Two recent hip hop releases have been among the best of the year and both are very flawed. Drake's Take That peaks sky high but goes on forever and can't pull out of a long, deadly stretch in the middle. At an hour in length, it would have been a masterpiece at 35 minutes.
Pusha T showed his truth strength on his "Runaway" verse, he ain't a gangsta, he's a loverboy. Everything is great about Fear Of God II: Let Us Prey, even the length is about right. It is a remarkably consistent album. The tracks are great, the samples powerful, the songs all rhymin and ridlin' but Pusha T doesn't have the voice for it. I don't mean flow, I don't mean the way he moves his raps, I mean the sound of his voice. He gets overpowered by guest stars and rock hard beats.
Both albums are strictly autobiographical snapshots. Pusha T wishes he was back selling keys, Drake breaks up with a pre-hip hop stardom girl, because she can't deal with all the gossip. "You believed in everything but me" he laments.
Pusha T rides slaming drums and bass on track after track, it is an equivalent to hardcore metal. Drake, who calls one song "Marvin's Room", performs downbeat , r&b melancholic Motown influence soul. Drake adds echo and a touch of autotune to his vocals and the songs sink their teeth into you… except when they don't sink their teeth into you.
The first six songs on Take That are awesome. If that was all there was it would be the album of the year (a short one too). A song with Weeknd, a song with Rihanna, "Headlines", ."Marvin's Room", the break up second song "Shot For Me" and first and best, one of the best songs of the year and Drake's greatest moment "Over My Dead Body". But there are no more sustained runs and the album drags bad circa "The Real Her" surrounded by two songs featuring Lil Wayne and neither of which really make it. "HYFR" should be killer but it is all wrong.
The Pusha T album reminds me what I don't like about him, what annoyed me about Clipse. You'd think Ghostface Killah had put the nail in the coffin of gangsta, but though Pusha T hasn't new to say about it, what he says he says well. The songs go from good to Ok, and the beats are simply phenomenal. But they overpower Pusha's raps way too often. I don't want to overstate it, I do like it. I wish West would work with him on a deeper sound where the pain in his voice can be used.
Take That – Drake – Grade: A-
Fear Of God II: Let Us Prey – Pusha T – Grade: B+