In Defense of Drake 2.0 - Part II

December 2010

Presented in footnotes* by Chris Shaban

“Is Drake Real Hip-Hop?”

“I’m about whatever man, f*ck what they be talkin’ bout, they opinion doesn’t count, we the only that matters owwwwww…. ‘Up All Night’, easily my favourite song on ‘Thank Me Later’”

Okay, so this is the deal. Every time I tried to work on the second part of this article, I’d start by researching, find two or three new pieces of information, have a chuckle, and then stop writing. And not that, “I’ma stop writing now because I want to watch PTI…” kinda stop, more like “Geez, is this really where this article is going?” kinda stop.

If you’ve read any of the other five pieces in this series, you know I think Drake is ill. How ill? Like two drops of Oil Of Oregano under the tongue ill. So obviously the tone for this closing chapter is a little harder for me to hammer out. Fact is, I couldn’t think of how to scribe here without sounding like a hater. So on the shelf it sat like so many Toronto Blue Jays prospects And starting pitchers too… Holy crap, we should just have Tommy John come and be our pitching coach. On top of that, this Shaun Marcum trade isn’t helping anyone right now either. I’m sure as soon as Brett Laurie turns into the new Dustin Pedroia, I’ll see why we did it. Probably sold our ace high to tell you the truth. .

Here comes pops to save the day.

I had a talk with my dad about judgment. Frequently in the Bible, and highlighted perfectly by Jesus in Matthew 7: 3-5 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” And just think, Hip-Hop was built on the exact OPPOSITE position as this, but they all got love for JC. Does anyone even read the Bible anymore?:-( , the idea that someone can rightfully place judgment on another human being is not true. I mean, we can try… and we all do , but the fact that a person made in the image of God, standing at a distance and not walking in another’s shoes, can point out their flaws is a little pretentious to say the least. So, with that in mind, Bobzilla and I came to the conclusion Well, to be totally honest, I came to the conclusion, my dad was just politely putting up with me untangling my judgmental thoughts… okay, maybe not that politely, but I did beat him in Gin Rummy that night, so whatever I did worked. that there is a difference between judging and a truthful statement. Observe:

Let’s say you’re in grade one Read – “First Grade” for the US peeps and you trip a girl on the playground and she falls and scrapes her knee. A truthful statement from a bystander would be. “Hey man, you just tripped that girl and she scraped her knee.” On the other end of the spectrum, a judgmental statement would sound something like, “Hey jerk Even though, chances are very good that it was a jerk move. that was a real jerk move to trip that girl and make her scrape her knee. What are you, some kind of jerk ?”

Using that as the template, and about 4 months late You’d think I was delivering an album or something… , I’m going to attempt to dissect, from a distance, what may be classified as some further missteps by Drizzy, with as little judgment as possible All good writers show both sides of the story… I can’t just be totally one sided and not have any respect for an alternative angle that may have some truth. Wow. That was weird… I just heard Bill O’Reilly’s voice in my head telling me to shut up. . Sadly, I will be without the assistance of long time hater, Ricky Rapper Esq. because he wasn’t cool that this final piece was no longer called the ‘Pawns’ edition. I told him, in hindsight, it sounds too hateriffic But I do want to give a quick shout out to my brain for coming up the ‘Pros & Cons’ – ‘Flows & Pawns’ thing… you know, for a pros & cons style article. I see you brain… Even a broken clock is right twice a day. . Further, I waited too long and the term has now taken on a new meaning for Drake. So without further Badu, here’s what we’re going to do:

First, if you’re a female or you’re a guy with a girl, go to this site, and sign them up.

Second, this piece will look at five items, address them, try to make no particular inference one way or the other but slightly lean one way. Let’s say I’m here to point out the specks, with an eye on the plank…. Literally. Here we go Said in the voice of Michael Bluth… .

Speck 1: Thank Me Later

(Shabby’s internal dialogue) “Okay, so I start on the topic that I need to tread the lightest on. Feel safe Shabs, it’s just you and your MacBook”

When I first heard the album, I was a little surprised to say the least This not sounding judgmental thing is hard. . But I don’t think I was the only one. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I suspected even Drake might have felt a level of regret with the way it turned out. That limb turned into a deeply rooted tree when I saw he had put out a new single two days before the album was released But perhaps more telling is that it was over a week after it had leaked…. . I know he said, “Bout to go Thriller, Mike Jackson on these (rappers)…” but that comparison may have missed the mark as I think MJ was too busy watching his singles top the charts when that album came out to release another song ‘Someone in the Dark’ doesn’t count as he was asked to do that for the ‘E.T’ soundtrack. I’m sure you’ve heard of it…. Stephen Spielberg… Phone Home… etc .

