mixtape is seventeen songs of pure genius thoughts and I still can’t rap my mind around it.
Believe it or not, I wasn’t expecting the mixtape to live up to all the hype. In fact, I didn’t really like it when I first listened to it. I think that was partially because I turned off by everyone talking about the album on every form of social media, I just assumed it was going to be mainstream. Well, boy was I wrong. I have this weird thing where I can’t really appreciate music unless it’s playing in my headphones. When I listened to the mixtape with my headphones in I fell in love. The lyrics are just so expertly crafted that I can just sit and listen to the whole album without even feeling it. It takes me away on a journey far away from State College and the stress of real life. Aside from Drake being a lyrical beast, the flows and beats on this mixtape were just unheard of. I want to say that he changed the game but that would be an understatement because I truthfully don’t think anyone else can compete with something so out of the ordinary.
Excuse the N word in the post above, but I found this comment on rapgenius.com and I couldn’t agree more with what this man said. Drake’s release of the mixtape not only showed how he lyrically took over the rap game but he did it logically. He purposely released it right after all of the hype over the amazing new singles that Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, and Big Sean dropped. All of these singles had about a week of fame before Drake decided to kill the game and stop any and all talk about these now seemingly irrelevant songs. Genius.
“I’m on it, I’m like MacGyver, I’m Michael Meyers
I kill careers and cut the lights off, this shit is frightenin
I knew it would end up like this, I’m f*ckin psychic
Young, but I’m makin millions to work the night shift”
– Drake: 6 Man
Last but definitely not least, I just wanted to talk about my absolute favorite song on the entire album called ‘6 Man’. The beat on this song is like nothing I’ve ever heard, and I find it impossible to bump my head to the flow of the song every time I play it (about 15 times a day). The way Drake raps on the beat is just different, it’s like he’s bringing you on the track with him to just vibe to the music. Not to mention the metaphors on this track that were just through the roof. It’s a really fun track to listen to, see for yourself!
http://https://spinrilla.com/songs/249155-drake-6-man