Drake Opens Up and Gets Down

After a long day on the work grind, curl up on the couch with a glass of wine and consider unwinding to the smooth tunes of Drake. Yes, Drake. The rapper who helped coin the phrase of our generation, “YOLO,” and who has an uncanny ability to rhyme “record” with “record” has put out an album of dense, emotional tracks that show he has a soul. Though punctuated with obnoxious, monotonous drunk anthems, “Nothing Was The Same” is a nostalgic, slightly depressing call to maturity.

The party songs, many of which have already been released as singles, are “Started From the Bottom,” “Wu-Tang Forever,” and “Worst Behavior.” Their placement in the tracklist is impressive in its consistent derailment of the album’s momentum. Such sophisticated lyricism as “And like a potluck, you need to come with it” or the occasional sage advice, “Fuck a fake friend, where your real friends at?” are spaced perfectly to interrupt the flow of the album and confuse the listener.

But this album, despite the poorly placed moments of bombast, is an evolution for the rapper toward something much more emotionally complex. Since his debut album “Thank Me Later,” Drake’s gone mainstream with some overplayed radio favorites (“Forever” and “Take Care” to name a couple). Not to say that mainstream Drake is bad, but mainstream Drake is bad. In this respect, however, “Nothing Was The Same” lives up to its name as Drake turns his attention from party anthems to soul-searching tunes. It seems Drake has begun collaborating with the Weeknd again, according to his Instagram, and “Nothing Was The Same” has undertones of emotional exploration and musical experimentation that could be related to this renewed partnership.

Though “indie Drake” sounds impossible, this album has a rich, contradictory tone. From the slow-grind, post-break up vibes of “From Time” to the Daft Punk-esque grooves of “Hold on, We’re Going Home,” this album is a rollercoaster ride of emotions.

But maybe that’s the point. “Nothing Was The Same” is a cry to the past—a desperate and confused plea to lost loves and missed opportunities. While Drake can’t let go of his ego, name-dropping designers in nearly every song, he’s reaching to a darker, more sensitive side with this album.

Drake’s never been this honest, and frankly, it’s refreshing. “HYFR” from the last album had enough egotism for a career, and the rapper is finally rapping on topics other than being a rapper. On the intimate “From Time,” Drake opens up about his long-estranged father (“I’ve been dealing with my dad, speakin’ of lack of patience / Just me and my old man gettin’ back to basics”) and every relationship in between (“Darling you, you give but you cannot take love”), showing a more human side to the fame.

The rapping is clean, and Drake’s delivery is impressive. Drake tends toward clichés, and some lines seems as useless as they are silly. Even when he spits, “I remember when my schedule was as flexible as she is,” on “Connect,” his precision of delivery makes up for the subpar similes. Drake particularly holds his ground in “Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music 2”—which features Jay Z and stands as one of the highlights of this record—when he says: “Took a while, got the jokers out of the deck now / I’m holding all the cards and niggas wanna play chess now.”

Along with Drake’s delivery, the record’s production is prime. The jazzy piano in “From Time” perfectly complements the song’s nostalgic tone and is echoed in “Wu-Tang Forever,” which samples Zodiac’s “Loss Config,” creating a cohesive, sophisticated feel. Even “Worst Behavior,” featuring some of the lamest lyrics on the record (“Who’s hot, who not / Tell me who rock”), has a sick beat and impressive production from DJ Dahi.

“Nothing Was The Same” is a raw portrayal of Drake he’s never shown before, despite the obnoxious insertion of a few crowd-pleasing hits. The more mainstream fans will be shouting “Started From the Bottom” all night long, while the mellower crowd will appreciate the curl-up-on-the-couch ease of the majority of this album—while having to skip over those few bombastic tracks. If the final song on the deluxe edition, “All Me,” is any indication, Drake is here to stay, as he likes to emphasize—a lot. But rest assured, the rapper has a soft side.