Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Drake Speaks on His Favorite Verse

When I first saw the caption "Drake speaks on his favorite verse" last weekend, I was more than a little curious to see what his choice was and how it aligned with what I thought. Before I speak on it, watch the video of his explanation below...

Can't argue with his choice, there is an uncanny amount of emotional venting on that track that's so real it put him in Marshon Lynch style beast mode on the mic. Anyone ever notice he used two rhyming sounds in the song with the first verse using the hard ō (like in own) and the second banking on a hard ā (like in gain)? I'm a firm believer that the emotional bi-product of adversity can be so inspirational, it can result in truly amazing shit at times. Put it this way, you wouldn't be reading this post right now because I wouldn't have decided to design a blog if my two year relationship that I went all in on didn't end abruptly (#RealTalk), so I can attest to how focusing and harnessing the power of adversity can result in inspiration if pointed in the right direction. And it just so happens Drake used the same energy when he went in the booth and let out the raw emotion explaining the chaos surrounding his life. From the raw energetic delivery to the haunting clap of the beat cooked up by @ovo40, it went from a diamond in the rough track to a standout on one of the best mixtapes in the history of Hip Hop. Song will never have an expiration date in my archives and always own a parking space in my iTunes...#Truth

That wasn't the only interesting video that dropped last week either, as the 17 sec viral Twitvid of @justblaze also hit the blogsphere. Only so much can interest someone in 17 sec (#TWSS), but when @DRDRE insinuates that another album will be coming out on 04/20 as the camera pans to him, people tend to have the patience to watch it...

This was fun for like a day until it was announced by "a rep close to Dr. Dre" that 04/20 wasn't a release date for Detox. Sure it's been damn near a decade long witch hunt with multiple sightings, but with the release of one and a half singles in the past couple months, there seemed to develop a calm before the storm sort of feeling. Ya, I know we've heard this thunder before off in the distance and had our expectations cause anger through immense anticipation, but I think we can all settle on a realistic, we'll believe it when we see it attitude...#KeyserSozeStyle

Also finding it's way on the internet Hip Hop blotter was the birthday of Aaliyah who would have turned 32 last Sunday, Jan 16th. It's more than crazy that she passed away tragically ten whole years ago when she was only 22 years old. Man just think about that, I feel like she made so much great music in so little time and then was taken from us at the drop of a dime. I can still remember back in the day bein' absolutely blown away when I saw the video below:

Man I was only 9 years old when I heard that track and fell in love with it. That song went so hard for a lady R&B singer, it was hard for the fellas to not take notice of he's thug undertones, which were delivered with such melody it was unmistakably different from any other artist at the time. And that's a big reason why she was such a big inspiration to Drake, who needed her to be the pioneer he leaned on to lead by example and instill in him the confidence to do more than just rap. It was interesting to me to hear how he was inspired by her non-gender driven lyrics that were written and delivered in a way that appealed to both men and women at a time where it was strange for a guy to be singing a R&B melody. If you missed it check his open letter to Aaliyah he wrote a year ago...

Evidently @drakkardnoir wasn't the only one who grew up idolizing Dana Haughton either, as @JColeNC also hopped on the cameras provided by SoulCultureUK to open up about the beat he made for Aaliyah when she passed and how he was crushin' on her back in the day...

I'll leave you with one last one of Drake performing Fireworks with Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine live at the Hammerstein Apollo in London. Can't really touch his version with Alicia, but still pretty damn cool...

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