Here’s something else I found unusual. I watched that Better than Good Enough MTV joint PS - I was very impressed with that documentary and it was mad candid for sure. Thing is, I was surprised by how many times I heard Drizzy say he wasn’t interested in record sales or his numbers, I mean, at least that was the inference I was getting. But then, as the album began to creep to that elusive million sold status in the States, he Tweeted that he was platinum about 150,000 units early. Now, to be fair, because I have read quite a number of quips made at Mr. Do Right And Kill Everything about this, he may have been referring to his platinum status in Canada Which is 100,000 units sold, or 10% of our US counterparts… Just like our population… or the fact that the label had tipped him off that they shipped out a million copies, so I didn’t want focus on the “early” part But as you’ll see with my next statement, I also kinda did…. . Thing is, in this information age when people who literally don’t care about how many units you move can’t help but stumble upon these sales figures each week online, then see 842,000, they may think you’re a little off. Either way, if how many albums sold isn’t an issue, then it would seem like a contradiction to Tweet about them, whether it’s accurate or not Please keep in mind that he did still sell a boat load of records and the fact that the amount of albums he’s going to sell in 2010 would be like X 4 if this were 2001. .

Next point: I know Drake had mentioned that leaks would only hurt his album sales if the music was of poor quality, but then he said that the leaks did hurt his album. Thing is, they didn’t seem to slow Eminem down too much. Both had their lead singles produced by Boi-1da and I don’t recall if anyone estimated that Em was going to move 2 million units the first week. So it seems that the real only difference maker is a….

Hit Single

Just to start I’m going to say that ‘Find Your Love’ was one. In my opinion that is an excellent song. It took from The Beatles formula of putting “Love” in the title with a sing along style and making the length of the composition radio friendly. Add in Kanye West on the production, and you’ve got a hit. It was different, but not too different; it was ultra melodic and easy to remember. I really liked the song.

But here’s where I’m going to agree with Tez Bryant I was mega AND ultra surprised he came out and said Drake had no real hit single on the album. The only reason I can imagine coming out and being quoted so candidly was if I told someone to do something that they didn’t do and, in hindsight, doing what I said proved to be the right move. BUT EVEN STILL. Anyway, this was the only section of the article that I had written back in the summer and finding that Tez quote online made me rewrite the whole thing (hence the up to date Cliff Lee section). But I must say I’m glad I found that link because I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one that saw it. Once again, like my opinion matters on the couch of my crib Tweeting no one and sans a status update and, because we’re talking about ‘hits’, I will use my tried and true analogy when speaking on this topic, a starting pitching rotation in baseball Also because songs added to radio are put into ‘rotation’, but I don’t need to get so dence in the main article… I save that for the brave souls that read the footnotes*… ;-) . When the Phillies recently inked Cliff Lee to a long-term agreement, they reacquired one of the most clutch left-handers in the game today. He will no doubt bring a pile of wins to the Phils with that big contract he signed. But he can’t do it all on his own. You see, Philly already has the best pitcher Okay fine, “arguably” the best pitcher… in the baseball in Doc Halladay, and while he makes less dough, he is the ace of the staff. Next up is Cole Hamels. Like Lee, Hamels is a lefty with some amazing stuff, who, in only his second full season, picked up MVP award in both the 2008 NCLS and World Series. Rounding out the stud packed pitching cycle is Roy Oswalt. Acquired at the trade deadline last year from the Astros, Oswalt has a career record of 150 – 83 and would be the ace on over 80% of the teams in the majors today. Anyway, the point here is, you need a full rotation to have a winning team To put it in perspective, if I were playing fantasy baseball against a guy and these four were his starting pitchers, I’d either a) call him a cheater or b) quit the league .

Parallel?

