Luke has advice for Wayne, Drake and Ross....

So some of you who commonly peruse hip-hop blogs have probably read up about this by now. Of course, any comment that has Wayne or Drake's name in it is going to make a big splash. This tidbit I received courtesy of Mocradio.com and some excerpts from an interview they had posted. Here are the relevant quotes:

“H*ll, Forbes magazine just named Hova the highest-earning rap star. Others on the list include P. Diddy, Kanye, Lil Wayne, and Eminem, another guy I think is right up there with Jay-Z. Eminem raps his a** off on every album he’s put out,” Luke said in a blog posting. “In fact, aside from Jay-Z and Eminem, there are very few hip-hop artists who can really claim the title. In the ’90s, you knew Tupac and Biggie Smalls were the absolute best in the game. Those guys dropped verse after verse without their buddies rapping on their tracks. Nowadays you have too many hip-hop male performers doing collaborations with guest rappers. A Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, or Drake album will almost always have some other artist showing up to rap every five minutes.” (Miami New Times)

“Carol City native Ross has certainly evolved into a h*lluva lyricist. But he needs to do a song on his own that will stand the test of time like Biggie’s “Juicy” or Tupac’s “Dear Mama.” The same can be said of Lil Wayne and Drake. I’d like to hear those two cats produce an album without a guest appearing on songs,” Luke added. “Don’t get me wrong — Lil Wayne’s lyrics are out of this world. But you can’t just do one verse per song and then call yourself the greatest. That’s bullsh*t…If Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, and Drake want to take that title from Jay-Z and Eminem, they need to carry albums on their own.” (Miami New Times)

 

 

Luke makes some good points with his statements. The majority of classic albums have very few features and have artists totally exposing themselves in some way and totally zoning out making songs that all come together with another to tell a complete picture. A recent example of this is the focused effort Ace Hood just released. While it isn't a classic album, he held it down mostly by himself and really put in the effort. None of these top three artists right now have managed to make a full album that resonates truly into the souls of listeners. 

The other main issue is a lack of focus on songs and progression on a track when you're only doing one verse or maybe two, especially when the song isn't about anything at all. Drake for the most part kept his album to himself however nothing really was about him on the effort, the songs were all impersonal and general whinery about being famous. To be honest features can be good but when used judiciously like seasoning on food, not poured all over everything all of the time.