Drake ft. Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem–Forever

Released September 15 2009.
Billboard: #8 peak, #88 (2009 chart) and #71 (2010 chart)
UK: #42

Jay-Z described this song as the best posse cut of the year, and honestly I can’t really comment not having heard many good posse cuts before. I don’t know if Run This Town (Jay-Z and Kanye West) counts, though that was decent; Bedrock and Finale by the Young Money crew were both quite disastrous, and though it’s not bad I couldn’t really enjoy Monster (Kanye West featuring many many people!). Nevertheless, as a rap song it’s quite enjoyable, and as a song in general it’s decent. The production is VERY good. Boi-1-Da was onto a winner here, it seems.

Anyway the last time I did Bedrock I analysed the hook and then each rapper’s shot at it. Unlike the last time though, the competition here is much more dangerous. Drake himself probably emerged among the winners in Bedrock, even if that’s not much, and I did like his work on Best I Ever Had, and though it’s not a rap song Find Your Love worked very well for me. Kanye of course has had many hits, from the rather old and still brilliant (to me, well) Through The Wire to the more recent Runaway and All of the Lights (review for that one should be done too). And I also found his pop endeavours of Love Lockdown and Heartless (basically 808s & Heartbreak) good. Lil Wayne I’m not so much into, but his ubiquitous presence on the pop charts should stand for something, and I still remember that Down like the economy line in, well, Down. In a good light. Finally Eminem has been around for a while too and has had his successes, and amazingly when I was much younger I enjoyed The Real Slim Shady, and then he’s had Stan, and… His rapping isn’t really my kind of thing, but I know in terms of technical ability, he’s to be taken seriously.

HOOK (Drake)

It may not mean nothing to y’all
But understand nothing was done for me
So I don’t plan on stopping at all
I want this shit forever mane

Oh-kay… Something about this looks not right. Nothing was done for (you)??? Lyrically this is just plain wrong. The singing is okay, the melody is nice, but the lyrics here are a litle obnoxious. I know (especially considering his 1st verse) that the idea behind this is that he wasn’t signed by a record label that early on. Some research shows, though, that while this is true, his uncle was in a band and helped secure Drake a management team. So this line is a pretty dangerous generalisation that, well, is inaccurate after all.

I’m shutting shit down in the mall
And telling every girl she the one for me
And I ain’t even planning to call
I want this shit forever mane

Okay. He references his time on Degrassi, presumably with the first two lines. And honestly by now I’ve had enough of these songs that not just smash the ideals of monogamous love, but furthermore explicitly take pride in doing it. It’s quite a tired message, and probably why I found Nothin’ on You (review) so refreshing.

This isn’t a very good hook. Well, let’s have a look at the verses. 3.5 / 10

VERSE 1 – DRAKE

Last name “Ever”, first name “Greatest”
Like a sprained ankle, boy, I ain’t nothing to play with
Started off local but thanks to all the haters
I know G-IV pilots on a first name basis

Are haters and basis a proper rhyme? Anyway it’s okay, though we’ve moved on to the G5 with Jesse McCartney’s Leavin’ and of course the G6 in the Far East Movement hit Like A G6 (review). On a side note, Like A G6 has grown on me a bit. It’s still bad, but probably not as much as I wrote against it in the review.

Second line is suspect, though believable and makes sense with a little look at the fact that this song is inspired by the movie More Than A Game (basketball documentary).

In your city faded off the brown, Nino
She insist she got more class…we know

Good… We know (him and the listener? Or is it using the royal ‘we’ as some have said?) – that he’ll find some way to get her clothes off…

Swimming in the money, come and find me, Nemo

Disney references?!?! Would there be a better way to convey that idea? It’s making it a little hard to take you seriously here…

If I was at the club you know I balled, chemo

Okay, again the basketball thing, and ‘balling’ as rich, with the homonym ‘bald’ which happens often to people undergoing chemotherapy. Okay.

Dropped the mixtape, that shit sounded like an album
Who’d have thought a country wide tour be the outcome
Labels want my name beside a X like Malcolm
Everybody got a deal, I did it without one

Okay. The Malcolm X reference I understand (it’s somewhere in my history knowledge; he was a civil rights leader for the blacks) and he is referring to his mixtape So Far Gone which, yes, did make him quite successful. But can he really say he did it without a contract? The mixtape, yes, but doing it as a career? I’m not so sure. Nevertheless the stimulus for his contracts was done by his own talent…

Yeah, nigga I’m about my business
Killing all these rappers, you would swear I had a hit list
Everyone who doubted me is asking for forgiveness
If you ain’t been a part of it, at least you got to witness

Okay, pretty decent way to finish off verse 1. But it’s not a very good start to the song, is it? Who knows – maybe he’s better as a singer of heartbreak songs. Find Your Love, as I’d say again, was excellent; his voice when used well has a certain timbre that seems appropriate for conveying some kind of vulnerability and desperation. 4.0 / 10

Let’s hope things get better.

