Drake. Rap Genius says the album theme is Drake "flexing his ego." He doesn't need to. Isn't he on top? Doesn't he feel secure yet?
His song seems to show an innate insecurity. Jhene Aiko wrote the intro and the hook for it, and it's fawning. She loves herself enough for both people; he needs to stop giving and start taking love. Drake, you're worth it! And he tends to agree. He's always tried so hard with his dad and mom: he's done the work of mending their relationships. By the second verse, when he's listing women he's been with (real women's names in real places in Houston, mind you), it's to the point of bragging. Drake's always put his heart on the line and these women run away. Why is he such a good guy? Why is he so good at love but bad at choosing!? It's okay. Jhene will love herself so he can go back to loving Drake. Baka will show up and let people know they should leave Drake alone/start acting like him.
You know, if this were from Not Drake, I could see it working. If the lead singer from Guster wants to talk about how so many girls have broken his heart, he can. But from Drake, it seems like bragging. "Look at all the hot chicks I've had!" It's not just Drake, either. Taylor Swift is dangerously into Stop Talking About Breakups territory. Lots of these artists feel loss like I do, but their heartbreak is foreign. They've had too many and too much for me to pity them anymore. I don't know why, but sometimes a millionaire with ten thousand adoring fans can't make me empathetic. I can feel for Katy Perry's divorce with Russell Brand, but I can't care about TSwift's latest boy toy abomination (though the songs are just as good). I'll figure out the difference there later.
[Hey, bae. Don't feel like you have to stay; I'm just getting your eyes on me. I'll dance like it's sex if that's what it takes to get you glued to me, sweaty in the pounding music. Slow now--the beat and my heart race ahead.
Hey, let's go. I'm not that girl. I know you aren't just interested in flesh and fresh. Let's go. We'll stagger out, the music still in our blood, jumping with us. You can throw your arms around me and I'll finally feel safe in this evening. I caught you; your eyes are only on me. I'm enough for you. We're caught, bubbles in the still air, waiting to catch against each other: Surface Tension.
But. I feel the thinning of gravity and time and I burst. You're not here with me; you're stuck in your own head, looking at the things you think are important, dusting your trophies and listing your conquests, readying the shelf for my memory.]
I like the last bit of that. It took a long time to get to a point where it was worth writing. I don't know if it's the mood of the song, but I don't feel like it helped. It's too atmospheric to bite, too melancholy to excite, too insistent to fade into my background and become the story I want to write.
I wouldn't buy this, but then: you knew that.
This is one of those times where I disagree but am not sure I can articulate it (like ever) but anyway.
ReplyDeleteI was annoyed with Taylor Swift once, but I really feel she's done some growth. And seriously, "Blank Space"? Parodies herself. And anyway she's come up into being kinda feminist, which I appreciate, and her music is growing and changing, and she's developing friendships and learning to laugh at herself, and anyway I think that's great.
And so the thing is like I kinda read Drake the same way. I mean, maybe it's because he seems to have decent character outside of his music? I mean, I don't follow him super closely, but okay maybe it's just Canada. IDK, but anyway, I read this more as ...
The dude has an opportunity for a new relationship, and the girl is understanding and lovely, and demands little of him, and it'd probably be super nice if he could just get out of his own head and engage with her. But he can't, because he remembers how it never worked out for him in the past, because he doesn't understand exactly what went wrong, because he's never healed, and he doesn't know how.
And the model he has for love is his parents' dysfunctional relationship, how he took his mom's side but is now realizing that his dad's not the terrible person he thought he was, how his mom is scared of being alone. So where is he supposed to go for advice?
She keeps asking what he's afraid of ... he's afraid he'll end up like his parents, that this new thing will end just like everything else has.
So like Baka's all: "IDK what their problem is, but I've seen a lot of stuff, and I know it's important to know yourself." Like ... in my head, that's kinda like saying new relationships never work out until you face the old ones you've never quite recovered from.
I'm seeing what you're saying, but (especially) when you put this in the lens of Fancy, it's just an empowerment ballad: look at what I came from (crap) and look what I am now (money).
ReplyDeleteIt's not the worst way to rap, it's just . . . annoying if you're not a part of it.
Why are we putting it in the lens of "Fancy"?
DeleteEverything in the world is in the lens of Fancy. Obviously. (It's just a prototypical rap? I guess?)
DeleteJanelle wins this one.
ReplyDeleteNO! GASP! It's my blog I have to win.
Delete