By: Antonio Salgado
Drake season is in full swing.
After dropping numerous singles, features, loosies and a mixtape, Drake’s album rollout has now commenced. The Toronto rapper dropped “Laugh Now Cry Later,” the lead single off his new album, Certified Lover Boy.
To provide some in depth analysis on the song, it is very good.
In all seriousness, the song and the accompanying music video did their job in ramping up anticipation for Drizzy’s next project. The song itself is super catchy, much like most of Drake’s singles tend to be. The video itself was one giant Nike ad shot at the Nike campus, but with all the grandeur that accompanies the king of rap. Drake fan or not, it should be clear to most rap fans that the game currently revolves around The Boy, orbiting both his standing and status. The music video featured cameos from Kevin Durant, Odell Beckham Jr, Marshawn Lynch, influencer Aggy Abby and comedian/influencer Druski. Now, the braggadocious nature of the video does not take away from the entertainment value of the music itself. The song holds its own with or without the music video and there are a few simple reasons why.
The giant…… baby in the room:
“Drake once again used something that might trend on Tik Tok in his newest song” will become a common critique soon. In my opinion, the negative connotations that might be attributed to the short pause before uttering the word “baby” are pretty dumb. This small moment stands out in the song, but does that make the song worse? No; in fact adding elements like that make a song fun to listen to, and being fun is one purpose of music.
Now, the hate for elements such as Tik Tokness (is that a thing?) comes more from a disdain of social media. Personally, hearing/reading complaints about all the Instagram captions that Drake created is strange. It seems like a large portion of his detractors are mad that he makes good music with punchlines that will be plastered over social media. However, isn’t creating music that connects with an audience to that extent a good thing? So, yes the “baby” will be plastered all over Tik Tok and Instagram stories. However, that displays Drake’s genius at creating punchlines and standout moments in a song. The contents can be called “deep” or be “superficial,” but either way his lyrics push beyond the pages. Just because a song gets played in mainstream media constantly does not mean the song drops in quality.
Lil Durk’s Drop In
The song’s hook features a question posed by Drake “Where do these ****** be at when they say they doing all this and all that?” Yes, Drake is questioning the validity of the claims made by rappers in some of their songs in the form of a veiled shot. However, Lil Durk uses this question to springboard himself into his short feature verse. The Chicago native answers Drake by stating “I’m in the trenches, relax.” Durk, following suit after Drake, takes a not-so-indirect shot, but his is aimed at an infamous rainbow haired rapper who we shall not name. His verse is rather short, but the high energy he jumped in with was great. His verse is weaved into the song pretty well, allowing for seamless interaction between the two rappers. To bring in a basketball analogy, his section of the song feels like a well executed two man fast-break.
Ultimately, the song served its purpose of building excitement for Certified Lover Boy. Also, shoutout to Cardo who knocked the production out of the park. The horns give off the feel of a marching band playing their football team onto the field. Cardo has now produced two big Drake singles, the first one being God’s Plan off his 2018 album Scorpion. If this song is any indication for what is in store for the album, it seems that Drake is about to drop another solid/great project. Drake will always be a divisive figure, but Laugh Now Cry Later can easily be placed into the hits category of his catalogue. Which, come to think of it, makes the hits list extremely long for the Toronto Native.
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