Ever, ever, Mr West is in the building
Ain’t no question about who’s gonna kill’em

VERSE 2 – KANYE WEST

I used to have hood dreams, big fame, big chains
I stuck my dick inside this life until that bitch came

Okay, this is descriptive and though nothing special, it’s a pass. The metaphor of life as a bitch is there too… It’s not unsound, to say the least.

And went hard, all fall like the ball teams
Just so I can make it rain all spring

This probably involves the basketball league seasons. Making it rain has a double meaning here, of throwing $$$ in the air, and also of shooting well (many many baskets) in basketball. It, well, makes some kind of sense.

Y’all seen my story, my glory
I had raped the game young, you can call it statutory

Yay for vocabulary. And anyway, Through the Wire remains one of my favourites among his songs, and he produced many more songs that were successful, so yup I can see how these lines work.

When a nigga blow up they gonna build statues for me
Old money, Benjamin Button (what?) nothin’

This needs research. He’s right. I’d ask what? indeed. Except I’m not gonna be satisfied with that answer. Apparently it’s about age confusion – Benjamin Button looking old but actually being young. Kanye is young but often perceived as old. Hmm…. I guess I can accept such an explanation. At least this is lyrically more interesting than verse 1.

Now super bad chicks givin’ me McLovin’

This deserves the what? from me more than the previous line. But apparently it shouldn’t, it seems that Superbad was quite a popular movie. Perhaps being an Asian and not staying in the US I wasn’t exposed to it so much. I don’t watch movies that frequently, anyway. I don’t really grasp this line.

You would think I ran the world like Michelle’s husband

Okay. Can it be said that Obama runs the world? Ah well, I’m no politics expert.

You would think these niggas know me when they really doesn’t
Like they was down with the old me, no you fuckin’ wasn’t

Phenomenon of claiming knowledge or connections once someone becomes successful. Been discussed before. Nevertheless, it’s okay given the context.

Um, you’re such a fuckin’ loser
He ain’t even go to class, Bueller

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off reference, obviously, and perhaps College Dropout as well. No complaints here.

Trade the Grammy plaques, just to have my granny back
Remember she had that bad hip like a fanny pack

Not really appropriate for a boast track, but I guess a moment of sobriety here doesn’t strike me as too bad here either. It’s not bad, just out of place. Which makes it bad, actually.

Chasing the stardom will turn you to a maniac
All the way in Hollywood and I can’t even act
They pull the cameras out, and God damn, he snap
I used to want this thing forever, you can have it back

A good finish, thematically something like B.o.B’s Airplanes and though I enjoyed Airplanes’ lyricism more this is more straightforward, but works well too.

This was decent, and made a couple of references that I could recognise and appreciate. Not Kanye’s best, but it’s still pretty solid. 6.0 / 10

VERSE 3 – LIL WAYNE

Okay
Hello it’s the Martian, Space Jam Jordans
I want this shit forever, wake up and smell the garden

His relaxed tone kind of works, as though he’s in control. Wake up and smell the garden is pretty intelligent – combining wake up and smell the coffee and smell the roses… the moral here is that being attentive is critical to success, it seems.

Fresher than the harvest, step up to the target

Okay. Nothing special, but this will do.

If I had one guess then I guess I’m just New Orleans

One guess at WHAT? New Orleans is his hometown, yes, but there seems to be a gap in the logic here.

And I will never stop like I’m runnin’ from the cops
Hop up in my car and told my chauffeur “to the top”

Filling space? It’s not bad, really. But somehow I get this feeling that it could, and should have been done better.

Life is such a fucking roller coaster then it drops
But what should I scream for? This is my theme park

Yes. This works.

My mind shine even when my thoughts seem dark
Pistol on my side, you don’t wanna hear that thing talk

And this does too.

Let the king talk, check the price and pay attention
Lil Wayne, that’s what they gotta say or mention

Indeed. (To be fair to them, Eminem, Jay Sean and Chris Brown have had songs which I’ve appreciated too. Eminem was discussed above. For Jay Sean, it’s mainly his non-single songs War and I’m Gone that worked really well for me – but his smooth tonal quality in general works well and in my opinion shined through when featured on I Made It. For Chris Brown, I did considerably like With You and his recent song Yeah 3X grew on me after quite a few listens.)

