So Far Gone

40 finally released Drake's mixtape some time yesterday. I didn't get to download it until I got home from work, which was about 7 P.M. My opinion about the mixtape? Definitely worth the wait. I wasn't too sure what to expect from Drake this time around, considering he has the ability to switch up his flow. His past 2 mixtapes were completely different from one another. With Room For Improvement, it gave me a SOULFUL vibe. He introduces himself by telling you stories. For example, he informs us what city he reps in the "City is mine" track.  He also let's the listeners know how hard he works with trying to pursue his music career in the "A.M/P.M" track. As well as explaining his past relationships with women in track such as "Come Winter", "Thrill is Gone" and "Special". And if you had doubts about him being a lyrical artist then listen to "Try Harder", "S.T.R.E.S.S", "Video Girl" and "Make Things Right".  

Now as for Comeback Season, while listening to the lyrics you can automatically hear the confidence when he spits. I consider it the RAW mixtape. The reason behind that is because in each and every song he comes hard, disregarding how others feel...telling you how it is while others seems to try to sugarcoat the truth.  Around the time Room For Improvement dropped, a lot of people were eager to hear more from the young artist but there were also a handful of haters. Notice how I say "handful" because majority liked him and liked the music he was making and if you did come across a hater, take note that they probably couldn't like his music due to the fact that he was an actor on a TV show called Degrassi. They would often make jokes about that. I'll say Comeback Season put an end to the haters who thought he wasn't any good because he acts. He addresses the haters in the tracks like "Asthma Team" and "Barry Bonds". While letting people know where he sees himself in the game at that very moments, with tracks like "Where to Now", "Faded" and "Last Hope". He also introduces a new part of himself, the R&B part. Since I was a huge fan of his before he begin to pursue his music career, I was  familiar with the fact that he also sings but a lot of people were shocked as well as impressed with the track called "Bitch is Crazy". Because he received a lot of positive feedback, he recorded another R&B track "Brand New" which became a huge success! And as far as lyrics, instead of being straight forwards with his words in his last mixtape, Drake plays around with them..Creating timeless metaphors that would blow your mind away. 

So Far Gone is without a doubt the HEARTFELT mixtape. He lets us into his world, into his head, into his heart. With track like "Lust for Love", "Successful", "Say What's Real", and "The Calm" he explains his position in the rap game, from finding it hard to get time alone, to having to deal with his mother and her constant habit of worrying about him. Then you have a track called "Houstalantavegas"where he talks about a girl living the fast life and can't seem to leave it. You have a number of tracks talking about his relationships with females, "Let's call it off" which is a sample of another song that I'm not fimiliar with, then  you have "Best I've Ever Heard" which is the best love song I've heard to date from a rapper. The twist about this mixtape is that he doesn't rap all of it, he is also singing! Exploring with different kinds of music, not just your regular hip hop songs. The thing is he actually pulls it off! Way better than Kanye West did. And I promise I'm not being bias just because Drake is my favorite artist. With Drake's songs you can feel that he put a lot of thoughts into his lyrics, whether it was just him rapping or singing or both, there is no difference. He exceeds in both departments. With Ye, not so much. He made catchy hooks but totally lacked meaningful lyrics when it came to the song as a whole...I much rather hear Kanye rap then sing. With Drake, he can do one or the other and I'll still be pleased. 

As far as rating the mixtapes against one another, I truly can't. Though all three CD's are from the same artist listening back to each and every track you'll think differently. He is growing as an artist, approaching different situations and speaking upon it but not losing the ability to wow everyone. I'll say that in So Far Gone he his growing as an artist. Exploring  with new music is hard, especially if people already have this image of you, putting you in a box, not allowing you to spread your wings. Therefore you must do what is expected of you because you don't want to disappoint fans. Drake didn't allow that to happen. He is letting people know that he is not your average rapper...He is a musician. You have to be a talented person to consider yourself a musician...Drake definitely wears that title well.