I Changed My Mind

A few months ago, we got new blood in the commercial end of the Hip Hop world. I say commercial because believe it or not, there is a bit of difference between the street and industry standards. In the streets without the industry pushing what the standard is in their eyes, I dont know how how much of the music that we listen to we would really embrace as good Hip Hop music. I don't particularly care for the 50 Cent singles that make the money and drive album sales, but whenever I'm in New Jersey/New York I see why he and the crew keep a following. It's because they keep the streets happy with bangin' mixtapes. That's one example of the difference. Nevermind what you might've thought people still have alot of love for the G-Unit there.

Without me knowing, Drake seems to have won many people over (in and out of the industry)with his slew of mixtapes. I first heard of him in the same fashion of the suburban dude who first heard Too Short "Born to Mack" in 1989. If you didn't catch it, the album came out a few years before. At any rate, I was late because "Best I Ever Had" was on the radio (not video yet) and I was like "it's alright" he seems to be consistent with his flow but he sounds like a cross between Wayne and Kanye. Later, I found that I'm the only person that I know who shared the thought. I heard more and more of the song and his name. I wondered "Who is this dude?". After I found out that he was affiliated with Lil' Wayne I thought maybe that is the reason for all of the hype because I just didn't see it. I asked my 19 year old brother in law and he just shrugged his shoulder with his head to the side saying "Dude is nice". I suppose at that point with him saying it so plainly, I just had to wait to see what he was talking about.

Fast forward a few weeks. I'm driving through Tampa and I hear "Successful" which gave me a second chance to be open and hear the man out. This time, I left behind the affiliations and Degrassi fame which could have been hard to overcome. The Hip Hop community is a little tough on a person without a rags to riches story. Or, I would imagine a story that involves Nickelodeon. But in all fairness, the tough guy background doesn't REALLY make a difference and he was able to make his way through the nonsense. I thought they guy just had good wordplay to put it in basic terms. I like all styles of Hip Hop but this was something for the regular dude; that's the guy who get's left out all too often because of being overshadowed by the black Bill Gates characters. Character's being the key word. At that point, I was able to really listen to the man in a non-judgemental way.

Since that Tampa trip, everything that I've heard from Drake has been solid and quite honestly damned good. I just heard "Forever" with him Kanye West, Lil' Wayne, and Eminem. With that lineup and Drake being up to bat first, it would have been easy to be lost in the mix but that didn't happen. No, I haven't gotten the album at this time but I don't think it would be a bad purchase. He's convinced me that there is more good music to come and I'm interested in listening. Like my brother in law said "Dude is nice" and I've changed my mind.
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