The rise to prominence has been a captivating one for Toronto born, singer, songwriter Drake. Leaving it at that would be an understatement, as the Canadian has hit the world by storm, amounting to at times unparalleled levels of success. Throughout his now seasoned esteemed career, no other artist has managed to muster quite the familiarity with worldwide domination, nor have many managed to stand the test of time and proven to have such a wealth of sustained longevity. And that’s exactly where Drake becomes an enigma. Despite his now incomparable career, the man has never managed to cease public complaint and critical slander. This has seemingly become a more of an obvious trend with each year, managing to bafflingly coincide with even more defiant rises to fame. With the superstars last major original release being the controversial 2018 release ‘Scorpion’, Drake has uncharacteristically stayed low, and away from the charts, only to now unveil his latest body of work ‘Dark Lane Demo Tapes’.
The mixtape wastes no time in setting forth its aspirations to achieve a profoundly dark, grimy, and moody sound palette with its introductory track ‘Deep Pockets’. The production carries the aforementioned through its highlighting of fragmented synths and an understated shimmering, ascending synth melody. The track basks in a sea of chaotic and unpredictable production choices. Whilst these start as a set of unique instrumental choices, they quickly become monotonous and an increasingly difficult to stomach sound due to the sheer raw intensity. Vocally the song is stained with a classic Drake performance, leaning more towards his methodical, conscious sound during the verses. Upon the interception of the chorus, the track is disrupted with the first of many an unflattering sequence of unapologetically lazy performances. Whiny, and repetitive it lacks both character and substance. Lyrically the song only adds to the plethora of tracks in the Drake catalog that are concerned with describing his now-infamous come up from rags to riches. What appears to be a drastic change of pace, unfortunately, unravels as it lifts the guise to expose its blatant conformity to the overused Drake formula.
An increasingly apparent trend within Drakes recent output is the overriding sense of laziness. Album or single, at this point in time Drake almost feels synonymous with the movement of coasting by producing the bare minimum. One song that seemingly idealises this trait is the track ‘Time Flies’. Production-wise, the track features a lifeless synth movement that remains a stagnant, colourless feature throughout the song’s duration, ultimately becoming a feature utilised to fill an otherwise blank void. Drake attempts to bring the track back into focus with his sweet-toned and emotionally vulnerable vocal performance whilst describing a frigid love experience he attempts to piece back together, as he so often does, yet the song feels too far gone with the invasive synths swamping over and consuming everything. Another track that conforms to the uninspired and stripped back Drake ideal is ‘From Florida With Love’. On this occasion, the fault falls to Drakes flat and distanced vocals. His overriding monotone voice screams of being devoid of colour whilst having an inherently deflated sound that kills any and all momentum on the song. Irony plays a large part in this track as the chorus consists solely of Drake exuberantly exclaiming his return, a feature that only adds to the mixtape’s extensive list of misconstrued, distasteful and corny elements that occur throughout the body of work.
Despite the wealth of shortcomings that are ever so consistently spread across the mixtape, Drake undeniably litters sparks of creativity and energy throughout. The first major highlight stems from the bombastic cut, ‘Landed’. Bringing some much-needed energy as a point of contrast to the previously dreary, lifeless, and sluggishly paced batch of tracks, Drake struts his true knack for rapping. Sounding the most invigorated and gritty he has in some time, the lively, bombastic approach is a beacon of colour amongst a body of work that opts to conform and meld into dull sludge. The production matches the sheer energy and in your face nature of Drakes braggadocious rapping. Warped, invasive synths flutter in the background, establishing a sense of organised chaos as they ebb over the top of relentlessly crisp, steel percussion. Everything ties together to meld influences of psychedelic production with boom-bap delivery to deliver what is in fact the most colourful of tracks on the mixtape.
Drake further demonstrates his evident ability to truly craft a highlight on the song ‘Demons’. Ushered in by glorious, grandiose choral vocals the track has an unparalleled sense of intensity and divinity. Buried underneath the raw intensity of the piercing vocals is a bubbling, reverbed bass line that brings a lovely warmth through its low register embellishments. Drake matches the production with a captivatingly equal parts authoritative and gritty performance, adopting a grime approach to his delivery. The track features a pair of unfamiliar faces with the likes of Fivio Foerign and Sosa Geek joining Drake for what feels like his grand ascension. The two on paper may seem like a point of contention with their overly expressive, zany vocals and sparse delivery, yet manage to bring an almost comical and animated relief to the song.
