In February of 2015, Drake surprised everyone when he released If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, an unannounced mixtape made up of 17 tracks and over an hour of material. While the reasons behind its release aren’t entirely certain, with some speculating it was to help Lil Wayne’s contractual agreement with Cash Money Records, what is known is that IYRTITL is easily Drake’s best project to date. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and sold 495,000 copies in its first week. With such huge success, it’s time to look back on the tracks that made this mixtape the pinnacle of Drake’s career thus far.
Energy
Gritty and relentless with hard flows; the second track demonstrates Drake at his most confident, calling out his adversaries of draining him of his energy. Coincidentally, his energy on this track is at its peak, almost sounding out of breath at times. The beat is simple but effective, with the reverbed piano line sounding deep and ominous under Drake’s vocals.
10 Bands
Directly following is ’10 Bands’, a track with a more relaxed Drake and a harder beat, with the bell line underlaying the entire song. On this, Drizzy spits about the money he’s made and the critics continuing to sleep on him as a rapper. He “ain’t trippin’” though, as is repeated on the refrain, and Drake continues to show confidence in himself as a great rapper (and proving it, too).
Jungle
One of the calmer tracks on the mixtape, Drake sings of loving a girl so much that she makes him feel like a baby the way he ‘drools’ over her. He also describes how she’s so wild that she’s ‘from the Jungle’ (hence the title). The hook and instrumental are what make this song, with the former reminding me almost of an early jazz sample with its choice of melody. The instrumental seams comfortably around it, with bouncy sounds of reverb and piano chords that are deep and lush. Out of Drake’s prettier tracks, this is one of the most memorable.
Know Yourself
“Runnin’ through the six with my WOEs“. Easily the most recognizeable line of 2015, it comes from this track and describes how Drake runs the city he’s from, Toronto. The song starts slower and over time gains in momentum as Drake begins going in on top of the changing instrumental. With the beat being very open, Drizzy has plenty of room to spit line after line of braggadocious wordplay.
While this represents only a handful of tracks off of the mixtape, the rest essentially follows the same formula while keeping ideas fresh and inventive; simple, compelling instrumentals with confident Drake flows over top. It may seem cut and dry, but the simplicity is exactly what allows Drake the room to expand himself all over this project in terms of rhymes, personality, and storytelling. It’s an incredible project, and If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late remains as arguably Drake’s best work to date.