I’m like Nevada in the middle of the summer

Hot.

I’m resting in the lead, I need a pillow and a cover
My foot’s sleeping on the gas
No brake pads, no such thing as last, uh

The car imagery reminds me of Ne-Yo driving the car in the video for Plies’ Bust it Baby Pt2. No brake pads, but you better hope you wake up before the next turn catches you off guard.

Pretty good verse, actually. I don’t really like some parts but for the most part this is actually quite good. 6.0 / 10

Finally we have

VERSE 4 – EMINEM

There they go, packing stadiums as Shady spits his flow
Nuts they go, macadamia, they go so ballistic, whoa

The macadamia nuts idea is bad. Not as bad as the window-pane line from Love The Way You Lie though.

He can make them look like bozos
He’s wondering if he should spit this slow;
Fuck no! Go for broke
His cup just runneth over, oh no

I do not appreciate the Psalms reference, it’s poorly taken out of context. Minus points for that. Nevertheless this is sound, and as you can probably tell he’s going to go faster after this, which sounds… pretty interesting, really! And the use of the f word here actually seems somewhat appropriate, unlike this song which I find abused it brutally.

He ain’t had him a real buzz like this since the last time that he overdosed
They been waiting patiently for Pinocchio to poke his nose

References to his drug period, okay, and the Pinocchio part apparently has to do with Gucci Mane’s attack on him in Mariah Carey’s Obsessed remix.

Back into the game and they know rap will never be same as before
Bashing in the brains of these hoes and establishing the name as he goes

You’re successful, yes. but that’s a pretty ambitious claim to make…

The passion in the flame is ignited, you can’t put it out once we light it
This shit is exactly what the fuck that I’m talking about when we riot

The passion line is fine, but WAIT. Riot? You’re reminding me of Ke$ha’s TiK ToK:

Don’t stop, make it pop, DJ blow my speakers up
Tonight, Imma fight till we see the sunlight

Still more plausible here than there. But anyway.

You dealing with a few true villains
Who stand inside of a booth, truth spilling
And spit true feelings until our tooth fillings
Come flying outta our mouths, now rewind it

Makes sense, though not very believable given the public image some of them have built up (their real beliefs? I don’t know, especially in Kanye’s case). Rewind it is clever, though.

Pay back motherfucker for the way that you doubted me, how’s it taste?
When I slap the taste outta your mouth
With the bass so loud that it shakes the place
I’m Hannibal Lecter, so just in case you’re thinking of saving face
You ain’t gonna have no face to save by the time I’m through with this place

Deuces. Seriously.
(I’m referencing the keep it drama free part of the Chris Brown song)

Is it really so useful to fight, fight, fight, fight, fight for a love gone so wrong?

I’m not feeling Eminem’s verse. He does have technical ability and demonstrates this very clearly. But technical ability does not make a song alone (otherwise if Mariah Carey sang a five octave arpeggio up and down it would sell well – and it probably won’t!). Beyond his technical skill, the lyrics and meaning of it are just okay, and a bit sensitive as well (the Psalms reference, and the whole Nick Cannon/Mariah Carey controversy). Sigh… 4.5 / 10

Overall I think Lil Wayne’s verse was the best, and of course Boi-1-Da (seriously, the production was VERY, VERY appropriate and good). Kanye was good but needed some research to figure out what he was trying to get at at some points; he shouldn’t be faulted for this – but his message goes against the grain of most of the song. Eminem has technical skill, but I didn’t appreciate the content, and as for Drake, I’m not sure what he was trying to do with his part on the song. Nevertheless,

OVERALL SCORE = 6.5 / 10
Forever has sleeper-standard to moderately good rapping on it, but nevertheless with very strong production succeeds as a song, in my opinion. It’s one of the better (if not the best) of the (very few) posse cuts that I’ve heard.

And yes, I gave the song as a whole a higher score than I gave any of the rappers. It sums up to a solid song despite individual weaknesses.

Bruno Mars–Today My Life Begins

Not a single, and this is from his 2nd album (yet to be released).

Ah, finally this is more like it, I think! I haven’t been too turned on by Bruno Mars’ music, despite his strong voice, at least in the way of much of the content off his debut album Doo-Wops and Hooligans; Just the Way You Are is a large pile of sugar that, for me, is unbearably saccharine (though I can understand why people may like it), and Grenade, though technically sound is still somewhat overdramatic. Quite a number of people have made Marry You chart, but I personally find that song completely unlistenable as in terms of sugar it is even worse than Just the Way You Are. Nevertheless, I did enjoy Grenade, and The Other Side which featured Cee-Lo Green and B.o.B went down pretty well with me. Of course, not forgetting the successful, saccharine and yet good Nothin’ on You with B.o.B. I like this song, despite its sweet, generic message; it’s much in the vein of Firework. The sugar level is pleasurable without being overbearing.

