hop918 posted... Ok so in your clarification you said contributions to rap is one of the criteria, in your opinion what has Drake contributed to rap?
He got popular because of the rap nerd stuff, which was on the rise with Kanye, then he moved more into the emotional singing dude when every rapper was using autotune and trying to sing on their records, and finally he moved on to what he does now which is pop rap which he definitely didn't start.
It feels more like Drake just tries to stay relevant by switching styles, not saying that's a bad thing or he's bad at them per se, but he's just chasing popularity because he wants to be liked, in my opinion. I don't think he's actually contributed much to hip hop as a whole just kind of followed the flow of what's popular.
Honestly depends on if you wanna Count his RnB song writing (Im iffy on counting that myself)
But In general not a lot. But like you said most of his cultural shifts werent something he lead the charge on.
Sure he has a lot of iconic songs, and like 3-4 fringe classic albums/mixtapes, but he doesnt have a true moment in time.
while his contemporaries like Kendrick and Kanye both have those in spades.
if I had to actually score Drake
Commercial success 12/10
Lyrical ability 8/10
Cultural contributions 4/10
just off the top of my head. If I actually took the time to score out multiple rappers Id probably shift the numbers around when I start to compare score and get a proper scale. I also feel like Im missing at least another category I just cant think of it rn