Some see it as a carefree, unrepeatable peak, and some see it as the beginning of a doldrums for Drake. grime, Jamaican reggae and dancehall, South African house, and Nigerian Afrobeats, and where the XXXTentacion-lite flows of “KMT” sit unusually close to the J.Lo karaoke job in “Teenage Fever” - is not unanimously appreciated for its creative twists. More Life - the 2017 mixtape where the expected train of trap-soul hybrids was derailed by nods to U.K. His 2009 mixtape So Far Gone braided southern rap, Swedish pop, ’90s R&B, and ’80s synth-pop in a four-song stretch near the top, 2012’s beloved Take Care breezes from the triumphant trap of “Headlines” to the hypnagogic soul of “Crew Love” to the xx and Rihanna fan service of the title track to the spectral and mournful “Marvin’s Room.” They’re subtle, careful evolutions, smart annexations of regional and international sounds, the better to make Drake feel less like a businessman breaching new markets and more local and on the pulse. Drake is sort of like a rock-star venture capitalist: He latches onto a great idea, and it creates a feeding frenzy, and sometimes the original idea gets watered down, but there’s a lot of money in following the sure bet around. The Canadian rapper and singer owes his career as a pop heavyweight to his gall as a savvy early adopter and chameleon who softens the turns his music takes with plaintive vocals, self-aware lyrics about angst and desire, and aqueous sonics from frequent collaborators like Noah “40” Shebib. You have to imagine Drake sees himself as one such traveler. When you trace the steps of intrepid travelers at the foundations of these movements - like DJ Kool Herc, instrumental to the birth of hip-hop in the ’70s by virtue of the concepts from dancehall culture he brought to inner-city youth parties when his family moved from Kingston, Jamaica, to the Bronx, or Fela Kuti, the Nigerian cultural titan and Afrobeat pioneer whose music was a colorful response to homespun artistic traditions and local current events that also synthesized the innovations of jazz and funk bands across the Atlantic - sounds that once seemed far removed and totally unique to their geographies are revealed as distant relatives.
New musical concepts blow in like developing storm systems, and vibrant art springs up in their wake.
Wherever Black people are subsisting, there’s culture - ways, wares, and wisdom - exchanged. Black music traverses the planet along the same winding, unpredictable pathways Black people do: over oceans, up and down coasts, out from rustic hinterlands, and into bustling metropolises.