It’s an album that deals with the problems of fame before fame has really struck, just like Eminem‘s Marshall Mathers LP foresaw the controversy that followed that album’s release. Thank Me Later is built on the idea of paranoia Drake is worried about who is friends are, of how long fame will last and about how money changes things. Lead single Over may feature booming beats and tense strings, but it also houses at least three hooks, the best of which is the telling, “I know way too many people here right now that I didn’t know last year / Who the fuck are y’all”. It helps that the current rap impresario, Lil Wayne, signed him to his own label, Young Money, and that whilst his boss is in prison he’s seen as the torch bearer for rap’s future, both artistically and commercially.Īs with Kanye West – who produces two tracks here – Drake makes hip hop that relies heavily on modern-day R&B as well as adding a huge pop sensibility. Somehow, despite this lack of dubious credibility, Drake has been able to create a massive buzz via one EP, the brilliant So Far Gone.
Yet there’s a general sense that Drake, aka Aubrey Graham, is not what you’d call a likely rap megastar, what with him being a former teen TV star in Canada and having never been shot, a la 50 Cent. At a time when sales of about 10,000 could easily give you a Top 10 album, Thank Me Later is headed for over half a million in its opening week. The title of American rapper Drake’s debut album is a knowing nod to the fact that he may well single-handedly save the American music industry.