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8.4
13475
8.4 |
Pitchfork
Drake manages to make his plight tugging and relatable thanks to a potent mix of empathy, candidness, and grandeur. This is mood music inspired by rap and R&B in equal measure
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8.0
13577
8.0 |
Spin
It's a testament to the album's weird cohesion that the menagerie of guests—Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, The-Dream, et al.—doesn't overwhelm the host and turn the entire operation into an unseemly
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7.5
13755
7.5 |
Prefix
For better or worse this is almost certainly going to be the one that connects with the most people
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7.0
13473
7.0 |
Rolling Stone
Drake is in total command of a style that would have been hard to imagine dominating hip-hop a few years ago: He's subtle and rueful rather than loud and lively; emotionally transparent rather than thuggy
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7.0
13474
7.0 |
PopMatters
Drake gets an ‘A’ for ambition, at least. The album is good at parts, but never great
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6.0
13692
6.0 |
NME
The beats generally complement Drake’s laid-back, meandering rhymes and often the whole thing comes perilously close to – whisper it – trip-hop
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5.0
13581
5.0 |
The Observer
Drake is undoubtedly an accomplished rapper but his style, combining Jay-Z's laid-back swagger with Kanye West's rhyming patterns and Lil Wayne's drawl, is too familiar to set him apart
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4.2
13476
4.2 |
Beats Per Minute
Drake seems like a nice enough guy, but he doesn’t do anything on his debut album to justify his high opinion of his own career. Don’t believe the hype
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4.0
13491
4.0 |
Eye Weekly
If all Drake’s going to do with fame is moan about the minutiae of his own famousness, can’t we give the mic instead to someone who doesn’t take himself so seriously
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4.0
14853
4.0 |
Mojo
Print edition only
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