Drake, The Best I Ever Heard

Throughout the Hip Hop world, there are many names that are recognized. The most common names associated with hip hop music are: Chris Brown, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Wayne, Big Sean, and Drake. These artists are all known for the many great songs they each have produced. One of these artists, however, stands out to me as better than the rest of them. This one man is none other than Drake.

Born Aubrey Drake Graham, Drake is a Canadian recording artist and actor. His fame originally came from his role of Jimmy Brooks on his television series Degrassi: The Next Generation. It was from here his music career started, and in February 2006, Drake released his first mixtape Room for Improvement. In 2007, another mixtape of his was released called Comeback Season, which spawned his first hit single called “Replacement Girl.” 

From here, his career took off. Lil Wayne ended up hearing some of Drake’s music and invited Drake to go on tour with him in Houston. After this, Drake released his third official mixtape, So Far Gone. This contained the songs “Best I Ever Had” and “Successful” and was extremely successful. In fact, “Best I Ever Had” and “Every Girl” by Young Money Entertainment entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and were ranked at positions three and ten respectively. He is the second artist ever to have his first two top ten hits in the same week, with Nelly Furtado being the first (She is also Canadian). Then, on June 29, 2009, Drake signed a record deal with Young Money Entertainment, sealing his name in with all the other great rappers and artists that belong to the label.

Since then, Drake has released one mixtape called Thank Me Later, which premiered the songs “Over” and “Find Your Love”. These two, along with the single “Miss Me” featuring Lil Wayne, became the most popular songs on the album. Thank Me Later also became number one on the Billboard 200 and sold 447,000 records in its first week. Drake is supposed to release his next studio album Take Care in September 2011.

Drake, as well as being a great singer, is also a composer. He has written songs for artists like Alicia Keys (“Unthinkable”) and Jeremih (“I Get Lonely Too”). He also is thought to write his own features and songs, showing his skills and how talented he really is.

From his career, anyone can tell that Drake is a very talented artist, but what is it that makes him so talented? For me, being a good hip hop artist means having everything in a song flow together. Everything from the bass, the beats, and the lyrics; they all must flow and have some sort of pattern. Another reason I like his songs is that he tells about his life experiences, and recommends what he would have done differently in his life. The beats are also very catchy, and they are great to listen to during someone’s free time.

Since Thank Me Later, there has not been another mixtape released. However, there have been some songs released online. I get these songs from HipHopEarly.com, which contains songs that are released before their supposed release date. It’s almost like underground stuff not many people know about. This website has provided me with many of Drake’s more recent songs, like “Baby Come With Me”, and “I’m On One”. I highly recommend these songs because of their unique beats and the superb lyrics. They also are relatively new songs so they will be downloaded continuously over the next few days, which will increase the number of listeners and eventually the number of fans. 

So basically, Drake is the man. He creates his own stuff, as well as helps others out with theirs. He is the present face of hip hop, and I believe that he will remain there for quite some time. Until he comes down from his spot, I will continue to listen to him, but recently I have been looking for new material from him and have come up empty handed. Is there anyone who is as devote a Drake fan as me, and if so is there any new music that he has produced. I am in need of help. Also, my friend Trevor Brancato is an upcoming rapper who sounds like Drake. Most of his music can be found on his T-Rev. Trevor Rap Page on facebook, or on his youtube page, which can be accessed by going to www.youtube.com/user/tbrancato32. Go to his site, you won’t be disappointed.

The History of Music... in America

Since the beginning of civilization, mankind has been creating music. Of course back then, it was either random patterns of beating on a drum, or some chants done at a ceremonial ritual. Whether on purpose or not, it is still music and does have relationship with what people listen to today. Today, however, people are more interested in the beats produced and the genre of music that intrigues them. 

Even though music has progressed over the thousands of years, America made music its own as soon as it arrived. The reasons are many but can be summed up in one sentence. American Music intertwines with aspects of American social and cultural identity, including through social class, race and ethnicity, geography, religion, language,  gender and sexuality. Musical meaning from the United States has mostly come from one main source; however, the relationship between music and race. The African American identity has been a constant theme in this music as well, and has become an integral part of American popular music through blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll, soul, and hip hop. This has since then been incorporated into America by all races of people.

Now in the twenty first century, people listen to all sorts of music with the most popular being hip hop, rap, R&B, and rock and roll. The popularity of these genres depends solely on the interest of the population. For example, I am a fan of hip hop and rap so I like songs that have a good beat and have a meaning that I can identify with. This is only one example so there might be other reasons for the liking of a specific genre of music. So please, give me your reasons for liking the music you like. Don’t be shy, contribute to the blog. Please...

The Power of Music

As I sit here, typing on my mac, trying to think of what I should write about this week. Now usually it takes me a good few minutes, maybe an hour on a bad day, so to pass the time I play my music. It then hits me... I should talk about something with a music oriented theme, so here I go.

In my mind, there is nothing like music. It has so many uses in today’s society. For instance, it is a way for people to convey what they are trying to say without actually saying it or they just don’t want to cause any legal strife. It also is a way for people to say what is going on and asks them to help out the cause. Even background music in movies has a basic idea, which is to show what is going to happen or what is about to happen. It also can be used as a way of foreshadowing what’s about to happen, like if something scary is about to happen an eerie or intense tune comes on.

Apart from all these uses that music can be used for, there is no definite use for music, because there are so many genres. I mean let’s look at them. There is: rap, hip-hop, country, pop, R&B, disco, rock & roll, reggae, electric, metal, and classic. Now I don’t know about anyone else, but that’s a lot of music, and each specific genre sings about certain things. 

Now I don’t really have any musical preference, and I’ll basically listen to anything, except country (not a fan). My favorites, however, are: rap, hip-hop, r&b, and rock. I don’t know why but those are the genres that attract my attention. Now with so many genres there are bound to be different opinions, so I would be delighted if others would post their musical preferences. I don’t judge either, so just say what you like and possibly list some of the songs that you like so I can share your interest in them.

P.S.: A few of the songs that I have found lately that I think are really good are: Look at Me Now by Chris Brown and Uptown by Drake featuring Bun B and Lil’ Wayne (rap); Rocketeer by the Far East Movement, Out of my Head by  Lupe Fiasco featuring Trey Songz, and Young, Wild & Free by Wiz Khalifa featuring Snoop Dogg (hip-hop); and Yeah 3X by Chris Brown (R&B).