You need to have a full rotation of hit recordSPlural to have a winning album. And while ‘Find Your Love’ played the Cliff Lee role very well, there were no Doc Halladay’s to hang your hat on. There wasn’t even a Cole Hamels on there. There were some Roy Oswalt’s like ‘Up All Night’ and ‘Light Up Shouts to ToneMason on another Grammy nom. By FAR the most underrated production team in the city. ’, but radio isn’t super into those types of joints. I will easily concede that you can make an argument for ‘Fancy’, ‘Over’ and ‘Miss Me’ to potentially crack the rotation. However, my point on those; no one was really afraid when any of those songs stepped to the preverbal mound I didn’t get the memo that “I know way too many people here right now that I didn’t know last year, who the f*ck are y’all?” was the new “Go shortie, it’s your birthday”? And another thing, and this goes to everybody, whatever happened to starting a song with the chorus? I mean, I’m just saying… Big ups to ‘Forever’ and, while important, they act more like Mariano Rivera then CC Sabathia on the album Sorry to switch teams on you guys there…. But Cliff Lee and CC are besties from their days in Cleveland and Jay did call himself the “Mariano of the Marriott”, so I thought it was ‘Hip-Hop Relevant’ . Straight up, and I’m going with my opinion here, ‘Best I Ever Had’ is still far and away the best song Drizzy has done to date Here’s a total reach cause I don’t listen to much radio or have anything to actually back this up, but I bet it’s still one of his better spun records on Canadian radio right now. and that’s what this album was missing.

Lastly, the argument that ‘Find Your Love’ and ‘Over’ still cracked the top 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 is valid and it’s true ‘Miss Me’ did as well, but I’ll explain how that happened in the next section. . I am of the mindset though that Drake’s buzz was so big he could have probably sold a blank disc. I think, at that time, he was in a position to have defecated on the microphone Shouts to L Boogie and still would have had close to the same results.

Here’s another reach; wasn’t this supposed to be a themed album, written with the same rise and fall as a movie script I hope I’m remembering right, but wasn’t ‘Over’ introduced as a “situation” at the Juno’s last year. Seems like it hurt him a lot cause he’s hosting them this year so…………. ? Either way, I’m for sure too dumb to catch the theme.

I’ll let the man himself end this topic with a quote from the interview he did for eTalk on CTV from his Virgin Airways ‘LA to TO’ flight promotion:

’Thank Me Later was very rushed“What? 6+ months wasn’t enough? Was this ‘Dark Side of the Moon'? Were you recording on a two track? Did you not have ProTools? Don’t you live with your engineer? “ Sorry, I promised Ricky Rapper he could have one footnote. “And could you have more Executive Producers on your album next time? I think the doorman at your condo felt left out…” (Shabby pulls out the stun gun)… Sorry again to everyone, he just doesn’t listen sometimes. … it wasn’t the way I would have wanted to do it… I wouldn’t have wanted it to be anything else, but I do also know that I could have delivered a better album.”

Speck 2: Nicki Marriage

Many think this was just a publicity stunt, and I tend to think those people are right. But did you ever stop to think about why they did itProbably not, because you have a life, where as I, on the other hand, don’t until football starts. ? I’m going expand on a hypothesis that I haven’t seen written anywhere, so this is one that I’ll have to own up to.

When the song ‘Miss Me’, featuring Weezy, was released to the public, it received an incredible spike on the charts due in part to both initial album sales and radio stations playing many of the popular album tracks Only the first two singles charted higher and the most logical theory for that would be because it had Wayne on it. PS - That theory is pretty air tight . Due in large part to those two factors the joint debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #15 Sadly, hardly charting at all here in Canada. , which is obviously quite good. Over the subsequent weeks the song began to decline as ‘Find Your Love’ was being worked. I’m sure the camp didn’t fret as no official radio or promotional push had been put behind the song No video shot yet either. . Later that summer confirmation was received that the Lil’ Tunechi assisted track would be the third single off the album and so the media nudge began. Let the good times roll Ou, “Lassier les bon temps rouler!” I remember that from the back of one of my French text books in Grade 8. Here’s a quick story on favourtism for all you smart kids out there (and I mean the actual smart ones) who have a big mouth and get hated on by your teachers. So, in grade 8 we did a project where we had to create a newspaper in French. As a test to see if I really was being hated on, I brought back a copy of a Francophone paper from Montreal. I copied the articles out of it word for word. You couldn’t even front on the grammar. To my teachers credit, I still received an A-. And what did the Teacher’s pet get? An A. So in essence, an 8th grade English speaking student is better at writing in French then Le Presse. Let that be a lesson, teachers are human beings too, and their ability to separate their biases is only as strong as the person themselves. BIG UPS to all the great teachers that challenge and love their students. , right? One small problem, the track wasn’t really gaining much momentum at radio. Why? Folks said Wayne outshined his protégé There were many sites that actually said that, I tend not to agree. I liked both their verses and it actually took me a little longer to catch on to Waynes. . It was argued that it’s because the radio edit was too long at four and a half minutes. Some just flat out said that song wasn’t that good; it was too all over the place, and even the title and verses didn’t match. Anyway you want to look at it, the song never approached repeating it’s earlier success and wasn’t in strong rotation outside of urban radio And with Canada having hardly any urban radio or market for it, the song was totally flat here up north, peaking at #73 .

