Beat was produced by boi-1da and it was a solo track.
Totally agree, but if you're Jay would you want your verses on that beat or taken off?
The Grahm Delusion: Building Drake, Hiding Aubrey and Why Reneging on TIDAL exposes the fraud.
- Thread starter trillanova
- Start date
trillanova
The Truth
thanks breh. glad you read it and liked it because after I finished typing I was like
ain't nobody about to read this long ass shyt. but like I was telling another poster, I think the booth deserved a thorough examination of this dude because as a community, we spend a lot of time talking about him. Whether you love him hate him or claim not to care, he's been the MAIN topic of discussion for years - but the obsessive nature of both his fans and haters always leaves the debate polarized. i'm neither, so I was able to think it through as a regular person who liked the music, but could never really buy into the person. too many things just didn't sit right...it's a lot of bloggers, journalists and industry heads who lurk here so i'm sure someone might come across it. it's really for the coli, but I just hope it can shift the debate below the surface and closer to the reality of how he got here when people want to discuss him.
trillanova
The Truth
if you cant distinctly provide receipts for the bolded, its not fact, its opinion.
that said, the 'new strategy' you speak of is basically strategy 101 for artists anyways. but ill let you cook
you might be able to provide receipts or sources for all your points, i dont follow drizzy like you do
im just tryna make sure you're aware that without being able to provide citations that back up your statements for various aspects of your post, its nothing more than an Op Ed
its well written, but its prolly only marginally accurate since you have no connection to the industry or any of the artists in question
but i guess the booth needed its 500th drake thread for the month
I'm not a journalist. This is an extended coli post for readers of the coli. Get the fukk outta here with your bullshyt about sources and citations. People who follow know the story. This is hop hop. We read in between the lines, hear the subtle jabs back and forth and though repetitive hearsay and the actions that follow, crack the code on the circumstances. Like, what the fukk are you doing in the booth if you haven't at least learned that much ?
PhonZhi
Veteran
One of the most riveting OP's I've ever read. 
Good shyt
Good shyt
This is where you lost OP. Overcoming those odds is something that most people wouldn't be able to do.
Also, he needed credibility from Americans in general, not just black folks.
dora_da_destroyer
Master Baker
trillanova
The Truth
So, what's your point. I lost the argument because he overcame the odds?
That's the whole point. What he did to bounce back after he was dropped from Atlantic was just giving you a sequence of events that led him to his entry into the game.
Second, he didn't need credibility from Americans in general. If that was the case he wouldn't have rapped in a southern accent. He was specifically going after the people who were listening to Wayne Tip Gucci Ross and others like I said. To get into hop hop, black Americans are the first group you have to reach.
First off, all you non reading ass muthafukkas can dip. This is long because it's thorough. People have been arguing why Drake is a fraud for years and now you can finally know why with clarity and certainty.
I just found out why Aubrey/Drake/Champagne Papi is actually a fraud through an exchange I was having with someone in another thread. I was gonna post it but I thought it deserved it's own review. I'm not a Drake hater. I play a lot of his songs. Not a fan either. I always knew he was shaky and corny but he had a lot of joints I really fukked with so I just ignored it and straddled the fence. I could see where people were coming from when they said he was a culture vulture and also could see when his fans would say he gets a lot of hate for no reason.
Today, in an instant, that changed as I found myself trying to explain to another poster why Hov' was mad at Drake for backing out of the Tidal deal. Of course on the surface he was upset that Drake didn't keep his word and joined Apple, but I realized it's deeper than that. It goes far beyond jabs thrown in verses, spicy interviews and a deal gone sour. If you continue to read and not act like a little bytch over some paragraphs, by the end of this, you'll be able to get a true sense and feel of why so many people say he's a fraud. The difference is, I believe I can articulate and pinpoint exactly why he is an actual fraud. Ghostwriters aside, Getting Bodied and hiding babies aside, this is why Drake is a scam.
This was my initial response in a nutshell to why I believed Hov' was mad at Drake. Where most people agree, at least partly, things really went left.
then another poster replied...
This is the moment when the wheels began to turn in another direction. This whole narrative of the "Drake Stimulus Package" instantly became less credible. He (Drake) always speaks on all the "help" he put in for other artists. All the "favors" he did for everyone and how they should all be so thankful he granted them. Pay attention kids, because this is where the cracks really started to show. See, the sentiment of this poster and many of his fans is that Drake deciding to work with the other artist is him doing them a favor. The absurdity of this poster's reply was that Jay putting Drake on BP3 (Off That) was somehow an even exchange. In this individuals very warped view, Jay-Z was getting help from Drake to save his career.....