As is to be expected with the release of such prominent artists’ work, the mixtape has its fair share of high profile collaborators. Whilst it isn’t accurate to right off every single performance from a featured artist, its safe to conclude the mixtape sees more than its fair share of unwanted attention. The first track that exposes this lack of chemistry between Drake and the featured artist is ‘Desires’. Merging together the likes of the supposed dynamic duo of Drake and Future, the track struggles to find a middle ground that manages to cohesively fit both of them. Drake takes the reigns of the track, unfortunately splashing out with yet another overly monotone and unexpressive vocal performance. It feels as if Drake were just a distant figure with no means or desire to sound invested. Future on the other hand, whilst present, sticks out like a sore thumb with his intoxicating and overly murky vocals. An element of myself finds mentioning anything further in regards to Future redundant due to his laughably short appearance, out of place when present, forgettable when not, and overall a pointless inclusion to the track. Whilst the eerie, unsettling synths that swamp the production make sense within the grand scheme of the LP, on the track specifically it comes off as a very lazy attempt to maintain a consistent sound. Here more than ever does the production sound stripped back and devoid of creative input. Nothing on the track pops or stands out enough to leave a lasting impact, as it ends up being the worst product after considering all possible outcomes.
Another track that sees the hopeless mismatching of Drake and an outside influence is the long-awaited ‘Pain 1993’. On this occasion, vocal chemistry goes out the window, with the previous example of the forgettable Future being swapped for an unpalatable Playboi Carti appearance. Carti sticks out like a sore thumb with his pitchy, unbearable vocal inflections. Carti, obviously synonymous with his renowned baby voice, fails to find refuge in a sound even he would describe as familiar. It feels as if the novelty of his act has worn off and even he feels like a stranger to it. Flow wise, Drake sacrifices his own efforts in an attempt to conform to a Carti led delivery. It is through an already evident lack of chemistry in which the problem is worsened as the supposed lead artist steps out of a limited comfort zone in order to accommodate for the disaster that follows. At this point in the mixtape, even elements of the production are guilty of recycling tropes. Utilising a now formulaic sequence of dreamy, ebbing synths that feature the occasional ascending, shimmering pinging, it feels as if even the instrumental does the bare minimum to stay alive.
Continuing a largely emphasised pattern within the recent releases within the Drake catalog, the mixtape has more than a few throw-aways. Existing purely to satisfy a market that Drake manages to successfully oversaturate, it feels second nature for each of his eras to welcome a new fad that toys with the virality of his name. ‘Toosie Slide’ stands out among the rest as a song that blatantly adopts its inherent Drakisms. Continuing his streak of uninspired, pop-centric tracks, the song features one of Drakes most comatose, half baked, monotone performances to date. Unfortunately coating the track with this immense sense of boredom, Drake prevents any of the potential from other elements of the track shine. The subtle, dreamy yet triumphant synth melody becomes stale quickly due to its inability to evolve and eventually ends up meshing all too well with Drakes lifeless performance. This song, in particular, feels as if it were born purely to satisfy a trend that capitalises on advertisement from tiktok, dressed with its hook that features a numerous amount of corny dance instructions, Drake once again coasts by doing the bare minimum and thriving through his observation of trends.
The conclusive track on the project feels equally as uninspired and devoid of integral artistic input. ‘War’ sees Drake channeling his inner grime artist, a shtick he fails to conform to, all whilst sounding more corny and clunky than usual. His attempts to switch to the more experienced, gritty tone is done in an attempt to embody the songs implied imagery of war, as the lyrical content sees Drake firing shots at his opposition, whilst reconciling with fellow Canadian artist The Weeknd. Despite his attempts to form a confronting sound, the song struggles to reach a point of genuineness due to the inherent goofiness Drake portrays through his poor rendition of a drill performance. Performing over a poorly mixed and cheaply produced repetitive synth refrain, alongside the traditional lifeless, stock standard percussion, even the instrumental falls short of evoking Drake as the sovereign like figure he builds himself up to be. The song ends up being a poorly misconceived attempt of intimidation, failing on all accounts to be the bombastic terror Drake had hoped it to be. Looking to the greater scope of the mixtape, this cut feels like perhaps the weakest to close on. Lazy in all the worst ways possible as well as being the most distant sound from the bulk of the record, Drake leaves listeners with a lasting sensation of a sour taste with the final moments of the LP.
Drake only feels as if he hinders his progression artistically on ‘Dark Lane Demo Tapes’. Whilst it feels as if he is transitioning back into a form that supported his most critically successful eras, the mixtape is littered with a multitude of the same tropes that plagued his latest commercial releases. Following the spotlight he so persistently chases, the album adds to an extended catalog that finds refuge in this idea of capitalising on pre sustained success rather than striving for artistic progression. By no means does it stick up to the sheer droning intimidation that was his previous body of work, ‘Scorpion’, but this project still manages to miss the mark, yielding highlights few and far between. More than anything, the project feels like a misconceived, incoherent collection of loosies and half baked ideas that perhaps wouldn’t fit onto a more grandiose release from the man. Not much in the way of overly offensive material, whilst simultaneously offering much in the opposite way. This, unfortunately, has become the mindset and general direction of Drake material and given the audience response, it would seem fit for him to continue this trend as he so easily continues to forge his legacy.
Dark Lane Demo Tapes – Drake – 4/10
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