Pops Culture

By: Papa Minnow

The end of the year cultivates a period of reflection in which we evaluate what we’ve done, or haven’t done, in order to make changes and improve for the upcoming new year. With only 18 days left, Kanye West made the most of his calendar days of December when he took to his Twitter account Thursday night to air out some things that just didn’t sit right with his spirit.

Throughout the 126 tweet long rant, West focused on his grievance with Drake and touched on various topics such as sneak dissing, Ye’s family, and positive energy. He also shed light on how Toronto’s biggest artist has been carrying himself. Some of those tweets hold credence, which sparked debate, while others were just far off and factually incorrect.

Kanye has been notorious for his strings of thought as he’s had multiple threads of them earlier this year, but it’s this one in particular that has sparked strong speculation surrounding Kanye and Drake.

So Far Gone’s 10-Year Anniversary 

February 13th, 2019 will mark the 10 year anniversary for Drake’s breakthrough mixtape So Far Gone. Last night, Kanye received a text message looking for a sample clearance for Drake’s song Say What’s Real which samples Kanye’s Say You Will song off 808s & Heartbreak.

This was the initial tweet that set West off, and provided him an opportunity to speak on Drake. However, this begs the question, is Drake doing something special for the 10 year anniversary of So Far Gone? 

Initial reports have stated that he’s looking to release it on all streaming platforms under his OVO label. I assume this release would simply come with some mastering edits to the audio quality, but fans would certainly hope for some kind of special addition to be accompanied with it.

If Drake does have a roll-out plan for this release, not only has it now been outed by West (second time GOOD Music has ruined the 6 god’s plans), but he’s going to have to make good with him if it wants to see the light of day.

No Ye, No Drake?

Kanye has been one of the most influential artists in hip-hop ever since he emerged on scene. He’s pushed the boundaries for what was considered “traditional” hip-hop music through his own musical genius.

While his first two album releases were critically acclaimed, it wasn’t until his release of Graduation, in which Kanye went head-to-head against 50 Cent and won, that gangster rap’s grip on hip-hop began to loosen across the industry.

West took it further when he released 808’s & Heartbreak which started a whole new wave of artistry and created one of the biggest staples in the genre: 808 drums.

That sound birthed and inspired many artists, including Drake, who got his biggest break through that sound of music when his So Far Gone mixtape hit the scene. While it’s impossible to quantify the exact influence Kanye’s had, there is no denying that he’s been an instrumental piece in Drake’s success along with the success of many other artists who’ve followed after West’s footsteps.

YANDHI Is On The Way…Maybe

Kanye knows how to draw attention to himself. Every release this year has come with some sort of public gesture to get the media and fans speaking on his name.

The last public display came about around the time he was set to announce the release date of the Yeezy 350s V2 the new Yeezy 500. The public had been previously told by Kanye that YANDHI would drop September 29th, the day after the Carter V, but that day came and went with no release leaving fans wondering.

We later found out that Kanye decided to go to Africa in order to complete the album. Since then we haven’t heard any word on when the album is set to drop, but with this recent stream of thought, the album or a single off the album may be on the way.