Yes, Jay-Z got a hot feature from a then, up and coming Drake, but Drake's feature didn't make or break Jay's album. If anything, it made people more curious about Drake. If Hov let this kid have a spot on his album, maybe there's more to him. Then, when Thank Me Later dropped, who do you think helped who's credibility? 70% of that album was Aubrey doing the sing/rap thing. By partnering with Jay on "Light Up" it gave him the opportunity to redeem himself from all the heavy singing and validate his rapper side. Jay did way more than give him a verse, he advised him on wax, signifying he was in the inner circle of the elite. If you are currently trying to downplay the impact of that verse on Drake's career, and are having difficulty beginning to accept the falsehood of the Drake Stimulus Package, it gets much worse.
The key to understanding the lie is at the beginning. Understand, Drake was a half Jewish child actor from Canada trying to break into the rap game at a time when Wayne, Tip, Jeezy, Ross and Ye were dominating. How could a Canadian, Bi-Racial Jew, from a fairly well off family who played a wheel chair bound teenager on television expect to be taken seriously as a rapper in 2007?
Here's the truth: None of that was EVER going to work in hip hop or rap for that matter. Aubrey Graham or "Drake" was not strong enough to survive in the environment of Hip Hop/Rap from 2007-2012 alone. I mean that from a survival point of view and who he actually was as a person. After Atlantic dropped him because, in his own words "they didn't know what to do with him" he had to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to reinvent himself in order to break into the United States. Since he could not change his origins or his background because it was already public, he HAD to move and align himself with certain people so he wouldn't A. Become Food/Get Eaten Alive/Extorted and B. So he could strategically use those alliances to gain credibility with the African American audience.
So back to all of those "favors" he's been mentioning for the past 6-7 years. You could see them through OVO colored lenses as he sees it. Him writing and doing verses for others to help their careers and make them hot. Or you can see it for what it really is and was: The price he had to pay in order to be seen with people who actually had clout. Nobody was gonna rock out with him publicly just because he could rap. The verses/songs he did for others was paying dues. But I'ma quote your boy one last time so you can see the mentality of those who believe the lie and then help you actually see the truth. Keep the bolded in mind and I'm gonna bring it home.
Even if the song he was featured on was hot, how could a person with no real identity of their own be the factor that made the song successful? Drake started his career sharking African American artists styles. First Phonte, then his Houston connection with J Prince Jr birthed a southern drawl, where he took core elements of Big Sean's style and blended it with some Wayne influence when he got with Young Money. He literally built himself as he went along by hanging and and collaborating with black rap/r&b/hip hop artists in America.
He couldn't have told this to me in a more perfect order. If I recall, So Far Gone featured Prime Wayne, Trey Songz, Lloyd, Omarion, and even Bun B. For the most part, at that time Drake was pretty much unknown, but all those features from recognizable names helped elevate his status and gave him access to the urban market he needed in America. Now again, who was doing the favors for who? Also, what average up and coming rapper could afford to get all those features on a debut project? Someone who started from the bottom?
And let's talk about that energy that everyone was so desperate for. Everyone Drake collaborated with from that project on was established and had very strong fanbases that were time tested. Each time he got to work with the artist, he got the benefit of tapping into an established audience and gaining new listeners he never would have had access to on his own. This goes for his early collabs with Alicia Keys, verses with Jay, Fab, Wayne, Ross, Gucci, Trey Rihanna and others. Each feature gave him another opportunity to build Drake and suppress Aubrey.
The evidence of that is the fact he's doing the same exact shyt today, just with other cultures.
You never know what race he's gonna morph into next to get a hit/remain hot/suppress Aubrey. 2 years ago the man thought he was a shotta hanging around Popcaan and fukking Rihanna. This year he's a 21 year old Memphis/Atlanta shooter hybrid/New Orleans bounce revivalist. But that's not even what really makes him a culture vulture.
Here's why.....
See, the same boy who came in the game with no credibility or viable identity of his own is totally comfortable pimping various black identities, so that he can change personas like a mask. To him, blackness is interchangeable and disposable so long as the next collab, and next culture keeps him afloat. He has no problem acting out whatever fragment of the black diaspora advances his career with no real respect for the culture, people and the struggles that bring him the elements he uses so freely.
A man with no true culture leverages the cultures of other's, who got their styles legitimately through the struggle. The accents and lingo of your cousins, father's, mothers, aunties, uncles and friends along with the region they represent, are swapped out for experimentation with another native tongue and homeland. When it's time for another album this dude uses culture's like an expansion pack in a game.
When you put somebody like this in the position Jay offered him with Tidal, now we can see clearly what irks Jay and so many other people. First off, owning a piece of something with your peers to make the game fairer is better than taking a quick bag from your masters and never owning or controlling anything, while being at the mercy of a contractual obligation. The Tidal deal was a stand against the established ways of corporations and suits deciding and manipulating who would get what. For the first time the artists stood together to decide the value of their music and getting it to the consumer. It also happened to be spearheaded by a black man. It also happened to include people like Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj, and Kanye West - all people who gave Aubrey the pieces to build Drake. Artists who contributed to his acceleration in urban music. He basically said fukk ya'll, I'm getting this check and I'm siding with the suits. Before you tell me he had the right to do what's best for him - allow me to finish.
