Ok. Finally finished it:
There's a reason why I don't hold Aubrey in regards to Nas, Hov, and even K-Dot. Their music is timeless. Drake's main issue is he makes music for the moment. None of those tracks have any real staying power. We know what albums like Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint do. We know what Illmatic, Stillmatic, It Was Written do. I could play all of Good kid/maad city and To Pimp A Butterfly right now, and it would still hit just as hard as it did back in 2009 and 2013. None of Aubrey's shit has that feeling. A track here and there stays as a single, but when was the last time he put out an entire project that you could play 12-18 months later? Exactly.
This album will fall right into that trap. True Hip-Pop shit, this is. And unless I plan on spending 90% of the next three months either in my car or in the club, this album will wear off real quick.
It did start off with a fury of bars on "Champagne Poetry" and even "Papi's Home" (even if this arrogance is horribly misguided), but then it loses luster. Girls Wants Girls even with Lil' B, is skippable. So is In the Bible. Mostly because these beats are mind-numblingly repetitive. Even "Love All" with Hov gets a bit irritating. Way 2 Sexy is hilarious, so I'll let that one ride. Like I said, I respect that "Get Throwed" sample on the first part of "N 2 Deep." Pipe Down is meh. Now, he does get some redeeming points for "No Friends", "Knife Talk", and the Ye-directed "7AM on Bridle Path." Outside of the standout track "You Only Live Twice", most of the lyrics and the beats are forgettable, and really don't do much.
Scores:
Lyricism - 8/10
Production - 5/10
Album Cohesiveness - 9/10
Replay Value - 4/10
Overall: 6.5/10
Look man: it's hard to deny what influence this dude has on the new generation, but it's even harder to crown this guy King of Hip-Hop when album sales are his greatest selling point. That makes him more LL Cool J than Biggie. And that's his lane: he's a musical superstar; almost like a male Taylor Swift at this point. However, in the lane of Bars and Beats, this jawn simply doesn't hold up. I suspect the world will do what it always does with a Drake album: praise it the first two weeks, reference it the next month, then two months later, you might hear 2-3 songs on the radio and that's it.
I cannot, in good conscience, give the title of "best Hip-Hop artist" to someone who makes throwaway club music for 85% of their catalogue. Call me an old head, call me a snob, call me a lame even.....but make you check the other artists with their names etched in the Top 10 all time. Then tell me their music didn't transcend time and the culture. Until Aubs does this, he can be the single King....but that's the only crown he's getting. There's waaaaaaay too much filler here, which is the story of Aubs's albums, and the story of Certified Lover Boy.
In the battle of Donda vs. Certified Lover Boy, the winner is.........King's Disease II.
Favorite Tracks: Champagne Poetry, You Only Live Twice, No Friends In the Industry