Could this be a continuation of a storyline? Together with B.o.B, they fell in love with girls on Nothin’ on You and Bruno took a step further, going Just The Way You Are. He then angsted over it with Grenade and broke out of the withdrawal phase with Today My Life Begins! Heh.

Vocally, he’s good as always, the production is simple, very generic, but sound. It’s an empowering song, and excellent for me to practice singing to too. I’m quite pleased with this output. As far as I’m concerned, probably his best song yet.

OVERALL SCORE = 6.5 / 10
Today My Life Begins is a pretty solid offering from Bruno Mars. It’s quite a generic song, but a good one nonetheless.

Bruno Mars–Grenade

Released September 28, 2010.
Billboard: #2 (but does have a chance of #1)
UK: Not released yet

Ah. This one has a strong theme and is, in my opinion, way ahead of Just The Way You Are at least in terms of how the music goes – the lyrics, I’ll talk about that later, though given that Just The Way You Are was painfully brutal in this aspect, I think Grenade is an improvement too. The music video is pretty effective; the piano-pulling story is sad, and the rain visuals work well.

He’s one strong vocalist, too. The lines like I would go through all this pain – take a BULLet straight through my brain aren’t exactly easy to sing, and he pulls them off quite nicely. That oscillating drumline in the background works well to highlight his singing. Musically, I have no complaints.

Unfortunately, like Beat Again, this one suffers from bad lyrics too. While this may partially be my opinion since I can’t say I’ve really fallen (romantically) for anyone yet, the intended poignancy of the lyricism becomes incredibly illogical.

Easy come, easy go
That’s just how you live – oh
Take, take, take it all, but you never give
Should’ve known you was trouble from the first kiss
Had your eyes wide open – why were they open?

Firstly, how would you know? Unless you were inspecting HER eyes too… But other than that verse 1 is okay.

Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash, you tossed it in the trash – you did
To give me all your love was all I ever asked, cause what you don’t understand is –

I like this pre-chorus part… he handles the melody very well. So, let’s go to the chorus:

I would catch a grenade for you (yeah, yeah)
Throw my hand on a blade for you (yeah – yeah)
I’d jump in front of a train for you (yeah – yeah) – !!!
You know I’d do anything for you (yeah – yeah) ooohhh
I would go through all this pain
Take a bullet straight through my brain – oh-kay, this is getting disturbing.
Yes, I would die for you baby – but you won’t do the same

And you know it… So I guess he must have fallen deeply in love. However, to have dropped to this extent just seems disturbing. It seems kind of unlikely that jumping in front of a train would save her too, if you needed to physically rescue her – both of you would die, right?

Verse 2:
Black, black, black and blue, beat me till I’m numb
Tell the Devil I said “hey” when you get back to where you’re from
Mad woman, bad woman, that’s just what you are, yeah
You’ll smile in my face then rip the brakes out my car – ???

I actually like the second line, pretty witty there. Sadly, though, the last line makes little sense if we consider the music video. There is no car. I understand it’s just meant to be an aggressive action… Seems like an excuse to rhyme with “are”, unfortunately.

Bridge:
If my body was on fire, ooh
You’d watch me burn down in flames – This reminds me of something…
You said you loved me, you’re a liar – He doesn’t love the way she lies.
Cause you never, ever, ever did baby…

Pretty well done, too… though is the girl really that terrible? From the music video, she only dumped him, so I can’t say very much. Even if the rest of what’s mentioned in the song is true (being calculating from the first kiss, ripping the brakes out his car) this seems like a pretty dangerous inference to make.

The video ends in a scary way, with Mars dragging the piano, and a truck approaches him, and it cuts to black. Oh dear…

All in all, despite the numerous lyrical flaws in it, I think Grenade is a good pop song. The atmospheric effect of the drums contributes significantly to the song, and of course Mars’ vocals are smooth. This seems a bit of an antonym song to Just The Way You Are, though – one song about extreme joy over love, and one about extreme heartbreak.

Wait – some artists thread a few songs to tell a story; I can remember that for Ne-Yo, other than the Libra Scale series, Part of the List and Mad told a coherent story, too. Of course, Kanye West’s Runaway video also featured quite a few songs. Could Grenade be Just The Way You Are’s successor? After all, her eyes made the stars look like they’re not shining, so they were BRIGHT and WIDE, perhaps? He was pretty much blinded – So don’t even bother asking if you look okay / You know what I’d say! 

