Drake - Free Smoke (More Life Track #1) Review

"Free Smoke, Free Smoke ayyy"... Now, this song is a nice introduction to an album (at least for me...)! It's catchy, it has elements of everything and it's not too long to bore you right at the start of the album, but it's also not too short to show you too little. The song starts rather interesting, with clean vocals from a lovely lady named Nai Palm. At first, I thought this track was going to be just a short interlude, without Drake on it, just to set the mood for this record, but after the clean vocals right at the start, the bass started poppin' and Drake came out with some fire! I was pleseantly surprised as I was not expecting that at all.


He starts the track with some fire, as always...

Though, I feel like chorus could have been a bit better and contain a few more interesting rhymes rather than just being "Free smoke, free smoke ayyyy"...

The high point of this song is this verse, which is absolutely ON FIRE! I especially like those KD references.

All in all, a pretty solid start to this "playlist", I would say...

"MORE LIFE" - First listen

I gotta say, after "Views", we all thought Drake became a lot softer and that his "If You're Reading This..." days are over. I mean, I really dig "Views" as the album is a lot different and has a really lovely vibe to it, as Drake said, it represents Toronto during different seasons, so that's why there are a lot of mood changes. But, hearing the first track from "More Life", I immediately thought: "Old Drake is back". The first track "Free Smoke" (which I actually thought was going to be a short interlude, like an introduction to this album) turned out to be a real banger and I was smiling throughout the whole song. The second one, "No Long Talk" was also a banger and the bass was just poppin'. The following few tracks were definitiely a bit Views-esque, which I really liked, personally, with a few interesting short interludes. I really like the beat on the track "4412", but I was dissapointed Drake didn't even have a single verse on it. Personally, I think Drake's high pitch singing would fit in really well in that beat. Then the song "Gyalchester" came on and we were back to the same vibe we had on the beginning on this album. The song "Portland" contains two great collaborations (Quavo & Travis Scott, but hey it's Drake, he can get anyone he wants on his song...) and the beat is off the charts (I really recommend checking it out). Generally, I'm really surprised by the beats on this album and the next few songs prove that ("Sacrifices", "Nothings Into Somethings", "KMT").  Another thing that stood out on this album for me was the track "Can't Have Everything" which has the same beat as the track "Back To Back" Drake did a few months ago while that Meek Mill beef era, which is not a bad thing, of course, the beat is powerful AF. The track near the end of the record called "Ice Melts" ft. Young Thug also caught my year and I was just smiling throughout the whole track... It's just very relaxed, funny song that was record purely for fun with zero expectations (at least that's what seems to me...) And that would be it for the first listen, I'm definitely going to listen to this thing a loooot more and I'll definitely be enjoying it throughout the year. There are many songs (22 to be precise) on this record and I think Drake has really put out an album which will keep the fans satisfied for at least another year.

Really "Started from the bottom" or nah?

Remember that music video where Drake states that he started from the bottom, like 50 times? Well, many people will tell you that's not true, at least in the comment section... But, is it? Or maybe, he doesn't mean that he "started from the bottom" in the financial context...

So, Drake's mother was an English teacher and it is well-known that he comes from a nice and educated family, unlike many rappers who came from the street and didn't even have a family. Many of them used their poverty as a motivation and that can be a big plus simply because when you are at the bottom, you have NOTHING to lose... You can only go up and it can only get better for you. However, Drake had to find his motivation somewhere else as he was already living a decent life and he didn't really have to hustle so hard. Many people say that the phrase "started from the bottom" means that he started from the bottom of the rap game, not in life. I mean, that's probably true, and it turned out really well for him as he used his, let's say, "uniqueness" to gain attention and make him stand out. There was once a study that showed Drake was one of the most "non-lyrical" rappers out there, with one of the most necessitous vocabularies in the rap game, using a small amount of words in his songs. Or maybe, he just wanted to prove that everything's possible in life and you can achieve everything you want, if you work hard enough... And Drake's success is undeniable, whether you like him or not.