That brings us to Nicki and the infamous one-day marriage.

So on a bright and sunny summer afternoon, as the story came to be told, Drake and Nicki were bored and wanted to give their Twitter followers something to talk about. All good, it’s not above anyone on the popular social media platform to have a little fun with their fans. So it was decided that Drake and Nicki would tell everyone they were getting married She’s so fine it’s worth it to even just pretend for one day. . Internet goes up in flames, TMZ wonders how they missed the scoop and all immediate family of the two rappers are left scratching their heads.

Alas, to the relief of many men and women, the next day the hoax is revealed and we can all go back to our regularly scheduled lives. Hahaha, burn… good one guys. But wait; let’s go a little deeper. In the 24 hour news world we live in Which is, in and of itself, depressing… Now 24 sports channels, different story completely… I for sure need to know how Darryl Darts and Bennie Billards played in the 1985 UK Classic. Or even how Larry Lumberjack did in the Black & Decker Tree Toss. , combined with the speed in which said news now travels, this became a worldwide story incredibly fast Much faster than anyone bothered to report the fraud after it was revealed as a hoax, that’s for sure. . For the hundreds and possibly thousands of sites that took up some of their server space to RT this story and for all of the on-air disc jockeys that were the first to ‘break the news’, the message was always the same: “Did Drake and Nicki really Tie the Knot?” “Is this Raps New Royal Couple?” “Did Drake really trade in his Playboy ways?” And because everyone is a super sleuth in the our media-heavy world, they were all sure to include one important line they ‘discovered’ that would have seemed like foreshadowing in hindsight:

“I love Nicki Minaj, I told her I’d admit it, I hope one day we get married just to say we f*ckin did it. Which, of course, is a line from the song ‘Miss Me’ ”

And with that, scores of people around the world were reminded that Drake had a song called ‘Miss Me’ and “click here to download it” or you could “stay tuned cause we’re going to play the song after this commercial break.”

Straight up, sick idea, no joke, like SICK idea, only problem was, it would seem that the song just didn’t have the Velcro to stick.

And with that the shortest pop marriage since Britney Spears and the guy from Seinfeld Okay, obviously she didn’t marry anyone from Seinfeld, but the dude she did marry was named Jason Alexander, just like the lovable George Can’tstandya was over with a dud…. I mean, thud.

Speck 3: Live Performance

I know that many people may think that I wrote this section to highlight Drake’s visit to the Jay Leno show, but I made a promise that all I would do was outline suggestions from afar as I have not walked one minute in Drizzy’s shoes The original version of this article had a whole section on this performance, but I’m glad that I took it out. I did have one carry over question that I would like to know the answer to one day. Who thought this was a good move? My friend Andy got crazy vexed at me when I let him read the skelton of this article at his folks crib last August. He’s been on Letterman, Conan, Jimmy Fallon and some other shows so he thought I was suggesting that being on late night was a bad idea. Let me clarify – I’m asking, “who thought that Drake singing on Jay Leno was a good idea?” . I will say this, and then leave it alone. For the next little while, it would be in good taste at live performances to keep the AutoTune all the way turnt up.

See, when our country’s greatest rapper started doing live shows, his biggest issue was looking down and not facing the crowd I have been known to release eye contact when I’m digging into a deep point because a) I don’t like being thrown off by peoples facial expressions while I’m thinking of what to say and b) Sometimes I’m more comfortable that way… Not everyone thinks on the same level . This is not something to mock or whatever; it’s the most basic of issues that artists have when in their early stages of live performing It was a problem for Hov too back in the day . Especially someone like Drake who puts so much honesty and wittiness in his lyrics and, don’t forget, at this time he was really only used to performing on television.

Although it’s still an issue, the crowd facing began to correct itself like Forrest Gump’s legs. However, a few major bad habits bubbled to the surface and just can’t seem to be broken. And while they show up on stage, they also make their way into all aspects of Drake’s ‘performance’ pieces It’s almost worse in music videos .

I’m sorry to say this, and perhaps even sorry to say it this way, but I can’t think of any other variations or analogies. What’s the deal with the scrunched up face? Further, the jumping up and down confuses me. And how bout the hand gestures, like the European football “I didn’t do it” hands in the air or the ‘I’ve found Jesus’ shaking in the right hand?

