Sach O actually had to listen to that Drake song several times to write this post.
Drake’s “Over: is easily the most pompously bombastic rap song since :Empire State of Mind: and may well signal the codification of “Arena rap” as the major labels’ latest and saddest strategy to wring every last dollar out of Hip-Hop. The overbearing sound of a song that’ll be successful by default, the beat manages to suck every last bit of funkiness from its instrumentation opting instead for grandstanding, epic, Hans Zimmer-sized pyrotechnics. Taking Hip-Hop’s 70’s fetish to its illogical conclusion, we’ve now reached a point where producers supersize the sound past prog until it’s so disconnected from the street-oriented bedroom beats that birthed it that one wonders why we haven’t come up with a new genre tag. Drake’s rhymes don’t help either: while he has an undeniable talent for crafting earworm hooks, he’s all-swag and no cattle. Or to put it bluntly: he’s not nearly as good on the mic as he thinks he is.
Perhaps the song’s most annoying characteristic is its peculiar mix of arrogance, insecurity, earnestness and calculation. It somehow manages to be annoying in two completely opposite ways at once. Drake desperately wants you to take him seriously as a rapper but also wants every performance to appear effortless. He’s got the arrogance of a high school quarterback but also the whininess of an emo kid. He’s from Toronto but raps with a southern twang. Like Ben Affleck’s fashionable male in Mall Rats, any guy with an ounce of sense can smell his smarmy incongruence a mile away but women fall for his shtick like clockwork. And all of my kvetching is for naught: this will be the sound of a 1000 graduation parties as drunken frat-boys self-identify with the song’s nauseating combination of entitlement, victimhood, triumph and self-affirmation. Run while you still can and turn off the motherfuckin radio, this Garbage will be on it all summer – Queer*.
***
If “Over” goes for sentimentalist grandiosity, Drake’s Young Money label mate Nicki Minaj goes the opposite route on the up-tempo club-banger “Massive Attack” and what do you know…it’s a really dope song. Combining the best impulses of Missy Elliot, M.I.A and Santogold, Minaj proves that she’s more than Lil Wayne’s token female artist here, delivering rap’s first genuinely exciting dance floor anthem in a minute. It helps that she’s backed by a beat worthy of the song’s critic baiting namesake: a percussive explosion of fire-drill synths and off-beat drums that reverses Dubstep’s half-step trick to make the song’s 85 beats per minute feel like an accelerated 170 without making things un-rap-able. Produced by Londoner Alex da Kid, the track re-imagines Tricky and Goldie’s 90’s darkness and paranoia as pop music filtered through the mind of a teenager too young to experience it the first time around. The closest point of comparison is some of the darker moments on Rihanna’s last album but those didn’t carry nearly this much momentum.
As for Minaj’s rapping, while she probably shouldn’t attempt a self-consciously serious song, her cartoony zaniness shines at this tempo. So far, the top grief against her has been the robotic plasticity of her flow but here she uses its liquid shiftiness to her advantage switching from a faux-Caribbean patois to her best Lil Kim impression to her valley-girl shtick and back without missing a beat. When she growls the song’s title at the end of the bridge, it’s hard not to get swept up in the excitement and that’s the key element: Massive Attack is high energy making it an immediate standout in a rap-era where everyone is too cool lose their shit on a track or on the dance floor. In an ideal world, this’ll come with a remix featuring Busta Rhymes and Luda. Who knows if Minaj’s upcoming album will reprise this sort of zany off-the-wall creativity or if this is a red herring, but while she may not be much as a pure rapper, she won’t have to be if she can pull off fun, inventive songs like this on a regular basis.
Download:
MP3: Nikki Minaj ft. Sean Garrett – “Massive Attack”
18 comments
dronkmunk says:
April 1, 2010 at 9:51 am (UTC -7)
April fools? Right?
Sach says:
April 1, 2010 at 11:17 am (UTC -7)
Nah, that would have been too much effort for an April fools joke. Actually serious.
forplay says:
April 1, 2010 at 1:12 pm (UTC -7)
Spot on!
Drake = all fart and no poo!
b says:
April 1, 2010 at 1:29 pm (UTC -7)
I think you were listening to too much drake before you listened to nicki. too much drake would make oj da juiceman look like the second coming of scarface.
seriously, please say APRIL FOOLS! my mind needs to know your not turning retarded.
DocZeus says:
April 1, 2010 at 3:45 pm (UTC -7)
I contend Drake is simply operating in the wrong frame of genre. He should be making be 808ish sad sack pop R&B. Instead, he keeps insisting that he’s an actual rapper. No. You were on Degrassi.
Random says:
April 1, 2010 at 3:49 pm (UTC -7)
The Drake song is OVER-rated, Nicki is garbage she’s just a masterbatory tool for teens.
