"We Be Out in Silicone, Tryin' to Get Our Billions on"

If you're a Drake fan you've spent the past four days running laps around his new paid mixtape If You're Reading This It's Too Late. Evidently that whole Jungle video he released last week served as a prelude to the dark tone of his new mixtape. For those of you looking for a shiny new studio album, this is not that. It's much more grimy and random like his past legendary mixtape. Rather than talk your ear off about the whole tape, I'll simply list a set of pros and cons.

Pros:

• Most of the songs sound like they have been gathering dust for a while. I list that as a pro because we all remember the youthful exuberance of young Drizzy on his come up.
• The vast majority of the album is produced by Boi-1da and 40.
• It's 95% Drake. If you're a Drake fan, you get a huge dose of him in raw, elemental form.

Cons:

• There's a quality or polish that's absent. Again, if you're expecting a HQ, studio sound, you're going to be disappointed.
• There really aren't many collaborators on the album. If you like the typical star power he brings with him, it's absent here.
• There isn't one song on the mixtape I like better than my least favorite song on So Far Gone. It's an unfair comp, I know, but you understand what I mean when I say it.

To that last point, it's taking me a bit to warm up to the 17 song surprise barrage. Coincidentally enough, if you asked me to pick a favorite on the mixtape, it's bringing up the caboose at track 17. 6 PM in New York fits the mold of his previous freestyles that follow the same naming convention (9 AM in Dallas, 5 AM in Toronto). The beat continues rolling on with a hook nowhere to be found. It's one bar after the next, which Drake excels at when he decides to put it on wax. If You're Reading This It's Too Late may be more of a nostalgic favorite than something we'll put on his mantlepiece when all is said and done, but I'm sucker for a good throwback, so you won't see me complaining...#IYRTITL

Drake - 6 PM in New York (prod by Boi-1da & Mike Zombie)