Musical Style
Most of Drake's lyricism are in regard to his riches, fame and past relationships. Allmusic describes Drake's moods as searching, thoughtful, introspective, brooding, confident, dramatic, earnest, energetic, humorous, intense, laid-back/mellow, literate, melancholy, nostalgic, playful, reflective, smooth, tender, warm and yearning. Drake's sound is labeled as "soft" for his genuine, merciful lyrics and soulful melody to most hip hop listeners. He denied this by saying "I'm not soft. I'm just not one of those people who's closed off emotionally." A large portion of Drake's work incorporates elements of both rapping and singing, which has led to him being unique as a recording artist. Drake has even described himself as "the first person to successfully rap and sing." He went on further about his statement by saying "I'm one of the few artists who gets to be himself every day. It doesn't take me six hours to get ready and I don't have to wake up in the morning and remember to act like this or talk like this. I just have to be me. That's one of the favourite parts of my life - I've done this purely by being myself."
Drake has a unique musical style that has set him apart from his (Young Money) counterparts, especially on his latest effort Take Care. Lil Wayne even commented on the project prior to its release saying "I can tell, you know, I don't know nothing else out there that can touch it, including my stuff. That kid is on another planet." Recently, Drake has been making a notable shift away from Young Money/Cash Money collaborations and towards a new project, OVOXO. The OVO owl symbolizes OVOXO, which is a separate entity from Young Money/Cash Money and represents a collaboration group between Drake and R&B singer The Weeknd. Its eyes and beak form the acronym for October's Very Own. Drake has been moving in this new direction after the release of Take Care, which featured writing collaborations with The Weeknd on 5 tracks ranging from "Crew Love" to "Shot for Me" and 2 production collaborations on "Crew Love" and "The Ride", more than any Young Money/Cash Money collaboration.
Read more about this topic: Drake (entertainer), Artistry
Famous quotes containing the words musical and/or style:
“Then, bringing me the joy we feel when wee see a work by our favorite painter which differs from any other that we know, or if we are led before a painting of which we have until then only seen a pencil sketch, if a musical piece heard only on the piano appears before us clothed in the colors of the orchestra, my grandfather called me the [hawthorn] hedge at Tansonville, saying, “You who are so fond of hawthorns, look at this pink thorn, isn’t it lovely?””
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“The difference between style and taste is never easy to define, but style tends to be centered on the social, and taste upon the individual. Style then works along axes of similarity to identify group membership, to relate to the social order; taste works within style to differentiate and construct the individual. Style speaks about social factors such as class, age, and other more flexible, less definable social formations; taste talks of the individual inflection of the social.”
—John Fiske (b. 1939)