Drake’s “Nothing Was the Same” Was the Album of 2013, Here’s Why… Posted by Nathan S. on 12/05/13 | Filed under Top Stories, Opinion, Debates, Drake, Kanye West

There are times when I throw things out in an article, in the comments or on Twitter that I consider to be the equivalanet of "Water is wet/the sun is hot/Rick Ross has man titties." As much as we love to debate, those aren't debates. Those are just facts. When I was talking to Lucas about the "Rolling Stone" list I said Drake's "Nothing Was the Same" would go down as 2013's most culturally influential album, and to be honest I didn't really think much of it. It just seemed like a fact.  

But then the comments/tweets started pouring in arguing that water was, in fact, not wet, and it forced me to really think this through again. So fuck it, let's do this thing full on. Here's where I'm coming from...

Every year there's an album that ends up being the year's most memorable and culturally influential. It's the album that gets quoted the most, talked about the most; when a song from that album comes on in ten years, you'll instantly remember the time period when it came out. You can't really talk about that year without talking about that album. And for the record, when I say "culture" I really just mean hip-hop culture (which, to an extent, is mainstream American culture). The Arcade Fire album or Vampire Weekend album or something might have had a huge impact, I'm as a full-time hip-hop writer I'm just not particularly in that culture, so it's much harder for me to judge.    

Yesterday in the car "Niggas in Paris" came on and I was instantly taken back to 2012. Just the first few notes and that entire time period came rushing back to me: sitting in LA traffic debating with my homie about "Watch the Throne", the daily watch to see how many times YeHova performed it in concert. I guarantee that if you gathered any random assortment of 100 hip-hop fans and said, "Ball so hard...", all 100 of them would answer back "motherfuckers wanna fine me". Now that's influence, that's impact. 

It made me realize...holy shit...I didn't particularly like "Watch the Throne" as an album, but almost two years later, in retrospect, "Niggas in Paris" was the song of 2012. And if that was true for 2012 and "Niggas in Paris", what songs and albums is it true for in 2013? On a gut level, it just felt like it had to be "Nothing Was the Same". 

How many jokes and memes were made about "Nothing Was the Same"? How many articles posted? How many trending topics? How many albums sales and video views and radio spins (more on that later)? Again, if you took 100 random hip-hop fans from America, more of them would be dressed like Drake circa "Nothing Was the Same" than anything else. If I said "Started from the bottom...." I guarantee all 100 of that same random assortment would be able to respond "...now we here", even the dudes who wouldn't be caught dead listening to "Nothing Was the Same". Now that's cultural influence. Now that's impact.  

Disclaimer Time: 

I've already had this argument on Twitter so many times I know it's going to be the main sticking point. And I also know that no matter how many times I say it, people are still going to ignore me and argue it anyway. Maybe if I put it in all caps. MOST INFLUENTIAL IS NOT THE SAME AS BEST. Nope, folks still won't read it. Oh well, at least I can say I wrote it, and we'll tackle the topic again - right, about, now...

The Yeezus Argument: 

Judging by the comments and the Twittersphere, the only real contender to "Nothing Was the Same" in 2013 is "Yeezus". As much fun as it would be for me to say "Yeezus" was terrible and argue against it, I don't think that's crazy by any means. As a cultural force "Yeezus" was huge; and if I look back in five years and it turns out I was wrong about "NWTS", that probably means "Yeezus" won out. But still, right now, I have "NWTS".

(Side note to the Cole fans I know are losing their shit reading this. I don't agree 100%, but if you want I'll happily give you that "Born Sinner" was a "better" album than "NWTS" and "Yeezus". It still didn't have nearly the same impact and influence though. That's a water is wet fact.)

Now, I don't think "Nothing Was the Same" was a terrible album, I really enjoyed it. By the same token by no means do I hate "Yeezus", in a lot of ways I respect it. The "is NWTS a better album than Yeezus?" discussion is a discussion, but it's not this discussion. Here are the reasons I'm bumping "Yeezus" down to the number two slot in terms of cultural impact and influence:

Interviews Over Albums/The Numbers

As I've written about, Kanye's interview spree has become almost an album to itself. In fact, I'm willing to say that those interviews have had a bigger cultural impact on hip-hop than "Yeezus" the actual album. If Kanye just drops the album and stops there, "Yeezus" largely goes down in history as Kanye's creatively out-there commercial flop, instead of one of the most important artistic works of the new millenia. Ye's really swung the discussion around the album to his side, and that's a credit to him. 

But that doesn't change the fact that just not that many people listened to "Yeezus", relatively speaking. And yes, that's an actual numerical fact. "NWTS" has sold almost double the sales of "Yeezus". Drake's most popular video off "NWTS", "Started From the Bottom", has 100 million views. Kanye's most popular video off "Yeezus", "Bound 2", has 15 million. I'm not going to get sucked into debates around marketing plans and release dates, ultimately the fact is that a lot more people have listened to Drake's album than Kanye's, both as an entire album and as individuals songss. A lot. That's a mathematical fact. 

And yes, if this was a "best" discussion those numbers wouldn't really matter, but if we're talking influence and impact, they absolutely do. As I was talking to @bonafideterror about, even if I give you that "NWTS" is McDonald's, bland and lacking nutrients, while "Yeezus" is a raw kale salad, beyond the norm and great for you, that doesn't change the fact that far more people will eat a burger today than a kale salad. It may not be a good thing, it may even be a bad thing, but McDonald's has a far bigger influence on the American diet than anything else. 

It seems like what "Yeezus" supporters are banking on is that over the long term "Yeezus" will prove its influence more indirectly and subtly, by pushing the limits of what a major hip-hop can sound like (similiar to "808s" opening the door for hip-pop). I'm not so sure if that will prove to be the case, Kanye conciously made this album to be hard to digest and copy, but right now there are a lot more rappers trying to sound like Drake than Kanye. Again, that's because it's so much easier to sound like Drake, or at least delusionally think they can, but that's exactly what's made Drake more culturally influential in 2013. 

Ultimately, I thing the best thing to remember is that RefinedHype Nation is not normal. We're not average. The average person doesn't read articles like this, they don't have months-long debates about "Yeezus" artistic merits. They don't think that deeply...they just play "Worst Behavior" over and over again until they've memorized every word.

In fact, maybe that's the best test. I guarantee there are more people in America who've memorized every word of "NWTS" than any other album in 2013. Now that's impact, that's influence.

And if folks really want to box it out in the comments over this, I'll put on my gloves. Here, hold my phone.