Drake is disconnected from key processes that lead to one becoming their own true artist. Instead he chose to siphon the influence of others to grow faster than he could create. (hence the reason he has ghostwriters) Because of that, the reality is, it was impossible for him to ever understand the value and significance of what a partnership/alliance like that meant.
But why would he partner with you when he's already used your credibility, talents and audience to advance himself? Musically he plays the role of a young black man trying to navigate the highs and lows of fame and everything that comes with it. But when it comes to the business side, he's much more in tune with the other half of his heritage and their shady history in the music industry. He made a choice to use his brand to continue empowering the establishments that exploited artists for decades instead of aligning with the same people who helped give his career legs in order to make the game fairer for artists.
It's a slap in the face to all black entertainers before rap who got fukked out of royalties and had their songs stolen at the hands of crooked execs. It's a fukk you to the young black kids who've never been anywhere and don't know anything, getting flown out to labels to ink a 360 deal. He'd rather be a cash cow that's too big to fail all by himself than take a chance and build platforms that give artists more bargaining power for their creations.
Am I blaming Drake for racism, lost royalties, the tradition of black artists dying penniless and the continuity of the tradition through 360's? No. What I'm saying is that a man who makes his bread from rap music, an African American artform, had an opportunity to side with others like him to legitimize a platform controlled with the benefit of the artist in mind. All the power players in black and white music were ready. However, Drake, after giving his word to Jay, took a payout and sided with the controllers. He didn't JUST sign with Apple, he took the side of the suits and the suits that came before them, that use black music and the artist who create it, until nothing is left but the corpse....and they'll make money off that too. When you don't really come from it and don't respect it enough to understand it or change it, but continue to profit and advance your position because you've mastered ACTING the part, I see exactly why it makes people sick.
Drake taking a picture in blackface is nothing when you come to the revelation that Drake himself is a newer savvier embodiment of the practice of blackface...
I'll let thank sink in.
not bad. i respect it. and agree
Scottie Drippin
Should Never Mention Me
nikka you're literally cosplaying as another poster as we speak, and you're talking about nikkas being creepy and staying on mindsthis guy stays on your mind
its creepy at this point
didnt read
For those who don't know, this is that nikka Spinoza pretending to be @Roaden Polynice
not sure if ye and jay been equally beneficial since after Jesus Walks/Ye’s bush comments (he became a cultural/more than music talking point that early in his career to me). also cd and lr are on par with ag and bp in terms of lyrics and cultural impact
but I def agree with your other points tho about an artist taking from lesser known artists but can’t say jay hasn’t done the same, esp with chris. if ye wasnt rebellious, jay would have a hold on him too and use his for popularity/leverage. he uses his wife now instead.
literally everything yall type about drake applies to jay which is why him and kendrick get the nas and jay comparisons so much. jay just has street cred and seniority so he gets away with shyt (while putting out very mediocre music for someone of his supposed status)
Kilgore Trout
Banned
nikka you're literally cosplaying as another poster as we speak, and you're talking about nikkas being creepy and staying on minds
For those who don't know, this is that nikka Spinoza pretending to be @Roaden Polynice
Who?
trillanova
The Truth
You're wrong breh and I addressed why in the OP. The wave riding aspect is nowhere near the levels Drake takes it but I will agree that Jay has taken lesser known talent or underlings to give himself some advances in relevancy over the years. But again, Jay-Z as a standalone artist is great. Like I said with the Drake feature, having these dudes bring him a little young blood every now and then is nice, but he's NICE all on his own completely and you cannot deny that. I'm not saying Ye didn't lace him with great beats, but again, Jay always had an excellent ear for good beats. If it wouldn't have been Ye or Just, trust me, he would've found someone else. It was them who got lucky and thier life changed, not him. There's plenty of soulful producers out there it was just luck and timing on their part.
Secondly, Jay started independent and put in work before getting on. He didn't hop on 50 features with every hot NYC rapper at the time to build his name. He battled, did shows and released his own shyt. Outside of the Big L freestyle and whatever he did with Jaz, 90% of his tracks he rocked dolo.
Compare his beginnings to Drake and you see clearly it's the total opposite.
But music aside, Jay Z comes from the actual struggle. The real bottom. The claim he has to be a participant and now GOAT in this culture is legitimate. He came up from nothing, risked his freedom to earn something and told his story on the mic that delivered classic after classic.
Drake sidestepped the whole process of being his own artist and own man by just being a feature guy on whatever song to say whatever's hot to quickly become accepted. Drake didn't become the man by holding his own, he was a guest temporally renting the success of others who actually worked hard. He was a glorified clout chaser with a blackberry full of rhymes.
They are not the same and I will not debate it further.