[CJ_W]

Ok so, I don't know much about Drake, except that he's a rapper.

But I see lots of Drake Jokes.

I find them funny, but I don't know why I'm laughing.

Anyone care to explain?

[JoyStick]

Because he's a fake like Mark Minter

[CJ_W]

(08-13-2013 04:19 PM)JoyStick Wrote:  

Because he's a fake like Mark Minter

A fake what? A fake Rapper? Does he lip Sync or something?

[The Beast1]

Because he's Jimmy from Degrassi!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRUGovnM3zc

I personally can't stand his voice and on top of that he seems too manufactured for my taste.

[BecomingMachine]

I can enjoy the music totally without respecting him or having to believe anything he has to say. The lyrics could still apply or I could identify without being the god's honest truth.

Rappers are like women. Appreciate that they are fake attention whores, enjoy the feelings they give you as you let them pass, and treat anything they say as if the inane babbling of a small child.

[RCP]

This loosely sums it up:

He tries to act hard and tough but his lyrics contradict that, extraordinarily.

[Bacchus]

'Cuz he makes ho' music

Now, compare the above songs to the following masterpieces of hip-hop.

[CJ_W]

(08-13-2013 05:51 PM)RCP Wrote:  

This loosely sums it up:


He tries to act hard and tough but his lyrics contradict that, extraordinarily.

oh wow that actually makes a lot of sense.

[Bacchus]

More Drake hate:

http://drakethetypeofniggathat.tumblr.com/

[Excelsior]

I'm actually a big fan of Drake's music. Why does he attract a particularly strong brand of hate? There are a few reasons:

1. He was well-off but occasionally tries to front as though he came up rough to fit in with the "street hip-hop" persona. Drake grew up in a nice part of Toronto with the Jewish side of his family and wanted for little, so this gets to people. We all know Drake never started from anything close to a legitimate "bottom", and thus we get a little annoyed when he claims to have done so:

2. Just as he has shown a tendency to try and claim he came up rougher than he has, Drake is also known to claim more toughness than we know he really possesses. He will occasionally speak in a manner designed to associate him with aggressive/violent behavior even though we know he's got nothing to do with any of that and never has had anything to do with that in his life (which, again, was spent primarily in well-to-do Toronto suburbs). A prime example of this was seen in a particular verse of his hit single "Headlines":

Quote:

Tuck my napkin in my shirt, cause I'm just mobbin like that
You know good and well that you don't want a problem like that
You gone make someone around me catch a body like that
No, don't do it, please don't do it
Cause one of us goes in, then we all go through it

In this verse Drake claims to be somewhat of a mobster while also threatening violence, implying that folks should want few problems with him because if they have them "someone will catch a body". We all know Drake is not a mobster/gang kingpin capable of calling in murders. Then he talks about dealing with friends going to prison, another problem Drake is unlikely to have ever dealt with.

I liked Headlines quite a bit, but I see where people are coming from with this critique. it doesn't seem genuine.

3. He occasionally says some verthat women love, but also in his more mainstream club hits. A prime example of this is "No New Friends":

The whole idea of the song is that Drake has his friends and doesn't want to meet anyone new. This is reminiscent of the kind of thing a bunch of cliquey 6th grade girls might run around saying to their classmates in order to isolate girls they don't like and/or make themselves feel more important than they are. Most men are open to meeting cool new people. Girls are the ones who tend to be associated with the kind of bitchy/cliquey behavior exhibited in the lyrics of "No New Friends".

Again, I liked the song (and loved Drake's verse in it), but I concede that it had a feminine cliquish energy to it and understand the critiques. Charlagmagne the God sums up the issue very well in this video:

In summary, as I've been saying, I like Drake. He makes consistently good music, a lot of which has resonated with me on a personal level. Of course, I have noticed that my favorite songs of his (ex: Fear, Dreams Money Can Buy, Look What You've Done) aren't his most popular, and that isn't a coincidence. In his most popular songs, Drake plays to an image that sells and he's very good at it. This earns him some enemies, but it earns him even more money.

[JoyStick]

(08-13-2013 04:22 PM)CJ_W Wrote:  

(08-13-2013 04:19 PM)JoyStick Wrote:  

Because he's a fake like Mark Minter

A fake what? A fake Rapper? Does he lip Sync or something?

His persona is fake. He's a rich Jewish kid trying to portray a thug image.