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

Exhibit D

Exhibit E

I’m going to halt now as I can see this potentially leading into getting unnecessarily critical, so I won’t do that I’ll even tell you a quick personal story to keep it all the way real. When I was on the VJ Search we had 9 huge TV’s behind us that were hooked up to a live video camera off the stage. Anyway, one time it was on me and I was walking and talking, trying to be Joe Cool and I glanced over at the screen, and out loud I blurted, “Holy crap, I look like Mr. Burns”… I guess when I would walk around on stage I would kind of lean hunched over in what can only be described as a protective move, like when someone crosses their arms or blinks too much when they talk to you. Needless to say, I straighten up… In a hurry. . This is very easily correctable, so all of the writers that practice the Dougie in front of the mirror prepping for a night at the club can fall back a touch. But again, truthfully speaking, they’re right, it could use some work Pretty clever how I passed the buck there huh? .

Speck 4: Decision Making

Out of the gate, I’d like to say that this section could be written about every single rapper in the world except for Jay, so you folks can put your stones down for the moment I was thinking about calling this section ‘Nas’… Like that’s it, just ‘Nas’… I think he’s earned it. . Thing is though, even excluding the above three Specks, there have still been a few situations that have made me kinda scrunch my face up and throw my hands in the air like a European footballer I could have put the Jay Leno part here, but I didn’t. But I wanted to, but I didn’t… But, I really could have, but I didn’t… . I’m feelin this article is already a little long as it is Can I get a ‘Duh’ anyone? You, back there with those French braids… and I want to save room for the last part, I’m only going to put 3 points here.

Situation 1: Beat Changes

As most peeps that listen to music know, consciously or not, a great song has a momentum to it. A steady movement, a fluidity that makes you want to keep nodding your head. It’s like the ‘Fly-Wheel Concept’ from Jim Collins book ‘Good to Great’. You may not get it right away, but over a couple of listens, the song just builds and builds and suddenly the volume is cranked all the way up in your car and you’re pulled over for careless driving. The most important thing to remember as an artist is that you don’t want to break that momentum. If you do, you have to start all over again from the beginning, and that’s no fun.

That brings us to the ‘Deuces Remix’.

For better or worse, remixes have been a part of what we began to dub in the 90’s as ‘urban music’ for the majority of its existence. Whether it was the knockout punch given by ‘Flava In Ya Ear’ with its slew of guest features or the “party on down to the Xscape Um, ya, so I watch 4 Television programs, Pardon the Interruption, American Greed, The Office and………….. The Real Housewives of Atlanta. I know, don’t ask. So, you can thank that addiction for the reason that Kandi Burress and her girls made it as an example here. beat” feel that was ‘Just Kickin’ It’, which takes the lyrics from the original song, but switches up the instrumental to keep things interesting.

Now the ‘Deuces Remix’ is an example of the ‘Flava In Ya Ear’ model referenced above where you take a hot beat and have a gang of ill artists jump all over it The good Lord knows it’s not because doing a record with Chris Brown is helping anyone’s career right now. On another note, congrats to Chris Breezy for completing his domestic violence course. . The original song is a perfect example of momentum generating, heat seeking, “you don’t even need to be able to rap and you would sound good on the joint” production Hence why you heard Tyga on this version. HI-OH! .

So after Chris Breezy gets the head nodding going with his opening verse, Drake comes in and the brakes get immediately slammed on the neck snapping. It doesn’t even feel like the song starts again until Kanye verse kicks in More on him later…. . I know 40 produced it, but I’m not going to be one of those cats suggesting that Drizzy always has a similar flow so he needs his in house engineer to adjust the tempos. You wanna put a transition in the song? Sure. But that’s MAX 4 bars, it’s not a whole verse. @drakkardnoir was quoted as saying he did it to make the remix exciting “Thanks to 40 aka Noah aka 4D aka 4Diesel aka Cuarenta for producing my little part on dueces remix. I love when remixes are exciting! October 1, 2010 4:47:46 PM via web” . Well, see, Drake being on such a bangin’ beat is the exciting part, that’s the point of the remix.

Other examples: ‘Fed Up’ and the ‘Lose My Mind’ remix This one’s not that bad… almost more like a transition even, but I just couldn’t think of another song off the top of my head and I’m working on a deadline people. If you have issue, live with the first two, they’re bad enough… ;-)

Situation 2: R&B Album

Okay, first off, if you don’t think that Drizzy writes killer R&B tracks, you need to remove yourself from this conversation right now I know for sure that Alicia Keys and Rihanna would disagree with you. So would Billboard. . Thing is though, Drake, sans the pitch corrector, hasn’t faired all that well on the singing tip. So to be making a whole album now didn’t seem like the smartest decision. Maybe if the album were to be called ‘Adventures in Auto-Tune’, okay, that may work Even, ‘It’s Never Enough…Auto Tune’ .