Tray says:
April 1, 2010 at 4:19 pm (UTC -7)
Who are these people overrating the Drake song? I’ve seen Pitchfork say nice things about Drake, I imagine something really mainstream like Rolling Stone would, but everybody who actually cares about rap is not making this mistake.
Sach says:
April 1, 2010 at 4:40 pm (UTC -7)
If the Nicki song was tagged “Missy Elliot” everyone would hail it as a grand return to form for an avant-guard pop star. Seriously.
I knew this wasn’t necessarily going to go over well but I’m sticking to my guns here: it’s a good song that doesn’t sound like anything else out there and I’m gonna give her credit where credit is due. If anyone wants to suggest a more energetic/original club single at the moment by a mainstream US rapper, I’ll gladly check it out as well.
Trey Stone says:
April 1, 2010 at 11:36 pm (UTC -7)
i don’t really get what your argument is Doc. i mean i guess i see it in “well this guy hasn’t struggled to get to where he is so he can’t bitch that much” but otherwise why does the Degrassi deal matter?
not defending the guy either, don’t think he’s wack but he’s a vanilla Wayne for white girls and his mixtape production’s airy Kanye knockoff ish. although I do dig that Timbaland collabo, but then i’m predictable like that
Tray says:
April 3, 2010 at 11:31 pm (UTC -7)
Now that I’ve heard Massive Attack I have to say, no it doesn’t sound like anything else out there but I don’t think that what Nicki does on it is too interesting and the whole thing to me is sort of a mess. Of course it’s a lot better/at least trying to do something interesting than theDrake song.
bding7 says:
April 4, 2010 at 12:08 pm (UTC -7)
I want to roll w/ Sach on Massive Attack (i downloaded it, after all), but I’m siding with Tray here. This thing is just too much of a mess in a way I can’t quite put my finger on, but I think it’ll catch on.
Sach is totally right about the Nicki/Missy switch, though.
Tray says:
April 4, 2010 at 4:36 pm (UTC -7)
I’m not even sure about that because I think back to songs like “On & On” from The Cookbook, which I thought were really interesting at the time, and a lot of people weren’t too enthusiastic. Anyway, I’d be much happier with “I Get Crazy” as the first single. It’s different, not this different, but different, and Nicki’s way more in the pocket there.
gabriel says:
April 6, 2010 at 8:11 pm (UTC -7)
drake went hard on over wtf are yall thakeing massive attack is dome i do not even get it over is the best and thank me later well be far from over it well be number one on the charts
Connie says:
April 16, 2010 at 7:13 am (UTC -7)
What are you people talking about???
Drake is a great artist. His songs are fantastic. My mother doesn’t like rap…but when we’re in the car I can play Drake’s old mixtape without her screaming “Turn that rap shit off!!” I’ve been a fan of Drake since 2007 and I love his style, energy, and arrogance. He’s very poetic…rap isn’t poetic anymore.
Sash… Btw.. What rap artist you know that doesn’t rap about themselves? What rap artist you know that isn’t arrogant? Com’on…you sound like a hater…
Now Nicki on the other hand is a character…She’s like a Lady Gaga/Lil Kim/BEyonce wanna be. Her music is horrible…Don’t get me wrong…She has potential and she can definately spit…but the girl needs to find herself before she ends up blowin her fame…Her song Massive Attack is decent…Missy Elliot should show her ass how it’s done…
Shannon says:
April 29, 2010 at 12:46 am (UTC -7)
Just want to throw it out there that Nicki Minaj is not the only chick in Young Money, there’s Shanell too.
Aro says:
June 1, 2010 at 5:03 am (UTC -7)
Know what pisses me off, people who simply can not get over the fact that hip hop changes! You guys under rate the hot stars because you want the “OLD” stars back! Look 50 is finish! Dipset broke up, and New York rappers are converting to a southern style. Drake is the only rapper thats making since to me right now. 2 rappers (Niki & Drake) create there OWN flow and chose NOT to be like everybody else and they get BASHED for it. Now i’m a REAL hip hop fan, but just hating for no particular reason is just simply pathetic. If you want to bash a rapper go after Soulja Boy or lil webbie some one of that caliber but to actually go after the lyricsit isn’t cool man. Stop evaluating one song evaluate there entire work! Even Jay had a few wack records but do we respect him any less??
Aro says:
June 1, 2010 at 5:06 am (UTC -7)
At least they have the heart and the mind set to be different and they look good together to be real. The world seems to have a problem giving respect where respect is due.
nikkya says:
January 29, 2011 at 7:08 pm (UTC -7)
I hate Drake but i love Nicki Minaj and I wish that she has still with lil wane.