[scorpion]

Personally I don't like him because he once ran over my toe in his wheelchair.

[TheSlayer]

Agree with what Athlone said although I am not a fan of his music. The truth is I don't really care either way. He actually grew up with his white Jewish mother and lived in one of the richest neighborhoods in Toronto. On top of that, he had a lot of local fame because he was on some stupid show (Degrassi). He has often claimed to be struggling with his mother when he was younger but let me tell you "struggling" people can't afford to live in Forest Hill (Toronto).

[WestIndianArchie]

Insecurity primarily

[DjembaDjemba]

Canadian rapper hate. Drake has a good niche and he's doing well because of that.

[booshala]

(08-13-2013 05:51 PM)RCP Wrote:  

This loosely sums it up:

He tries to act hard and tough but his lyrics contradict that, extraordinarily.

I have no opinion good/bad of Drake but to thread jack a little, I hate this comic Chris D'elia. I went to high school with this asshole and he was the biggest piece of shit. His father was a pretty big TV producer in the 90's and this tool would constantly brag about how rich his family was, and how famous he was going to be all because his father got him a bit role on 90210. He'd piss all over the walls in the bathroom, would slap people in the face out of nowhere, all kinds of ridiculous shit...

I know people change and evolve out of their adolescent and teen years, but I cringe when I see the same laugh and mannerisms in this clip. If he hates Drake this much, I might actually start listening to the guy.

[Excelsior]

Edit to #3:

(08-13-2013 08:03 PM)Athlone McGinnis Wrote:  

3. He occasionally says some very feminine shit. A prime example of this is "No New Friends":

[Cr33pin]

[kosko]

Lol when does Drake try to act hard?

How come nobody clowns lil Wayne for that? Lil Wayne was basically a millionaire at 15 and never lived the street life in full either.

I've said it before that American urban blacks hate on blacks whom are more refined and from a higher class level than them. They hate on drake simply because he speaks well and came from a good background. If you look at his product even if your not a fan, he is talented.

Let's not get it twisted either. He did not enjoy local fame in Toronto. Toronto is the screwface capital and we take love in hating on our own. Drake is popular in Toronto now... But when he was coming everybody hated on him because he was a rich Jewish kid from Forest hill. But dude was paying his dues doing all the grimy stuff starving artisits have to do.

For him to make it where he is as a Canadian rapper people don't understand how tough it is. There is no infrastructure here in Canada, Drake is a self made man carrer wise, I respect that in full.

[LeBeau]

KRS-One pointed out that songs like Kanye's "flashing lights" can be hard to call hip hop in the traditional sense (even though I like the beat for what it is).

Drake is sort of the same way, and similar to Nicki Minaj. Both were doing more actual rapping when they first started, but now it's hard to say how they fit into "hip hop culture".

Like they've transcended to pop star status, and you listen to a song and you gotta ask "okay is this hip hop, RnB, pop? Or why does that beat sound a bit like "EDM" too?"

Yes, gettin' money and materialism has always been a part of hip hop, but literally Drake bases most of his rhymes/videos off that, or emo lovey dovey tracks that appeal to women.

So it's easy to see why he gets accusations of "fakin the funk" as Athlone pointed out.

Also, contrast Drake's vibes to another Canadian success story, Shad, who actually gets props from Common, rather than burns.

Shad has been blowing up the underground, and never tries to front on being hard or "starting from the bottom".

The guy is a Grad student originally from London, Ontario, Canada growing up in a devout Pentecostal family (you can hear echoes of this in his ending verses, and how he flips Jay Z's lines).

Check some real flow:

Also, The guy who wrote the fake Ghostface blog did a pretty funny breakdown of Drake:

Quote:

2. Drake aka the Patron Saint of Tenderness aka the Human Glee Episode aka The Inventor of the Audio Scrunchie aka the Merchant of Cuddles otherwise known as The Wizard of Pause. When son aint travelin the world collectin magic wands n lookin for next level china patterns...you can usually find the boy doin lyrical origami on a track or out rescuin strippers from captivity nahmean. You kno you soft when you feel good bout droppin 10 Gs on a shower head that sprays lavender fragrances n shit. Word is bond...you kno you soft when chicks be showin how to do makeovers on youtube to look like you. You kno you soft when you inspire muthafuckin Zac Efron to get YOLO tatted on his creamy little hand b. You kno you soft when the furry mascots at ball games n shit be askin if they can get pictures wit YOU son. You kno you soft when you got a pink budgie, a baby owl n Aaliyah's face all tatted 5 inches apart from each other on ya back. Son I can keep goin but you should get the point by now...

http://bigghostnahmean.blogspot.ca/2012/...-game.html




All that said, the guy put in serious work to get where he is (25 mill isn't as easy as it used to be), and he always tries to give back and give recognition to Toronto.

