By KEVIN JACOB
Staff Writer
Welcome all to another amazing edition of Kickin’ It With KJ. This week I won’t be covering much because I haven’t heard a lot of new music lately. The main piece of music I will be going over is of course the album that everyone’s been talking about lately, Nothing Was The Same by the one and only Drake. Let’s get into it.
Drake – Nothing Was The Same – “My Junior and Senior will only get meaner….” That quote is from “The Ride” the final song on Drake’s sophomore effort Take Care which funny enough was one of the first albums I ever reviewed for the Chronicle. It was a great album and really put Drake as one of the best and biggest rappers the genre has offered today. It won a grammy for best Rap Album for christ sake. Now Drake is following up Take Care with “Nothing Was The Same” his junior LP. Let’s be honest whether you love him or hate him you gotta admit he can make one hell of a record.
Nothing Was The Same starts off with “Tuscan Leather” which was a great way to start off the album. With three beat changes and a nice Whitney Houston sample Drake gets right to it and does what he does best. The next track “Furthest Thing” keeps it going with a catchy hook and a beat change that has Drake spitting some of the best bars I’ve heard from him lately in the latter half of the song (That Derrick Rose line is fire).
To put it frankly the whole album is hard. Tracks like “Wu-Tang Forever”, “From Time”, “The Language”, and another favorite “Too Much” are filled with the similar hazy, H-Town production that made Take Care as good as it was. The sound is cleaner and more polished on Nothing Was The Same and it works.
In the end the kid who started from a Canadian teen show is now here, at Rap’s main stage and is a star similar to the ways of Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne. Drake has proved he’s part of rap’s elite with Nothing Was The Same. Drake been keeping and real and he’s still keeping it real. This is one of the best albums I’ve heard all year. Drizzy season has arrived.
Rating: 10/10
Worlds Fair – Bastards of The Party – New York collective Worlds Fair has finally released their full length Bastards of The Party and it was a project I’ve been anticipating for a while. Although I was a bit disappointed at there being only 13 tracks the music more then made up for that. The project sounds like what the “New, New York” should sound like. Gritty Dreamy beats and grimy lyrics lace the project and everything works pretty well.
It’s cohesive, different, and unlike any other project I’ve heard lately other then the Flatbush Zombies tape (more on that later). If you don’t peep the whole tape at least check out the closer “Blacklisted”. Just needs to be heard.
Rating: 7.5/10
Although This may be a bit of a short edition of Kickin’ It next weeks will be a lot longer since a lot more is being released between the 30th and the 1st. Definitely keep out for a bigger piece next week.
