Cocky Night in Canada…
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[4.09]
Spencer Ackerman: Last single dropped was “Forever’” Timex/He sounded more mature in an interview/Complex/Like now he’s trying to sound all mid-career/”Who’s Next”/Like you just can’t get him out your system/Valtrex
[4]
Martin Skidmore: The complex production here is very good, switching tone almost shockingly suddenly. I wish it had a better performer over it: he drones through autotuning, then raps stiffly about bitches without any real sense of rhythm or tone. He makes a very good track into a dull one.
[5]
Al Shipley: I would talk about the smug hypocrisy that’s coming out of every pore of this sweaty, overworked monstrosity — the refrain of “I’m doin’ me” on a perfect Kanye pastiche, the paranoia and suspicion regarding all the fake new fans/friends he’s spent the last year diligently courting — but Drake and his apologists would probably spin that as all part of his complex web of contradictions. Fuck him and fuck them.
[2]
Alfred Soto: Awkward chorus aside – he can’t decide whether to drawl or crawl – this is the best demonstration of Drake’s skills I’ve heard yet. Too bad they’re in the service of yet another success-sucks yarn.
[5]
Mallory O’Donnell: This is totally what happens in the age of internets when people go all gooey over somebody before they even have an album out. Utter and complete shite.
[0]
Renato Pagnani: Rappers spit bad lines all the time. Jay-Z once rapped: “Every time I hit the ground up I bounce up like round ball.” But the song that pop fly comes from, “Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)”, is a stone-cold classic. The line even gains a sort of charm within the context of the song, by virtue of an important fact: it’s not surrounded by twenty other clunkers. For every misfire, Hov had ten that hit the target — something that Drake lacks, especially when he’s trying to be a rapper’s rapper. What makes things worse is the way he presents these punchlines as mind-blowing displays of creative wordplay. “Wait, wait, wait! Listen to this one! I can teach you how to speak my language… Rosetta Stone. Get it? Like the computer program! Genius! Yeah, I definitely have other lines just as good that you can have, Wayne!” And it’s a shame, too, because Boi-1da’s beat is shimmery, grandiose opulence that retains a sense of taut snap, and Drake’s widescreen chorus — deceptively a non-factor on first listen — transforms the track into a rousing manifesto with a real sense of purpose and, dare I say it, pathos. The thing is, every time I play the song I end up rapping along with every line, even that stupid Ebert & Roeper joke. And I think that says a lot.
[7]
Anthony Easton: Why do I find this so absurdly, wonderfully, overwhelmingly, beautiful? The melodramatic bits at the end, the way that love is being used to talk about the economy, and not vice versa; something more complicated, it should be so obvious, so not very interesting, but I feel drowned in its need to be needed.
[6]
Alex Ostroff: It starts with an utterly triumphant backing track, built for world conquering, or declaring the arrival of a prizefighter — swirling strings and martial drums, buzzy guitars and blaring trumpets. And then the reedy, nasal voice of Drake enters the fray, throwing feints and jabs about Ebert & Roeper and Visine, but never landing a knockout. Not actively bad, just the lesser of who cares. Drake isn’t enough to completely ruin the track, but he certainly doesn’t improve it. Can I get a remix?
[6]
Ian Mathers: I’d always wondered which was more annoying: a song complaining about being rich and famous or a song boasting about how much better the rich and famous have it than the plebs? Drake manages to cover both bases effortlessly. It turns out the combination is greater than the sum of its parts; I think he’s trying to appear conflicted, but instead he just seems like twice the douche. A chorus that stops the damn track cold every time it comes up doesn’t help matters either.
[3]
Matt Cibula: I honestly don’t know what to make of this song. It is irritating, sure, but in an interesting enough way that I can’t dismiss it; also, I think Drake’s being as honest about his current position in pop culture as a person can be, and that’s pretty admirable.
[7]
John Seroff: Guys, seriously. Seriously though. This is horrible. It’s a bad freestyle. A really bad freestyle. Over a mediocre hook. Seriously. When I hear people extolling the virtues of Drake, when I hear them talking about how he has these “skills” and this “great voice”, I just can’t even… I mean, is this what getting older is? Do you just wake up one day and find that the most popular rapper in the nation is some Canadian who sounds like he just woke up and is stalling for time? Is it me? Have I missed the gestalt shift somewhere and now I’m the one talking about how back in the ’90’s people really TOOK THE TIME TO WRITE A CHORUS and HAD SOMETHING TO SAY and LEARNED TO RAP and everybody rolls their eyes behind their shutter shades? Seriously though guys. None of you better rep for this. This is horrible.
[0]