Drake had a productive weekend. The Toronto rapper-singer set a September 17 release date for Nothing Was the Same, the follow-up to Take Care (one of SPIN’s 50 Best Albums of 2011). Speaking of Take Care, Drake also posted a video, above, that shows him getting the record’s Grammy for Best Rap Album in the mail and taking shots out of it with his crew, all while wearing a Take Care T-shirt.
It wasn’t all about future releases and past accomplishments, though. Drake also posted four separate tracks, two of which credit him only as a featured artist. The best on early listens is “The Motion,” which is built around spectral post-dubstep — not coincidentally, given that it features SBTRKT guest vocalist Sampha — and sees Drake looking back wistfully and compellingly on a lost love. “Jodeci Freestyle,” despite its R&B-repping conceit, leans more toward audacious hip-hop flow, contrasted with cloud-rap shimmer and packing in guest bars from J. Cole.
The other two tracks both have quotable moments. Drake calls his October’s Very Own label “the new Cash Money, the new Rocafella” on “Over Here,” by OVO crooner PARTYNEXTDOOR. More provocative still is when he jumps on Atlanta trap trio Migos’ “Versace,” and sneers, “I do not fuck with your new shit, my nigga, don’t ask for my take on it.” Hmm, who might care a lot about Grammys? Just throwing that out there.
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