When two of the biggest names in music collaborate for a project, people get excited. Rumors started swirling on Twitter of a Drake and Future mixtape back in September and it was mass confusion. Different names for the project, different art for it, different release dates, it seemed like every tweet about the project added more confusion. Until September 19th, 2015 when Drake posted a picture on Instagram confirming the project’s name and release date. On September 20th, 2015 the highly anticipated Drake & Future mixtape “What A Time To Be Alive” was released.
Me being the huge rap and music fan I am, was very excited and had very high hopes for this project. The bar for the level of greatness of this project were set in the summer of 4 years ago when Jay-Z and Kanye West collaborated for the legendary album “Watch The Throne”. I listen to songs off that album daily. Once i got done listening to the Drake & Future project. I was greatly let down.
Imagine listening to the same song 13 times in a row. That’s what listening to this album feels like. I was greatly disappointed with Drake and Future’s lyrics throughout this album. It seemed like they were just trying to put together catchy lyrics without any meaning at all. “The mixtape provided very little change throughout. It was practically listening to one song on repeat 11 times. Despite the small bright spot in the hype song “Jumpman”, I didn’t find much contrast in the songs to stay interested in it.” Ray Schulte, ‘17 said. Even though Drake impressed me with his lyrics on his solo track on the album, “30 for 30 Freestyle”, it wasn’t didn’t make up for the other weak lyrics throughout.
Effort was another problem with this mixtape. It felt like it was thrown together within 6 weeks. I feel like if Drake and Future would’ve spent more time on it, like maybe 6 months or even a year, it would’ve came out a lot better. Because if we are comparing this to “ Watch The Throne” which most people do, then this is nowhere near the greatness of it. Kanye and Jay-Z put a year and a half of effort into that album compared to 8 weeks Drake and Future did. It is kind of a bummer that their mixtape feels like leftover songs that did not make their own albums. “ The mixtape felt like they kind of just got together, recorded 11 songs in a week-span, hyped it up, then released it.” Nate Carter, ‘17 said.
The final problem I had with this project was the length. It is only 11 songs and is around 40 minutes long. I understand mixtapes are usually short but I wish it was longer because there maybe would’ve been more songs that could’ve swung my opinion of this project. Drake and Future projects are usually long, so it didn’t make sense to me why this one was only 11 songs. All of the songs are 3 minutes and up but it still would’ve been beneficial to have more songs. Especially in an album where we aren’t getting much quality, so why not have quantity. “ I wish there was more songs, I would’ve enjoyed the mixtape a lot more. 11 songs isn’t enough.” Zack Burke ‘19 said.
Now there are some bright spots to this tape. Metro Boomin was the producer for the album and it was great. It was the best production I’ve heard on an album in awhile. Another bright spot would be Drake’s solo track “ 30 for 30 freestyle”. It was a good ending to the project and made me optimistic for his upcoming album “ Views From The 6.”
Overall, this mixtape isn’t great. It’s good but to me it doesn’t live up the hype. I believe both artists could’ve did much better than they did. I would recommend to give it a listen then decide for yourself if it is as good as everyone says it is.
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