The roster of guests is about as subtle as the air horns that blare throughout the song: Kanye West, Lil Wayne andwait for itEminem, making a rare appearance outside his usual Aftermath circle. The star, though, is the top-billed performer, Drake, who raps the first verse and croons the chorus between each guest spot.
The song, which is culled from the More Than a Game soundtrack and has been worming its way into radio, is just the latest in a long line of major singles from Drake. Virtually unknown outside of "Degrassi: The Next Generation" viewers until just this spring, Drake is coming off of one of the most impressive breakthrough summers in the history of rap. His debut single, "Best I Ever Had," topped both rap and R&B charts, but before anyone could deride him as a one-hit wonder, he followed it up with a star-making turn on the hit Young Money single "Every Girl," then another appropriately titled hit single of his own, "Successful," which is still scaling whichever urban charts it has yet to already top. Between those songs and his guest spot on Mary J. Blige's latest single, "The One," Drake is suddenly the most ubiquitous personality on urban radio right now, inheriting the mantle from his mentor and financer, Lil Wayne.
His success is that much more impressive considering that he hasn't even released a full album yethis breakthrough mixtape, So Far Gone, was rushed to stores as an EP to meet the demandand that he spent much of the summer sidelined with a knee injury. In fact, not since Snoop Dogg's star-making turn on Dr. Dre's The Chronic, which predated Snoop's own debut by nearly a year, has any rapper climbed the ladder this quickly. Not bad for an upstart who just six months ago was saddled with the stigma of being a former child star and the latest acquisition on Lil Wayne's bloated Young Money roster, which is overstuffed with not particularly promising artists like Mack Maine and Gudda Gudda. Against the odds, Wayne was able to establish Drake as the biggest thing since... well, himself.
|
|
