Album Review: Nothing Was The Same - Drake

Two years after the release of Take Care, Drake returns with Nothing Was The Same. How much time is this nigga spendin' on the intro? Exactly 6 minutes and six seconds. The first track instrumental reminds me of Kanye West old productions, even though it was produced by Drake's long time friend - Noah "40" Shebib. It's a great start for the new album but track #2 Furthest Thing is what brings old school Drizzy back. A little bit of singing but at the same time he goes hard talking about his own flaws.  Next song is Billboard's Hot 100 number 6 - Started From The Bottom - a long way from early days in Toronto to the expectation of selling one million records in the first week with NWTS (Versace remix).

NOTHING WAS THE SAME

Machine gun rap for all my niggas in the back. Drake starts track # 4 paying homage to Wu-Tang Clan and Raekwon, quoting his exact lyrics of the original version It's Yourz, which is the sample used in the song. Althought Wu Tang is about to remix the song, Inspectah Deck said on twitter that the song is in no form a tribute to Wu and should not wear the title Wu-Tang Forever. It's time to slow things down on the fifth track, Own it. But right after he gets back to rap sending a message to all the people that's doubted him and his career in Worst Behavior. Now he's a Grammy award winner and take us to the seventh track From Time, featuring Jhene Aiko. This one reminds Drake's first EP So Far Gone (2009), and you can enjoy storytelling Drizzy until the track that was made in order to remain timeless, according to Drake himself, Hold On We're Going Home. With Majid Jordan on the interlude, the song peaked number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. "It would be great if we had a record that was played at weddings in 10 years or that people that are awat from their families in the army could listen to", said Drizzy about the song. Next song is Connect, produced by Hudson Mohawke. The song is definitely inspired by Texas rap music, including Trae Tha Truth sample of "Swang". 

NOTHING WAS THE SAME (DELUXE VERSION)

Now Birdman joins Drake and it's really the first time he's all flossing the whole song (at least during this album). Second verse sound like his verse in Migos' Versace Remix. Birdman on the other hand just say random sentences at the end of the song. 305 To My City is the next song, featuring Detail. Even though Drake is Canadian, he consider Miami his hometown. Following, Too Much got Drake on a nice flow along with Sampha singing on the chorus. This song debuted last week on Jimmy Fallon show. Finally, Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music 2 - You can really tell it has Boi-1da signature on the instrumental, and after an intro by Christian Rich and Utters and another Wu-Tang reference on the album (C.R.E.A.M.'s famous verse Cash rules everything about me), Drake jumps on the track followed by the best feature of the album, Jay-Z. Hov let everybody know how he made more people millionaires than the lotto did, like Ye, Just Blaze, Big, Dame and Bigg (Beanie Sigel could be there if he wasn't in his feelings, he says). And then Drake gets back to his own story, about Lil Wayne calling him after listening to his mix tape, flying to Houston to see him and get signed to Cash Money Records. After that, Nothing Was The Same. 

Click here to buy Nothing Was The Same on iTunes.