Going off topic for a quickie, I just think that artists today, with all of the different platforms they have to “get quoted” often say things a little too fast and might not think of what the ramifications can be. Often, the worst that happens is you end up having to take it back and put yourself in a position where fans may wonder whether or not what you say is the truth. At it’s worst though, you may end up saying this or even this, this and this here PS – I’m SO with Kanye on the first one. .

Finally in the end, the smarter decision did prevail. But I guess that raises the question, why even mention it in the first place?

Situation 3: Videos

Let me be the first to say that I’m conservative in everything from my money to my clothes Ever since I wore red Major Damage jeans to school at 12 years old… Wow, did I drop the ball on that one. , so I may not be the most responsible to comment on this topic, but I’m going to give it a shot anyway.

Because, like many others, I have already exhausted all the Baywatch jokes I could think of for Drizzy’s ‘Best I Ever Had’ video Plus, it’s not even available on his Vevo account, so clearly he feels the same way. It will come up again in the next segment when we talk about Kanye. in the fourth piece from last year, so I decided to just leave that one on the rack Alright, so it was only one more. .

Now, I don’t think anyone can argue with the selection of Anthony Mandler as the director for these short films, his resume would shut down Workopolis and he rarely bricks. That said, he was lined up to shoot the videos for ‘Over’, ‘Find Your Love’ and ‘Miss Me’ to help the world forget about the one with the Harlem Globebouncers Hey, you gotta make hay when the sun’s out right? I’m on a role… .

Thing is, something weird must have happened when it came time to bring these treatments to life because, well, they’re not entertaining That was a judgmental statement, I’m sorry. . I’m not even going to say they’re silly and long and hard to follow and ‘Art Deco meets Impressionism in a sort of “what are you doing?” kind of way’. Even the director had to acknowledge the situation. They clearly sailed over the heads of anyone that was even close to the demographic that bought Drake’s album Don’t tell me that Tammy from Wisconsin had any idea what Movado was saying in that video. .

Now the videos totaled about 42 trillion views on YouTube, so it’s clear they were watched by tons of people, but much like the Lauryn Hill quote from ‘Ready or Not’ I used in the first Speck earlier, Drizzy was in a position to befoul and still shutdown the servers at Google’s best acquisition.

Someone must have finally decided to stop the bleeding as the video that was shot for ‘Fancy’ surprisingly, never saw the light of day.

All three of the above situations were nothing that prevented our hometown boy from signing a CN Tower full of endorsement deals, so it’s clear that these are not necessarily hurting his career. I guess the only thing left that could dent the armour would be, well, a championship fight. LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLet’s Get Ready to Rumble……

Speck 5: Was that directed at Moi? Can’t be…

I saved this till last because my guess is that we may stir the pot here, if not for anything but the speculation. Why do I say speculation? Well, it’s because I couldn’t help but feel that I was guessing more than supplying concrete evidence. We’ll see…

Aside from Lil’ Kim That’s still her name right? Kidding. I always have half her catalog on my iPod , I haven’t heard any rappers take a public swipe at Drake. Why? I don’t know really. He’s been the golden boy for like two years and no one, and I’m mean NO ONE, is throwing stones Save for Toronto artist Page, but I'm not sure that joint reached the masses. He certainly did vent his feelings though. P Reign vented back. . So, because the code of the Hip-Hop stars in the upper echelon is to subliminally buck and cover Save for the 2 years when 50 used to be up there of course. He sprayed everything in site. , I’m going to make up a whole bunch of outlandish stuff to try and start some controversy. Hey, it’s eventually got to happen right?

Let’s start with the obvious.

Kanye West

And that’s around the same time your idols become your rivals…

This one is about 14 seconds away from blowing up. I’m pretty sure Mr. West likes Drake as much as a swift kick to the pills. Maybe I’m reading too far into this, but there seems to be an animosity towards our boy from Canada by Windy City’s finest. Try these on.

The Kanye produced, ‘Show Me a Good Time’ is potentially one of the worst songs I’ve heard this year I’d over exaggerate on this but then my point would be lost. I just can’t put into words how quickly I skip this song. I don’t believe it has even one redeeming quality. Like that jerky uncle who is so self-serving and obnoxious that you can’t even be around him, but he does remember your birthday. That’s an example of one redeeming quality. This song doesn’t have that. . That’s not being judgmental, that’s my personal taste, and Drake did pick the song so it’s just as much his fault. I heard somewhere that this may come out as a single and I surely hope it doesn’t. If Yeezy wasn’t trying to sabotage Drizzy’s career by directing ‘Best I Ever Had’ all the way off of television That’s the last one… at least it wasn’t a boob joke, right? , this song was a strong second effort.