OVERALL SCORE = 6.5 / 10
Grenade is a well-executed pop song about heartbreak that unfortunately has lyrics which seem over-the-top and excessively dramatic. Bruno Mars’ execution is excellent, nonetheless.

Cheryl Cole–Fight For This Love

Released October 16, 2009.
Billboard: –
UK Charts: #1.

Personally, I’ve found the quality of Cheryl Cole’s singles to be rather variable – I enjoyed this song and Parachute, while some like the recently released The Flood are decent, but sleepers, and I did not enjoy Promise This at all. Fight For This Love is the 1st single for Ms. Cole (well, outside of her releases under the British girl group Girls Aloud), and is a pretty relaxed song, honestly.

It’s a light dance track; 123 BPM is just a little bit slower than the 130-ish level which I find a good pace. The minor key used is a little bit more interesting than what we normally have. While vocally she’s not too impressive, she isn’t bad either (the song, well, doesn’t have any exceptionally high notes) and I must say her delivery is good. She sounds confident and quite solid on her notes. The reserved, conservative drumlines and occasional piano hits work very well in tandem with her voice on this.

Most of it’s just pretty decent, though I like the instrumentation in the prechorus (Anything that’s worth having/Sure enough worth fighting for…) and especially the bridge (I don’t know where we’re heading….). The breakdown is cleanly executed and seems to work well.

The video is quite amazing – the difficulty of some of those dance moves, or rather synchronising them neatly among such a large number of dancers is considerable. I’m not too much of a fan of the visuals with “Fight For This Love” and what looks like the chorus lyrics in a handwritten font, though. And I don’t get her tiger (or is it leopard) printed hoodie. The uniform looks pretty good, I must say, though!

Lyrically, it’s about a troublesome relationship, though unlike many songs about such relationships which involve spitting in the other party’s face on your way out (Irreplaceable, F**k You!) or breaking things down and either party leaving (I’m Gone by Jay Sean for the troublemaker leaving / Heartless by Kanye West for the victimised) she tries to take positive action to mend the relationship, agreeing to make concessions too, which isn’t a message I often see in pop music. It’s pretty sweet, actually. Not too much to comment on a micro scale, for this song.

OVERALL RATING = 6.5 / 10
Fight For This Love, Cheryl Cole’s first solo single release, is a solid example of decent to good pop music, as far as I’m concerned. The song’s basically about a struggling relationship, though her actions are probably a better reaction than the personas of the singers of >80% of the ‘broken-relationship’ songs out there.

Jason Derulo–Blind

Not released as a single… The album Jason Derülo was released March 2, 2010.

Derulo has released five songs from his album as singles already – Whatcha Say, In My Head, Ridin’ Solo, What If and The Sky’s The Limit. Given that his self-titled debut album only has 9 songs, it seems like quite a bit (though nothing compared to what Kanye West is doing with My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy, or Dark Twisted Fantasy, I can’t remember). Other than What If, the rest of the singles have been pretty energetic, danceable affairs that honestly, though unimpressive, have been more than serviceable – though as some listeners have expressed, they’re probably technologically advanced affairs, especially Ridin’ Solo. Well, the use of autotune… it’s there, and I don’t really see why people should complain about it; I can understand the viewpoint that it requires less skill, but given that in most cases autotune can be identified as being used, I don’t see much grounds for removing it at all. Even if autotune became sophisticated enough to be nearly unidentifiable, I wouldn’t outright reject it too, because as a listener I’m mainly concerned with how a song sounds… And furthermore, vocal tuning requires skill on the part of the sound engineers too.

This one’s one of the slower tracks on the album, and compared to the other ballad on the album, What If, I prefer this one – though it may be a natural bias towards songs with a more “down” message. His vocals are somewhat whiny, but I guess it’s appropriate given the content, and the song seems pretty addictive nonetheless. The production and use of piano are good, the melody is nice, and the autotune is used reasonably smoothly. I like the bridge in this one, too… And the last time he does You’ve made a fool of me~eeeee~ it sounds pretty good too.

Content-wise, this is pretty much a generic heartbreak / break-up kind of song. The lyrics at points are nice, though… Okay…I have little complaints about this, really. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s solid and well produced, and as far as I’m concerned better than all the singles he’s released other than The Sky’s The Limit, probably. The way things are going, though, I don’t know if he’s going to release all 9 songs on his album as singles!

OVERALL SCORE = 6.5 / 10
Blind is a reasonably catchy and solid song about heartbreak that… wasn’t, or at least has not yet been released from Jason Derulo’s debut self-titled album.