What do you know, folks. Lil' Wayne, Young Money's Pikachu, is back on the charts with a fresh, new track. And he brought Drake, his Canadian trainee, with him.
If you're wondering what I have against a track with Weezy in it, I'm there with you. This one's tough to peg.
Nothing's wrong with the song structure, which turned out
alright. Actually, it's always sweet when southern rap tracks rise above shoddy
production values. And the lyrics are actually OK this time around--or, at least, most of Wayne's lines are good. And even with
the bad lines, like "all of my riders do not give a fuck, X Games / Guns
turn you boys into pussies, sex change," well, you can't help but laugh
at them and move on. Honestly, folks, if you get angry at Weezy's bad lines at this point, you're thinking too hard.
I think my problem with this track is Drake's involvement in it.
When
I took down Drake's first single
"Over," I didn't know a lot about the guy. When I went back and did the
research, something occurred to me; Drake started up by riding on other
artist's success. The result was a over-hyped debut album, Thank
Me Later, which is full of guest tracks. One of these, Drake's other
single, "Find Your Love," is good because of Kanye's beats. And Drake's
vocals are pretty good, too. Which is odd, because, y'know, where did that raspy voice go? Seems the training wheels have come off and, these days, Drake has to make it on his own.
If
his career trajectory is anything like Eminem--another Great Lakes
artist who started out under a bigger rapper and carries a reluctant
attitude of success--it's gonna be a rough and uneven ride.
My suggestion is that Drake should ditch rapping and stick to singing. Which is weird, because that advice usually goes the other way around. I'll thank Drake later, when he shapes up.