That wasn’t a good enough example for you? Well….

Lets say you don’t want to get in a fight with the real tough guy, but you want to send him a message, what should you do? In Hip-Hop, popular opinion suggests you pick someone close to that person and go at them. Duck 40, you might get hit. Maybe Kanye calling out Drake’s right hand man was just a coincidence, and then again, more than likely, maybe it wasn’t. Who knew Boi-1da was the muscle in the click?

Okay, things are heating up now…

I’m not even going to reference the fact that ‘Ye was the only important Universal Music Group rapper Aside from Wayne, who was in jail that wasn’t at the OVO finale in Toronto. I’m sure he wanted to reenter the world on his own accord He was still on the lam from the Taylor Swift incident. . I talked to some industry friends that would have some backend info and they agreed that was the reason he wasn’t there. So, I’ll leave this one alone…. For now.

Lastly, there was a reason that Kanye took Drake off the final version of the song, ‘All of the Lights’. You know, this version. It’s not because Drizzy sounds like Wayne on it either, cause the track sounds like a bad electro version of the Rocky Theme. I’ll let Mr. Graham tell you how he feels about it and you psychologists out there let me know if you sense any defensiveness.

''Kanye's creative process is ever-changing," Drake said in an interview. "We make music differently. I make what comes to me and I hate changing it, whereas 'Ye will change something 30 or 40 times to get it perfect...To each their own, and the change was to put all those people on it, and I [wasn't included]. That's completely okay...I can never sit here and tell you that's not one of my idols, that's not one of my favorite rappers...Whatever energy I've ever felt is irrelevant. When you ask me, 'What do I think of Kanye West,' I'ma always have something positive to say."

On the surface that looks like a normal, “I’ll take the high road” quote, and it is. Cept no one asked him the questions he was answering; he did. The question was “how do you feel about not being on the record?” not “Is Kanye West one of your idols?” or “Is Kanye West one of your favourite rappers” or even “What do you think of Kanye West?” I think the reason that Drake gave the Barry Bonds, “why would I need to take steroids?” style answer I would highly suggest reading ‘Game of Shadows’. After watching Marion Jones’ ‘ESPN 30 for 30’ film, I went to the Shaban Public Library and pulled the book off the shelf. I devoured it in days. is because he knows deep down that Kanye’s been trying to casually punk him. I hope Drizzy quotes Cee-Lo’s hit song title to Yeezy and verbally lays him out.

Thing is, people think Drake has a pretty huge bodyguard that many folks feel is why Kanye won’t say how he really feels, and it’s probably helping with this next guy too.

Eminem

Funny that the first two guys are on ‘Forever’ isn’t it?

Now, I’m not going to write out the monster explanation for this one like I did for ‘Ye because there’s not as much evidence, but there are some subtle hints.

First thing I noticed was the lackluster public exchange between these two guys at the OVO Fest. From never making eye contact to the half slap hug at the end, their body language told the story And the story was short and boring. . Come on Shabby, you’re just over reading-into things. Well, yes, yes I am, that’s my job right now, but I’m also trying to build a case. Next.

Here’s a question I don’t know the answer to… Why did Eminem spit on the ‘Over’ beat and lay down the line:

“Flow so wet, I’ma take this beat tobogganin’, I’m water loggin’ it, pull your verse out the beat and I’m stompin’ it…”

Ouch.

Forget thinking that the rest of the lyrics in the song The one’s not about women of course. are directed at Drizzy Drake.

“Anyone who comes up must go down, might as well go for the gusto now, better not let up, better not let them breathe.”

“Like a leaf stuck in a vaccum y’all, ain’t nothin’ but a whole lot of suckin’ goin on in rap, ya, but I’m home, bad to the bone, back in the zone, let him alone, you don’t wanna go eggin’ him on. It’ll never be my chair that you’re on… other words there’s no heir to the throne”

Hey, he’s talking to somebody Major PS – if you don’t think Eminem is lyrically the best rapper of all time by a wide margin, please wheel this dubplate back till it has sunk into your brain that he is untouchable. .

I’m going to leave this one alone, cause I do feel like I’m reaching a little bit, but in the event this bad boy goes down…. Remember where you heard it first.

