Where can Drake go after 'Certified Lover Boy'? After a decade-plus of superstar success, he's facing a crucial crossroads.
That success can be hazardous is a theme that Drake’s chief rival, Kanye West, who depicted himself in the video for 2010’s “Power” standing beneath the mythical Sword of Damocles, has explored at length. Long before the tacky spectacle of two grown men in a high tax bracket taking shots at each other, he’d had enough public meltdowns to illustrate this truism in his life as well as his art.
For the longest, it’s seemed clear that Drake cracked the code and used timing to his advantage. If he’s a millennial LL Cool J, he hasn’t gotten many chin-checks from the culture. The most casual Drake fan — and the OVO machine has ensured that there are many of those — seems to recognize there’s something special about him. His music is about being in the moment while reflecting on it.
A couple decades before that, LL did much the same thing. In 1989, he was at a comparable place to where Drake is now. With the release that year of his glossyalbum, his placate-everyone approach had finally begun to grow stale. No half-hearted passes for a less-than-stellar product, though. During the height of Black nationalism in
, he got booed offstage at a rally at the Apollo for slain teen Yusef Hawkins. He responded a year later with what many consider to be his best album: The rugged, Marley Marl-producedDrake now has a chance to follow a similar route. Instead of appealing to the broadest possible audience, he might lean into a specific pocket.
If he wants to, Drake still has time to make sure he doesn’t get too gassed on his unquenchable yearnings for success. He’s proven he’s both a lover and a fighter. His next battle doesn’t need to be against himself.
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