By Courtney White
Drake released his highly anticipated latest project, “More Life,” on March 18th, 2017. More Life features artist such as PartyNextDoor, 2 Chainz, Quavo, Kanye West, and a slew of dancehall and Jamaican artists.
More Life album cover.
The first half of what the rapper deems “A Playlist By October Firm” seems to be heavily influenced by Jamaican patois and Afro-Caribbean beats. With the buzz that “One Dance” and “Controlla” received, Drake decided to bombard listeners with more Jamaican influenced tracks that are somewhat not as great as the other two tracks in my opinion.
The song “Passionfruit” seems to be a standout from the playlist. The song describes him and his lover failing to maintain a long distance relationship.
The lyrics “hard at buildin’ trust from a distance. I think we should rule out commitment for now. ‘Cause we’re fallin’ apart,” reminds listeners that Drake never fails to give a realistic and emotional appeal.
For the most part, the first half of the playlist for me is a bit of a cultural appropriated blur. Drake uses Jamaican patois to convey his message throughout the playlist, yet Drake is from Toronto, Canada. To break it down further, that is like a Texas rapper purposely rapping with a New York accent.
Some have argued that Drake has been using this Jamaican influence for years, and may have picked it up in Toronto, but it is unauthentic and corny in my opinion.
The second half of the playlist gets back to hip hop beats and rap.
In the track titled, “Portland” (feat. Quavo and Travis Scott), the rappers talk about their success and never letting anyone “ride your wave”. This is definitely a club-worthy track.
Drake was able to get Kanye West for a feature on a track title “Glow” which describes Drake’s rise from rags to riches. It is also one of the more digestible tracks on the playlist.
Overall, this 22 track playlist was scatter-brained and all over the place. However, since this is being called a playlist, the organization of this project kind of makes sense to a certain degree.
It was too long of a playlist to be considered a solid piece of work. I do not think that this project was one of his bests. For me, it is actually the worst.
Despite what opinions I may have on this project, numbers definitely do not lie. According to his first week sales, “More Life” has moved 505,000 equivalent album units in its first week out. “More Life” also charts the Billboard 200 at No. 1.
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