Grab a tissue for that leak Drizzy
Like the end to any great weekend, the one that just passed saw what in the music business has become synonymous with success, the leak. Gone are the days when people lined up for records, tapes or CD’s on a Tuesday at HMV or dare I say, Sam The Record Man. These days, one sign that an album is en route to a classic is how much it’s talked about online when it leaks. For those folks not in the know, when an album leaks, it hits the Internet illegally, usually a few weeks prior to its release date, and is downloaded for free by excited fans clamoring to dissect and indulge in new music in the digital age.
This phenomenon is really much more prominent in hip hop than any other type of music but as that genre continues to move towards the main stream, the leak has become something not so simple. So on Sunday around midnight when Drake’s Nothing Was The Same hit the net, the world reacted. This didn’t seem like a normal leak either as social media was going gangbusters with analysis and insights into the meaning of the music and life.
You see Drake is not like normal musicians these days. He’s an unapologetic young millionaire who takes pride in analyzing his life, his success and his shortcomings for the masses to consume. What other 26 year old with that much success would admit to letting some girl run over him like an ’18 wheeler’. So while a Kanye or Jay Z leak is all about the music and how it rates in comparison to their past efforts, a Drake leak spawns something altogether different. Hash tags like #passthetissue, #whitewineandNWTS and #donttextyourex were all over the place because well, Drake brings that out of you, especially when he brings you some music that so intentionally emotional that listeners can’t help but relate. Better still, for those of us from the 416, it’s hard not to relate it to your own world when you hear that just like you, Drake takes “Eglinton to 401 east and, exit at Markham Road in the east end where all the pretty girls sleep in” just to see his girl who he’s beefing with.
That doesn’t sound like Nothing Was The Same to me but all we can say is just for the next few days, don’t press send on that text, sit back, turn the lights low and have a listen. It’s only music mixed in with some feelings.
