Sweet baby jesus. The way the interwebs have exploded over the last few hours you'd think God dropped free tickets to heaven, not
Drake dropping his new single "
Over", the first taste we've gotten of the phenom's upcoming "Thank Me Later" album. Like Weezy's "Carter III", this album is going to be so incredibly over-hyped and over-analyzed that it will be impossible to simply like or dislike just the music. Any positive or negative reactions are going be read like endorsement or slams against Drake himself, or, more broadly, the entire Drake empire.
With that said, let's try to put aside all the implications, just for one moment, and actually talk about "Over". It's good. That's it. Just good. The beat, produced by
Boi-1da, is epic during the chorus, but oddly lags during the verses. More importantly, here's some quick reactions to Drake's microphone work:
1) Heavy, heavy use of the elongated pause here, which I think we've conclusively determined was originated by Big Sean.
2) Drake sounds like he's been hanging around Kanye. Shades of Yeezy's "you would think these n-ggas would know me when they really doesn’t" on the intro. Which is fitting considering the "Forever" tie-in.
3) Did he just call Jada Pinkett a bitch? Will Smith will not be pleased.
4) Hold mother of God, did he just flip an extended Dead Prez "Hip-Hop" reference on the second verse?! Sorry, that wasn't supposed to be a question. He did. I couldn't be more surprised if Dead Prez started rhyming about knowing G4 pilots.
5) Overall an impressive performance from Drake. If you're feeling disappointed it's probably because expectations were so crazy high to start off.
Ok there, I think I have it all out of my system. Now have at it. There's really only one rapper who could garner this type of response right now, and that's Drake. "Thank Me Later" is slated for a Spring 2010 release.
By the way, for some completely mystifying reason Drake choose to have the artwork for this song done by a drunken third grader, so I'm boycotting and just rolling with a standard Drake pic. If you really need to see for yourself,
here.
Download "Over" via UserShare
Download "Over" via MediaFire
To hear if it's over before it's even begun, listen to the track below right now.
