Drake is the Savior of Hip Hop

What do you get when you combine together the acting ability of Will Smith, the singing skills of R. Kelly, the lyrical capabilities of Nas and the buzz of Lil Wayne? Well naturally you get a biracial, half Jewish, Canadian, wheel chair bound uber performer by the name of Drake. In the past few months, this Toronto native, previously known for playing "wheel chair Jimmy" (he isn't wheel chair bound in reality) on Degrassi: The Next Generation, has become the quickest rising star in hip hop via his consummate abilities as a rapper as well as his ability to excel at basically anything he does. He recently brought to an end one of the fiercest bidding wars in hip hop history by signing with Lil Wayne's Young Money imprint reportedly for $3 million dollars. A buzz like this hasn't been seen since 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' and with Drake's commercial appeal, his buzz is larger than an African fruit fly. Often times referred to as the "new fresh prince", an obvious allusion to Will Smith because of his previous acting catalogue, Drizzy as he calls himself is the new "man of the year" in hip hop and for good reason.

On top of his stellar acting abilities, drake finds time to also slow it down for the ladies with his seductive singing and often sings the hooks on his own songs. Furthermore, after being "found" and subsequently mentored by rap mega star Lil Wayne, Drake has been burning up the mixtape circuit and now billboard charts with a combination of his sultry singing and rambunctious rapping in songs like "Every Girl" and "Best I Ever Had". Although he has been around in some fashion or another for roughly three years, it was his pairing with Lil Wayne recently on some of Wayne's mixtape tracks that caught the attention of the hip hop world and brought Drizzy to the forefront of the rap game. He has been heavily featured recently on everything Wayne related and is a member of Lil Wayne's supergroup Young Money", which currently has the most popular song in hip hop, the promiscuous ode to male misogyny "Every Girl" burning up the radio airwaves.

For the past few years, the state of hip hop has seen a substantial and steady drop in the amount of lyrical skill and substance and this culminated when rap legend Nas released the controversial album "Hip Hop is Dead" in 2008. Although rap phenomenon Lil Wayne has been carrying hip hop on his back with his literally daily release of new material and has kept the movement alive, it isn't enough for a rap super hero to exist as every super hero needs a sidekick and SuperWayne has found his in the entertainment triple threat Drake. With the highly public and successful mentoring by the current "best rapper alive" Lil Wayne and the co-sign of the "best rapper ever" Jay-Z, Drake has kicked down the door of the hip hop world and slapped it back into productive mode, complete with all the onomatopoeia "BAMS" "ZIPS" and "WHAMS" in the form of three highly successful mixtapes.

People have been begging for a hip hop savior to fly in and save hip hop for a few years now but everyone expected it to be some thuggish, grimy rapper from some crime ridden neighborhood rapping about excessive jewelry, misogyny, and violence and then all of a sudden comes strolling in is this clean cut, Canadian pretty boy reminiscent of a young Kanye West with the lyrical prowess of Jay-Z on Reasonable Doubt....life is full of so many ironies. I whole heartedly believe Drake is the future of this hip hop nation for multiple reasons, the main and most important one being his lyrical abilities. Lil Wayne is currently the reigning champ of the rap industry, belting out numerous songs on a daily basis, cult classic mixtapes seemingly at will, and the first platinum selling cd of the year. When lil Wayne is featured on a track, it isn't uncommon for people to fast forward to his verse or for his verse to be ripped from a track it was featured on, becoming its' own independent entity. Over the course of the last two years, which have seen easily four to five hundred released tracks from little wayne, only two emcees have ever outshined Wayne on a track. Cory Gunz did It on a remix of A Milli and Jay-Z did it on Mr. Carter. Until recently this was the case but as Drake started being featured on more and more Wayne tracks, it became noticeable that he not only held hid own against the New Orleans Juggernaut but often times shined the most. That alone is cause enough to consider Drake the future of rap.

Different aspects of his ability remind me of different rappers. His ability to tell stories is reminiscent of Andre 3000, his verbose lyrical usage of metaphors, similes, and allusions carries similarities to Eminem or Cannabis, whereas his rapid fire, almost playful delivery is similar to Lil Wayne's, hence their streaming conducive quality. Outside of his rapping ability lay his singing and acting ability. Drake isn't your average rapper turned actor, actually he is the opposite as he is an actor turned rapper and unlike his rap brethren he didn't act in a couple low budget movies or have a cameo in one big budget one. Instead, Drake was an actor on the most popular television show in Canadian history for over eight years and therefore his a acting skills are impeccable. Also included in his seemingly unlimited repertoire is his ability to sing, something he does quite successfully. In fact, in his first official single "Best I ever had", he not only raps on the song but also masterfully sings the hook as well. It is these three abilities-rapping, singing and acting, that give Drake great cross over appeal as well as commercial appeal. No homo, but he is also very easy on the eyes which appeals to women world wide. Hip hop is a ship that has sprung a leak and is quickly sinking and luckily Drake has arrived to plug its many holes with his immense versatility. He doesn't appear to be a one hit wonder and his buzz is so large that even he rapped "buzz so big I could even sell a blank disc". Don't be surprised if one day after Jay-Z finally retires and Lil Wayne has passed out from exhaustion if Drake picks the crown up and takes his seat on the throne and lays stake to his reign, a reign that due to his versatility might have some longevity to it.