What A Time To Be Alive was served up on a dessert platter on Sunday during Drake’s OVO SOUND radio show on Apple Music’s Beats 1.
Since then, Drake and Future’s sonic snack has been divvied up amongst the masses, broken down to its list of ingredients and analyzed for flavor, sugar content, weight, height and cooking methodology.
What utensils were used to stir the pot? How many seconds did it cook for? How many granules of sugar did they put in it? How many calories?
Come on, people.
Drake and Future’s most recent project has been out for two days – since its drop, the mixtape has been examined and analyzed from every aspect imaginable.
Some common criticisms that have arisen so far: “I thought it was going to be better,” or “It’s not as good as Drake and Future’s old stuff,” and “It didn’t live up to its hype.”
It’s not that deep.
First of all, these two artists just released albums that topped the charts: Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late and Future’s Dirty Sprite 2 were both critically acclaimed No. 1 albums.
They were full meals, prepared over the course of months then honed, refined and polished – full-length studio albums no matter how you look at it.
WATTBA is labeled, rightfully so, as a mixtape.
The artists on the tape are very different – Future’s hard, gutsy trap persona and Drake’s self-conscious, Degrassi-turned-rapper persona are on opposite sides of the rap spectrum.
What’s more, the rappers had a fight in 2013 and Future tried to sue Drake.
The fact that they can come together an make genuine music at all is incredible by itself.
Smoothing any discrepancies between their two personalities is never going to happen in a 6-day project – and the rappers realize this, so they just get on the tracks and do their own thing.
WATTBA is just the icing on the cake for these artists – a cherry on top of the artist’s most successful releases in their careers.
If WATTBA didn’t sound as “good” as IYRTITL or DS2, its like comparing a 5-course meal to a little pastry.
If you nitpick every little thing, it won’t taste good at all. The mixtape doesn’t have the most cutting-edge lyrics, but who said it had to?
It has good lyrics and very good production via Metro Boomin. Who said this mixtape was going to be world-changing?
Drake and Future certainly didn’t.
But, if you lower your expectations from WATTBA, the treat is tasty and enjoyable.
Ease up on the notion that Drake and Future’s small collaboration is going to be the world’s most influential and highly lauded mixtape of all time – it’s obviously not.
Sure, the bars they spit aren’t as well thought out or as serious as their previous projects, but its clear Drake and Future aren’t that worried about it.
It’s a one-off project that the artists had fun with.
All listeners should do is enjoy the taste.
And with WATTBA, a 6-day project, set to sell 500,000 copies in the first week – I’m sure Drake and Future couldn’t care less about who cares less about their newest musical project.
No one is about to starve Drake or Future – they’re charged up.
Brian Windschitl is the senior arts editor and can be reached at brian.windschitl@ubspectrum.com
