May 24th, 2010
Is Drake The Best Canadian Hip Hop Performer?
Infrequently do i go out and do this, but I felt like sparking some debate. Given his latest, and even tho, electrifying mixtape drop So Far Gone, Drake has already established himself under the wing of hip hop’s largest star, Weezy, and has received the co-sign from numerous legends and current hip hop studs. For a guy who commenced on Degrassi, the look and the appeal was already there. He threw in a rap voice and some great lyrical ability to just about complete his threat. Is it correct to say that he has got the potential to be, not only the biggest selling Canadian Hip Hop Artist, but simply, the most known Canadian hip hop artist ever?
The fact is this ; I’ve heard more about Drake from the United States than I have from Canada’s own. To assert that any other artist north of the boarder has received as much buzz and expectation for a first album could be unsound compared with Drake. If you look at the most successful Canadian artist, you’ll find some great emcees : Maestro Fresh Wes ( The Godfather of Canadian hip hop ), Saukrates ( Multi-dimensional musical genius ), Kardinal Offishall ( ambassador of Canadian hiphop ), K-os ( simply one of Canada’s premier emcees ). With all of this talent, it may be hard to work out how or what Drake has that should shoot him to the top.
The answer is simple. Lil’Wayne. Drake has not only hip hop’s biggest star at his disposal, but music’s largest star. Whether he makes a decision to ride the coat-tails of Weezy’s success is up to Drake, but it feels like he already has enough of a vibe going with him under Interscope without even putting out an album. With over eighty thousand mixtape downloads of So Far Gone ( with a selection of download links the number might be higher ), I find it terribly hard to say that any of the aforementioned Canadian artists, not to mention an artist of any area code, could pull that off. I continue to remember when he put out 2 joints alongside younger brother ; he was hardly a final thought in spite of his massive amount of potential and talent. Now, the issue is not talking about him and fitting him into that Weezy method of always being a topic of conversation.
Sure, while those previously discussed artists have had tremendous success across the boarder, some fizzed out too shortly ( Maestro ) and some took a bit to get there ( Kardinal ). Drake seems to once have been as loud as ever without ever making any noise. I do not wish to come across like I’m riding this guy ( or take anything away from those Canadian hop hop legends ), I’m sure the ego is probably boosting on the daily, but I think like despite the quality of his music he is going to be on top or at least round the top for a while for reasons that may or may not have anything to do with music.
Canada is stuffed with talent, and if you have spotted, KevinNottingham.com has been hard at work promoting some hip-hop from America Junior, as Homer Simpson calls it. Unfortunately , I will say that Drake doubtless will not have that Canadian Artist- Drake label attached to him for too much time, like how K’naan has been developing in Europe and East Asia and even in parts of the US. The small bit of it all is that if and when Drake does release an album, we will be able to probably expect BET’s countless countdown lists to feature him, for all the girlies to go nuts, and for all of the dominant male hiphop heads to give him his daps. He’s a ton of appeal and will certainly develop amongst even the smallest hip-hop fans, just like his obvious partner in crime, Weezy, has.
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