Drake’s ‘Care Package’

A collection of tracks that were only available on Soundcloud and Youtube plays like a shadow history of his decade-long dominance. 

 

When Drake posted “Dreams Money Can Buy” on his label’s blog in May 2011, two historic events were just over the horizon: the U.S. launch of Spotify in July and the inauguration of “YOLO” as the national catchphrase in November. These two things would, of course, help define the Drake we know and love (and some love to hate): the meme-savvy titan of the streaming age, swole and immaculately bearded, feuding with the likes of Kanye West over who’s got the bigger swimming pool. But at that time, Drake — who released his debut album in 2010, and would later bestow YOLO upon the world via “The Motto” — had yet to fully arrive. He opens “Dreams” with his half self-deprecating, half self-aggrandizing version of a dating-app profile: “I got car money, fresh start money / I want Saudi money, I want art money / I want women to cry and pour out they heart for me.” Now, of course, he’s got diamond-encrusted-Damien-Hirst-skull money, and the song opens up
“Trust Issues” and “Days in the East” remind us that when Aubrey Graham first got into the game, he was formulating a contrarian take on the then-dominant hip-hop and R&B: slowing down and softening up the former, and bringing TMI intimacy to the latter. He has since become known, of course, as the great synthesizer (or appropriator, if you’re saucy) of his era: rap flows, global sounds, Lauryn Hill micro-hooks — they’re all rolled up into a neverending real-time homage to his cool friends, childhood crushes and SoundCloud finds. His boldest and also, somehow, most sly borrowing is here: “Girls Love Beyonce,” in which he and featured vocalist James Fauntleroy reduce the chorus of “Say My Name” by Destiny’s Child down to the quintessence of indolent male longing. It’s Drake directly addressing his forebears, but also in conversation with himself. Like most of this collection, it was, and is, an evanescent pleasure — a ripple worth remembering in today’s seemingly endless stream