#jacky-jackson

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What I Learnt at The Nelson Mandela Exhibition

By, Jacky-Jackson Mbungu-Bueya

A quick 1 minute video about the things I learnt.

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Drake: Thank Me Later Album Review (Remastered)

By Jacky-Jackson Mbungu-Bueya

It was the year 2009, and Canadian artist Drake captured the world, via the release of his project So Far Gone – and beefing with Chris Brown over Rihanna.

So Far Gone was a fascinating experience. Drizzy’s vulnerability (especially regarding relationships), lack of blatant misogyny and homophobia, coupled with his palatable style of rap, proved to be a real attention arouser for men and especially women – which meant ESPECIALLY men, but mostly women. Thus, with his R&B/Rap hybrid style, Drake’s mission was to validify the hype to be the world’s next big hip-hop star. To do so, he would release a dazzling debut album that commanded subservience.

It was going to be a CLASSIC!

Drake was bound to release a CLASSIC(exclamation mark), forever held to the standards of debuts such as: Enter the 36 Chambers, Ready To Die, Illmatic, Get Rich or Die Trying, The College Dropout, Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor, Man on The Moon: End of Days, the list goes on. Civilisations would never forget the day Drake dropped Thank Me Later. June 2010 would see his popularity cemented, and his ability to make life-changing, quality music certified.

Now, needless to say, civilisations forgot the day Drake dropped Thank Me Later.

Why?

Well, it’s a forgettable experience.

Most of this album is barely of note – like, at all. Matters of loyalty, betrayal and haters that Drake usually revels in, barely even call to arms his wards of social media theologists. Hits such as Over, Miss Me and Find Your Love serve their function, but only the latter strikes an impression worth any remark. Everything else just blends together, minus Fancy and Light Up – which are aided by performances from T.I. and JAY-Z (at the time Jay Z), respectively.

Pleasantly though, there are genuinely great songs on this album. For starters, the observations on Fireworks and The Resistance are some of the most astute and eloquent of Drake’s career. Fireworks sees Drake reflect on his personal history. With focus on his parents and a previous relationship, he analyses his attitudes towards the people who are – and were – close to him and his dreams. How, with each epiphany gained, he will continue to march towards his desired grandeur, celebrating proudly along the way. The Resistance sees Drake ruminate about those who took umbrage with his changes because of – and for – success. The greatness of this song is that Drizzy doesn’t shrug off the idea that he may be the problem. He acknowledges he may indeed be the one that has changed, but as stated, for him to reach the grandeur of his desires, it is but a harsh necessity. It’s as refreshing now as it was then, almost bafflingly so.

Pleasantly-er, is the absence of strange, tone death moments like on following Drake projects. No oddly racist and nonsensical lines like ‘Shout out to Asian girls, let the lights dim some’ (get it?). No venting about a 21-year-old not wanting to date or be supported by or have sex with a man who is a decade older than them. No complaining about his girl taking his car to buy tampons, then threatening to take them ‘back to the hood’, as only a human trafficking connoisseur would. No real terrible songs. And finally, no real thematic failure, other than the idea that most people will thank him for this album. All we have are groan-inducing bars created with that abominable hashtag flow of yore, and otherwise exemplary producers clocking in to showcase a congregation of sub-efforts. So yeah, on the whole, could be worse.

In conclusion, this album certainly exists. It’s evident that Drake rushed this project out to capitalise on his hype, yet judging by the 447,000 first week sales, alongside his continued success, I suppose it was an essential buffer before he and his team could really flex their song-writing capabilities.

Ultimately, I must rate Drake’s Thank Me Later a:

NOT CLASSIC! / 10

Again, it’s not a bad album. In fact, individually most of these songs are fine, but as a 14-track project it makes you feel vague feelings of nothingness; it’s quite frustrating.

P.S.

Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was released in November 2010. Nicki Minaj put more bother into her fake British accent on that album’s opener, Dark Fantasy, than she did in her Up All Night verse.

P.P.S.

Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was released in November 2010. Drake put more soul in his one line on All of the Lights, than he did for most of the songs on Thank Me Later.

[creativityworks-s8]

Jacky-Jackson Mbungu-Bueya is an aspiring writer of literature, and media critic. He brings a unique charm bred from his upbringing as a 1st generation, British born, child to Congolese immigrants. With his writing, he wishes to spread empathy and compassion across the world, as he feels there are many stories yet to told, and even more to be understood.

In the past six weeks, Jacky-Jackson has learnt a plethora of ideas and techniques in regards to the media industry. From photography to radio podcasting, TV production to advertising, he seeks to pursue his dreams with what has been gained in these endeavors in tow.