Wiz Khalifa

The main reason that Wiz is here, really, is because he’s the only competition that Drake is going to have to face in his weight classEven saying Wiz and Drake are in the same weight class is a Gumby sort of stretch. . I personally don’t think there is any comparison, but there is something about this guy that strikes a nerve amongst those that claim Taylor Gang.

Drake obviously sees something in the Pittsburgh native too or he wouldn’t have asked him to join the ‘Lightdreams and Nightmares Tour’. And Wiz obviously sees something in himself, cause he turned it down. I mean, you can’t front on the young mans reasoning, but this had the potential to open him up to a whole new fan base. You can maybe turn down some rappers, but you may want to say yes to Drizzy. Just a thought.

And how bout the BIG deal we all made about Young Money’s Kevin Durant going on Hot 97 and spitting from a BlackBerry? The guy even had to defend himself. But now, it’s all good for other rappers to do this? Oh, I get it, it’s an iPhone so it’s different.

Just for the sake of the game, this one might be fun. They’ve got a little history now, maybe someone takes a swing.

Kid Cudi, Wale and yes, even his boy J Cole

I know this seems far-fetched, but as soon as one of these guys realizes how much better Drake is than them or the first little breeze of coldness that they feel from him, it’s on.

I think their challenge would go over well too… Kinda like this.

To sum this up quickly in a word, “whocares”.

After reading that you may think Drake’s not going to be entering the Squared Circle anytime soon, but I beg to differ. This genre was built on battles and everyone has had to get down and dirty, so want to make sure you’re fully prepared so you don’t get your Michael Spinks on.

All jokes and stuff aside, back to the original question, Is Drake Real Hip-Hop? Straight up, he’s as real as it gets… The Degrassi alum has done more for rap music in this country in one calendar year than the last twenty combined, and I mean that with no disrespect to our pioneers. Like shoot, he was just named one of the GQ Men of the Year for crying out loud.

Remember, I did this breakdown last year with an eye to the future, so by the time he officially blew up, no one could say I hadn’t laid out criteria. And why? I’ll let the world’s greatest investor and one of our most rational minds tell you:

“I believe in establishing yardsticks prior to the act; retrospectively, almost anything can be made to look good in relations to something or other.” – Warren Buffet

As Jay’s Forbes cover mate so eloquently put it, you have to have a prior benchmark or you can really almost prove anything you want With enough yapping and big words no doubt .

So with that in mind, I’ll wrap this final article on Drizzy up. You may not totally agree with everything he does or how he does it You can include me in that group as sometimes I find myself a touch confused on some decisions, but I’m not there and I don’t know the big picture, so maybe ‘One Day It’ll All Make Sense’…. , but if you don’t give this dude his props, you are a straight up hater and, to me, your opinion is as irrelevant as Wale’s career Sorry Mr. Rozay, I know you’re interested in bringing him to Maybach Music, but I’m about to give you a nod when I slight the guy that started thesmokinggun.com in the next paragraph. I guess I shouldn’t be so tough on Wale, he is a pretty good rapper, but truth is, he has no career coming… I’m sorry, that’s a fact and there’s nothing anyone can do to change that. … and that’s word to everything.

Now that I have put a nail in this topic, let me touch briefly on why I was so sensitive to being judgmental in this piece You know, aside from the fact that we just did P Reign’s tour. . I can say that I don’t really like writing this sort of article. I mean, I do and I don’t. I do because it’s a challenge and I feel like there are people that may learn something new just like I do every time I read an in depth piece. I don’t because I know I could get more RT’s if I made it harsher and clowny because there’s a part of me that enjoys writing that way too. It’s kinda funny and I like making people laugh. But I learned something a long time ago that didn’t sink in with guys like Harvey Levin and William Bastone, if you don’t want it done to you, don’t do it to someone else. Just because someone is a celebrity that doesn’t mean that it’s our right to videotape up their skirt or release the paperwork of their divorce. I know inquiring minds want to know, but intelligent ones don’t.

Shab’s Sidebar: If you haven’t had a chance yet to go and pick up Jay-Z’s ‘Decoded’ since it was released last month, stop everything you’re doing and go right now If you can find it… I hear it’s sold out all over the place. . Maybe it’s cause I’m biased, but a chance to look inside Hova’s mind for $40 is the deal of the century$10 if you download it to your Kindle or iPad. I especially love that he used Footnotes to breakdown his lyrics. I’ve been saying this for years, but it really is the best way to entertain smart people. It’s ultra cool to see other folks using this style of writing, especially on that level.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays F3’s… We’ll see you again in 2011.

To read part 1 click here.