Listen: Drake, If You're Reading This It's Too Late

It seems as though in the last two months or so there’s been a lot of 'Internet Breaking'. For some reason they all seem to involve new music or people getting naked, this doesn’t phase me in the slightest tbh. On the eve of the what was seemingly a period of a few days all about one of hip hop (/fashion)’s other leading men - Mr. Westdashian and all the chaos surrounding his fashion ventures - Drizzy Drake decided to steal the spotlight in a way not many could. Dropping a 17-track mixtape, Drake, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, out of nowhere (or as a keen trick to fast forward his label obligations?), which is tilted to hit half a million downloads in its first week. 

The tape sees The 6God pretty much sticking to his roots, there’s no Kanye-esque style turnaround here. What does stand out though is a crazy refinement of the Drake who has ruled so many mixes/playlists/lives for a decent two years now. Theres a flawless flow over what’s probably the best-produced offering from OVO as of yet - there’s a handful of beat switch ups mid-song that really show off the impeccable cadence.

The other standout feature of the tape is Drake’s self-cementing atop the food chain of rap; gone is the sympathetic (at times whimsical) Drake that took over the market with NWTS, and instead we’re hit with a dude coming with a far more cold-blooded approach. Apart from the cliche tough rapper gun shots to open up the second track Energy, it’s a real nod to his versatility the way the verses are structured. ‘I got rap niggas that I gotta act like I like, but my actin days are over - fuck them niggas for life’. This seems to be the most self indulgent, 'I run this shit' Drake we’ve ever seen. 

Unfortunately, the mediocre at best features via Weezy and PARTYNEXTDOOR came across as a real black mark. While the Wayne sampling on the opening of Spooky slow, swirling banger Star67 is kinda cool, his extended verse on Used To is nothing exciting, and PND is well, terrible.  If Nothing Was The Same was a soundtrack to lying in bed thinking about your ex-girl, IYRTITL is what your Spotify is lacking to get up, get over that ho and take over the world. 

Listen to it below, buy off iTunes here. Drake's headed to Australia next month, playing Future Music Festival and sideshows around the nation. Details below.