Thank Me Later is the debut album from Canadian Rapper Drake,
released on Lil Wayne's Young Money Records label. The album
features guest performances from Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Nicki
Minaj and Alicia Keys among others and includes the single "Find
Your Love".
BBC Review
----------
Drake is the Vampire Weekend of rap–he ticks all the wrong boxes,
especially for a milieu that privileges poverty and strife. He's
a handsome 23-year-old ex-actor from an affluent background who
has effortlessly achieved even greater wealth via music that
utterly refuses to flaunt its street-tough credentials. More
heinous still, Thank Me Later is virtually a concept album about
the loneliness and lovelessness of the successful celebrity, a
sort of sequel to Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak, only more
audaciously dolorous because he's only just started. In fact, as
morose meditations on the miseries of fame go, it comes across
like a rap version of Woody Allen's Stardust Memories or
Deconstructing Harry.
Aubrey Drake Graham doesn't mean much in the UK, managing only a
miserable number 123 for his first single Best I Ever Had late
last year, but in the States he's both cause celebre and bête
noire. He's had several chart hits while Thank Me Later–which
features Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Mary J Blige, Kanye, Timbaland and
his mentor Lil Wayne–has polarised the critics to the extent that
its release prompted the Village Voice to run an article entitled
Why You Hate Drake, And Why You're Wrong About Hating Drake.
The reason for the extreme reactions is the relentless solipsism
evidenced here –Pitchfork's reviewer counted a record number of
first-person pronouns for a rap album–and the sustained mood of
self-pity. "What am I afraid of? / This is supposed to be what
dreams are made of," he asks on The Resistance, wondering, "Am I
wrong for making light of my situation?" On Over he finds himself
in a room with "way too many people... that I didn't know last
year", while on Cece's Interlude he wishes he could go back to
being a simple upper-middle-class undergrad: "I just want what I
can't have," he sighs.
So much for the haters. Thank Me Later has been rapturously
received for its edgily languid sonics. Kayne, Timbaland and
Swizz Beatz contribute, but much comes courtesy of Canadians 40
and Boi-1da, who've created a striking dreamscape for Drake to
wander with his nasal raps and saccharine croon. No wonder there
are shout-outs to everyone from Sade to The xx and Neon Indian on
the sleeve–the atmosphere of sumptuous somnolence is interrupted
by unexpected drum detonations, guitar bursts and keyboard
spikes. This is less chillwave than illwave; Karaoke and The
Resistance are like the loveliest muzak, only tortured and
twisted by Autechre.
And it never lets up. Credit to all concerned for maintaining it
for a whole album, which, if you can buy into Drake's rich-boy
blues, ranks with the year's best.
--Paul Lester
Find more music at the BBC ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/syn//albumreviews/-/music/ ) This link
will take you off in a new window