With the release of the mixtape, What a Time To Be Alive, 2015 has been an amazing year for Rap music. Many different artists have stepped up to the plate. Several long awaited releases were dropped such as Ballin like I’m Kobe by Lil’ Herb, and many others have been rumored to be dropping soon. However, this year has been dominated by three artists: Drake, Fetty Wap, and Future.
Drake and Future joined forces to produce What a Time To Be Alive. Although it wasn’t perfect, I do enjoy it. First, most of the songs in the mixtape feel more like a Future song featuring Drake than an actual collaboration. There are only eleven songs , so it is shorter than both of their last two projects. Also each artist is given an individual song: 30 for 30 Freestyle by Drake, and Jersey by Future. So there are just nine songs that are an actual collaboration.
That being said, it still is well received by many of their fans. Jump man and Diamonds Dancing are both in the top 25 for hottest tracks out right now. Songs like Scholarships, 30 for 30 Freestyle, and Plastic bag have real world implications and discuss problems in society. Drake’s verses, portray sticking up for women, which he has been constantly ridiculed for earlier in his career, by people thinking that makes him soft.
Scholarships, on the other hand, discusses the hardships of young athletes. For example, Future says, “I came out the gutter. I finally made it.” It also talks about the decisions they face as they go from a blue chip prospect to a world renowned program such as the University of Kentucky, as referred to in the track.
They also have the typical song about success, Big Rings. These often times are the best tracks on Drake’s projects, but Big Rings felt like a letdown. It’s not bad, but it feels as if it was a missed opportunity to make something memorable, as he has often times in the past with Headlines, Trophies, Over, 6 God, All me, and so many more.
30 for 30 freestyle also has a lot of good points about real world problems: “kids are losing lives, got me scared of losing mine, and if I hold my tongue about it, I get crucified.” It feels like a role reversal from a different classic Drake track, Successful. In Successful he’s describing how all he wants is success and the problems that come with that lifestyle. In 30 for 30 Freestyle he’s talking about some of the issues he has now that he is successful, as he wanted to be seven years ago. It feels like a nod to the renowned So Far Gone. It was subtle but a nice time to recollect on the past, considering all the changes in Drake’s music of late.
In the end, this Mixtape will be one of the best and most popular mixtapes of the year based on star power alone. On paper this looks like it could be an instant classic, but it falls short of that. I give it a solid four out of five stars. It does its job, but it is just missing something special that most Drake projects have. It does deliver with several great tracks and hopefully holds fans over until Views From The 6 releases, if it ever does.