So Far Gone by Drake
In my analysis of Hip-Hop, there is always this fine line that always needs to be redefined: the fan versus the critic. It's hard to do that when you're passionate about something, whether that be music, sports or whatever else you deem as being important to you. Therefore, Drake's So Far Gone stands as a quandary amongst them all, as it decides to blur the personal and the professional in a risky way that, at the time of its release in 2009, wasn't common. The breakout mixtape by the Canadian rapper/crooner is seen as one of the seminal mixtapes in Hip-Hop today as it begins to be called a classic ten years after its release. As it would seem, Drizzy has responded and decided to release the entire album, even with some of the songs whose samples hadn't been cleared for the official Young Money version, on February 14th, a full decade and a day after its first launch. My review will be based on the third - and hopefully final - release of the mixtape with the added bonus of 'Fear' and 'Congratulations.'
Any real analysis of a project should come from whatever stands as its exterior: in our case, that'd be the cover. Iconic in nature, the young person reaching for hearts as they stand on the unstable jenga-like structure of Drake. While it's a flip on an iconic cover of The Economist, it now stands as a very beautiful and almost prophetic representation of Drake's career and the power of this album: standing on shaky ground as rain and hearts fall onto him never too sure if the balance created could vanish at any minute. As well, the entire "mixtape" is a solid 78 minutes, therefore being a long mixtape for what was normally accepted at the time. This album, partly due to its length, helped definitely blur the lines between albums and mixtapes in the Hip-Hop community. Finally, ending our external examination is the analysis of the producers: a young Noah "40" Shebib and Oliver El-Khatib serve as co-executive producers with an impressive list of producers that would blow up or that had already made a name for themselves, including Boi-1da, Diplo, Just Blaze and Kanye West. Damn.
The album starts strong with 'Lust for Life', a poignant track dealing with the perplexity of life with fame while still growing up and finding oneself. The strength of the song comes from its production, which continues on 'Houstantlatavegas' and 'Successful.' It takes a considerable dip in quality with the addition of 'Let's Call It Off', which, while staying in the lyrical context established in the project, the instrumental and sample doesn't work with the overall vibe, but that is remedied with the Houston classic of 'November 18th' as one can never go wrong by sampling Kriss Kross and the Notorious B.I.G. Speaking of which, the sampling is strong on the next song, with Biggie Smalls' 'Big Poppa' being used for the 'Ignorant Shit' sample was superb, which featuring amazing verses Wayne. But Drake continues to supersede any feature on this project, with the Lloyd accompanied "A Night Off" serving as another example of this. But the strength picks in both beat and lyricism in 'Say What's Real' in what serves as the thesis statement for the project so far: fame, women, emotional openness and candor. It's not braggadocious, it's almost painful to listen to - whatever we look for in fame is being destroyed in front of us as the negatives in the studio are being laid out crudely.
However, the mixtape takes an unwarranted and unwanted dip with the Lykke Li remix of 'Little Bit' with a heavy use of auto tuning, just to be saved by the now classic 'Best I Ever Had' and 'Unstoppable.' But while the latter had a strong feature by Lil Wayne, 'Uptown' is even better with the strong verse over the obvious gospel and boom-bap influence. The party stops there though, as the following four songs are softer and slower songs - bringing you to that "post party, pre-melancholy zone" that Drake has been known for years, with tracks like 'Bria's Interlude', 'The Calm', 'Outro' and 'Brand New.' What serves as the best track of them all is 'The Calm' and the worst of the four being 'Bria's Interlude' for the same reason - pacing; one handles it perfectly while the other one doesn't know what it's doing. As for the two bonus tracks, they are fire: 'Congratulations' use the powerful vocals from Coldplay's 'Viva La Vida' in such a satisfying way that it doesn't overpower Drake's naturally softer voice. Finally, 'Fear' serves as many things including a thank you, a warning for fame and a startling realization of the person Drake is becoming.
The mixtape is overall very strong on a lyrical level, borrowing a lot of Lil Wayne's style of turning words and using a secondary or tertiary definition to get his point across. Drake uses metaphors and similes at such a high clip, there doesn't seem any brand or pop culture aspect that isn't touched - adding to the entire idea of relatability. What this project does is mirror whatever Drake was living and make you look at your life and see the similarities, as seen on 'Say What's Real', 'Congratulations' and 'The Calm.' There's truth in there. On the flip side, the strengths of the entire mixtape come from its samples and 40's underwater and super subdued instrumentals. However, they're not always perfect, as some of the songs aren't perfect - the most heavy songs ('Little Bit', 'Let's Call It Off' and 'Bria's Interlude') are the worst on the album due to the heavy handedness on the instrumentation.
In conclusion, I have to give the entire project a very good rating of an 8.5 - it has very few sore spots and is a good project to listen to during both ups and downs. It's powerful and subdued. It gives a lot to the Hip-Hop enthusiast and to the common pop listener: at that time, closing the gap that Drake would arguably destroy for good ten years later with Scorpion. So Far Gone has fared well so far against time, showing that it has aged perfectly and continues to be the flag bearer as to what a good Hip-Hop mixtape should look and sound like.