Music Reviews: Drake

Drake
"Care Package" (Ovo Sound)
Drake "Care Package" (Ovo Sound)

Other than making himself annoyingly unavoidable courtside during televised Toronto Raptors playoff games, Drake has kept a low profile in 2019, giving the world a break after dominating streaming music services with last year's bloated "Scorpion." But though he's not flush with new music, the Canadian rapper and singer is still finding a way to top the charts. "Care Package" is an excavation of his back pages, a high-quality compilation of singles and semi-rarities once found on his SoundCloud page that never made it onto any of his five previous official albums.

The trip down memory lane with a photo of an Acura on its cover is a reminder of halcyon days when Drizzy didn't yet own a Lamborghini, and actually deigned to drive his girlfriend though a snowstorm to take the bar exam, a magnanimous act he boasts about in "How 'Bout Now," from 2014. Drake's willingness to flaunt his sensitivity has always been a big part of his mainstream appeal, but it's hard to appear truly vulnerable when you reach his level of megastardom. "Care Package" is a smooth move in that it brings the more human Drake back into the picture, as he plays the sad-boy card on 2010's "I Get Lonely Too" and also 2014's Johnny Manziel- and Andrew Wiggins-praising "Draft Day," which reminds us that Drake is as untrustworthy as a sports talent scout as he has been consistently on point as a rapper. 

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