I've been told he's a nice dude in person, I'm just not feeling his style/music that much.

[Cr33pin]

[kerouac]

The whole hating Drake thing is pretty much in line with the "cliquey female mentality" everyone seems to despise. Sure, hip hop in the traditional sense is a fusion of poetry and music/beats, but the music Drake makes isn't really even hip hop (in the traditional sense).

His music is music and I think one should appreciate music for the music. This is kind of hypocritical because the verbal nonsense that comes out of Kanye West really pisses me off sometimes--actually all the time-- (because he and his followers actually think what he's saying is "deep"), but I can't help but enjoy the beats. If only someone would mute Kanye's vocal track and put something less annoying in it's place...

Drake is a musician, a pop star, who has a lot of followers. Apparently most kids (and 100-iq adults) don't care about the hypocrisy of his lyrics, but I know I can enjoy the romanticized lyrics of "started from the bottom." Makes me kind of wish I could appreciate that sort of feeling. I can't, but when I listen to it I can't help but wonder what that must be like (to start from the bottom). Maybe we should ask someone like Colin Powell what that's like.

[CJ_W]

(08-13-2013 08:03 PM)Athlone McGinnis Wrote:  

In his most popular songs, Drake plays to an image that sells and he's very good at it. This earns him some enemies, but it earns him even more money.

Ahh ok, kinda funny though, because Rick Ross pretty much does the same thing. . .the dude was a COP before he started rapping. . .

Too bad I can't stand the guys music, but his music videos are great haha.

And about the image and hypocrisy raping etc etc. . .

I don't think you guys know this, but 99% of the songs that artists sing are written by songwriters. I

And about 100% of the songs that reach #1 on the charts, or go platinum etc are written by songwriters. There are actual rules to songwriting(similar to music theory) that these writers follow to guarantee that the demographic they aim for will by their stuff. That and it takes years to hone that craft to be able to write hit songs. its not something everyone can do out of the bat. . .like how someone isn't really a doctor untill they went through all the schooling etc etc etc...

I'm pretty sure rap nowadays is no different.

and the whole being hard thing, everyone knows that's fake for nearly every rapper. especially after tupac and biggie died which is why will smith got popular for a minute, as hip hop was getting "too real" and wanted something clean and non threatening, of course the medium has become corporatized and is pretty much in the hands of the writers for each track.

[Excelsior]

(08-13-2013 11:25 PM)kosko Wrote:  

Lol when does Drake try to act hard?

How come nobody clowns lil Wayne for that? Lil Wayne was basically a millionaire at 15 and never lived the street life in full either.

Just about all rappers are acting these days. Drake simply gets more crap for it because the incongruence is a bit more obvious with him (ex: he was obviously born into an affluent background). Whereas other rappers who are also faking can at least claim to have come from the socio-economic "bottom", Drake cannot. He is more distant from the urban thug narrative than the others, and stands out more as a result.

Quote:

I've said it before that American urban blacks hate on blacks whom are more refined and from a higher class level than them. They hate on drake simply because he speaks well and came from a good background. If you look at his product even if your not a fan, he is talented.

This is true, and its a good point I neglected to mention above. American blacks are very hard on other blacks who do not "act black". As a kid I endured a lot of insults ("oreo", "uncle tom", "traitor", "disgrace to the race") because of the way I spoke. I don't doubt that a lot of the hate Drake gets is tied to this kind of prejudice. A lot of black Americans just think he's "corny" because he doesn't speak like they do or like blacks "should" do.

Regardless, I'm a big Drake fan. None of what I said above should be construed as hate.

[JoyStick]

(08-14-2013 01:14 AM)CJ_W Wrote:  

(08-13-2013 08:03 PM)Athlone McGinnis Wrote:  

In his most popular songs, Drake plays to an image that sells and he's very good at it. This earns him some enemies, but it earns him even more money.

Ahh ok, kinda funny though, because Rick Ross pretty much does the same thing. . .the dude was a COP before he started rapping. . .

he's lame too.