The hottest thing in the streets right now, without a doubt, is Drake. The premiere signee to Lil’ Wayne’s Young Money imprint, the Toronto, Canada bred artist has been making a name for himself in the underground for the last few years. Most recently, since being taken under the wing of Wayne, Drake has received instant credibility, but not without good reason. He now performs at sold out shows at Black colleges as the headlining act, with entire audiences singing along to his every word – and this is all of the strength of his music being downloaded off the internet and passed around dorm halls. There is no album, there is no digital single release, there’s not even a physical mix CD. Yes, the new hood messiah has nothing tangible to speak of and still has legions of followers. Mirroring his mentor Lil’ Wayne before him, Drake’s leaking of his own music has paid off substantially, making him the most buzz-worthy new artist in hip-hop at the moment. Take that, RIAA.

The release that has caused all of this hullabaloo is So Far Gone, a sort of mixtape/album/demo/bootleg that has been officially endorsed by the artist, and has spread like wildfire. What separates Drake from the rest of the pack is that within the release of this mixtape, he has managed to create his own sound and style, in terms of both lyrical style and production. He shares the same clever stream of consciousness wordplay as his partner Wayne, but without the wheezy (Weezy) rasp. Instead, Drake’s voice is smooth enough that when he’s not amazing the listener with his witty double entendres, he’s singing. Yeah, singing... like doing R&B shit…. and it’s dope.

This all comes together with his unique production handled mostly by in house producer Noah “40” Shebib who provides an earthy, meditative beat style, similar to the music found on Andre 3000′s The Love Below or Kanye West’s 808 & Heartbreaks. Light percussions, low-end basslines, and atmospheric keyboards culminate in a sound that’s more Radiohead than Mannie Fresh. This against the grain approach – that is, letting an artist actually make the kind of music he wants to make – works in Drake’s favor tremendously, increasing his mystique with the audience.

The mold for what is expected on this style of release is broken – as  “So Far Gone” is a collection of mostly original songs – some which may or may not end up making his eventual Young Money release. Whether or not they do makes no difference, as this release is as relevant to his career as a hissing Illmatic pre-release dub in 1993 or Wayne’s Dedication mixtape with DJ Drama. Instead of using this as a platform to freestyle over other rapper’s beats – which only happens twice on this record – instead we get professionally mastered, finished songs from the artist, which raises the bar for budding mixtape rappers everywhere.

The album opens with “Lust For Life”, which finds Drake standing on the brink of blowing up, examining his current life situations in the calm before the storm. Here, he presents cleverly written, introspective lyrics over on of Shebib’s trademark minimalist beats. However the storm hasn’t come yet, so the calm continues throughout the remainder of the album. Rather than relying on club bangers or crunk anthems, he instead reels the audience in with a smoother approach, on songs like the hypnotic “Houstatlantavegas” or “Successful” (feat. Lil Wayne & Trey Songz), which present some of the same themes found in your average commercial rap song, but presented in a more artistic fashion.

His bubbling single, “Best I Ever Had” is a love song which opts for rolling pianos rather than keyboard synth stabs, where Drake pulls no punches about the girl most special to him, as he sings “you the fuckin’ best, best I ever had..,” during the hook. He trades smoothed out vocals with ruff rhymes line for line, summing up his overall commercial / underground appeal in one lyric, “When my album drop, bitches will buy it for picture / and niggas will too and claim they bought it for their sister!”

Drake balances out his image as a cool rapper/singer by stepping outside the box a bit. Hype Machine junkies are already hip to Drake through his various collaborations with artists like Santogold (“Unstoppable”), Lykki Li (“Little Bit”), and Peter Bjorn & John, (“Let’s Call It Off”), all of which are included here. Amazingly, these cross-genre collaborations fit in perfectly with the rest of what he is doing on this album, never disrupting the flow or sound created by his other producers. In a rare occurrence, one can hardly tell which is the guest artist, Drake or his collaborators. In short, he’s a natural.

Props are due to Lil’ Wayne’s for breaking the mold of what we have come to expect from rapper label imprints. Rather than filling his roster with a bunch of longtime homies and cousins, his signing of Drake is more akin to Dr. Dre signing Eminem than 50 Cent signing Tony Yayo. With the release of this mixtape-album, Drake has carved out his own niche, without the help of a major label, proving there might just be hope for the music industry after all. – Pizzo