On Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015 Drake and Atlanta-based Future released a joint mix-tape titled “What a Time to Be Alive.” This is Drake’s sixth attempt at releasing a relevant album that doesn’t repeat the same mundane message: resolving insecurities with material things—and he fails yet again.
Now, in this article Drake is going act as a synecdoche for the entertainment industry as a whole. I understand that he isn’t the only rapper that spews the same superficial garbage to the ears of underdeveloped minds, but he gets the most attention, thus I will address and vilify him.
Remember when Meek Mill accused Drake of not writing his own lyrics and then Drake fired back with a “distrack” that was so fire that even Drake himself was surprised? Man, that was awesome. Rest assured Meek, Drake certainly writes his own bars; no one could possibly sequence such elementary words in this manner:
How can you live with yourself
Haven’t even heard from you
How can you live with yourself
Ungrateful, ungrateful
Your momma be ashamed of you
I haven’t even heard from you, not a single word from you
Ungrateful
I’m too good for you, too good for you
You should go back to a perfect match for you, unstable
I mean is he about to commit domestic violence, or what? That is a sample of Drake’s verse on a new song entitled “Diamonds Dancing” featured on his aforementioned mix-tape.
As a prominent rapper, just like any other role model, he is accordingly vouchsafed the responsibility to guide his audience (supposed young rap fans) in a direction of moral development. He has the power to legitimately shape the social culture of America’s youth, and he takes that opportunity to rap about tangibles, girls, and being the “plug” (which Drake, or Aubrey Graham, never was. He grew up in Forest Hill, the affluent Toronto suburb and was a teen star at 15 years old on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Aubrey has as much street cred as Carlton Banks).
He preaches about “starting from the bottom” and “grinding” so that one can “wake up with diamonds everywhere.” What a sermon. Not only is he addressing the rise from nothing to unfathomable and unrealistic success in this album, but he (and nearly every other mainstream rapper) has been legitimately gushing this delusional message for years.
I understand that it is impressive and inspiring that one can still “make it out the gutta” in today’s America, but is there no more substance to becoming successful than a diamond, a girl, a molly pill, and paying for your “squad” to match your indulgences?
Here is my criticism: Aubrey has talent and has an audience. He has that kind of control over maturing minds—what they think, what they rationalize, and what they aspire to be; he wastes it grossly. I don’t know what the correct message is, or what he should be telling his audience—I am just the critic. However, I do know that he has enough money to spare the futile mix-tape, and that there has to be something more valuable to rap about than relaying to his audience how many “whips” he has.
Today, race tensions are at their highest in decades, the Earth is literally melting all around us, the United States’ GINI Coefficient (income inequality measurement) is higher that Iran, Uganda, and Nigeria’s, and the American political system is being made a mockery by embarrassing candidates like Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. So hey, Aubrey, what a time to be alive, right?