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Dark Lane Demo Tapes


May 12, 2020

Drake's Dark Lane Demo Tapes Prequel

Written by @DocLJ / 5 mins read

Drake surprised us with an unexpected mixtape this past Friday called Dark Lane Demo Tapes, which is a teaser for his upcoming 6th album this summer. We haven't heard a project from Drake since his 2018 5th album Scorpion, but he did release the song "When To Say When" back in March and he appeared on Diddy's Instagram live story to announce he's working on something new. After the picture release of his son Adonis and maybe baby momma issues, let's see what Drizzy has to tell us on his prequel mixtape to see if he can own another summer this year with his new album, (if we are going to have a summer this year). The mixtape features Chris Brown, Giveon, Future, Young Thug, Playboi Carti and others.

Drake and his past relationships (again)!

The mixtape starts with the song "Deep Pockets" that sounds like a Scorpion leftover and the instrumental, which is produced by 40, fits with Drake's flow. "When To Say When" which was dropped in March, has a sample from Jay-Z's "Song Cry" and this is where Drake still proves that he can hold his own on the mic on this full verse song with no hooks. The video for this song is shot at Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, New York where Jay-Z grew up. In the next couple of songs, Drake goes again in love and relationship topics. We have the song "Chicago Freestyle" featuring Giveon where Drake reminisces about his past relationships and mistakes. The instrumental is good, and Drake did a good job by interpolating Eminem's "Superman" with his own word and story. Then there's the song "Not You Too" featuring Chris Brown on the background vocals. The tempo of the song with Drake's flow was so slow that it kind of bore me, as the message of the song where Drake feels betrayed by a girl again makes me wonder does Drake ever learns from his mistakes. We're supposed to see another collaboration between Drake and Brown on Drake's upcoming album, but this collaboration is not impressive compared to Chris Brown's "No Guidelines" which featured Drake on Brown's latest album, Indigo, and hopefully, Drake will let Breezy sing a verse on his album. Now, who remembers "In My Feelings" aka the Kiki song from Drake? Well, he did not outdo himself this time, but "Toosie Slide" still went viral when Drake released a video of him with other people dancing to the song, and then it took over Tik Tok. The song is less annoying and cornier than "In My Feelings" but it's still a song that most people are already tired of hearing but yet again, Drake is known to make those type of corny songs like "Hotline Bling", because he's knows it's going to be a hit; good marketing strategy. Then we have the song "Desires" featuring Future. The song "Time Flies" is a personal song for Drake as he talks about a relationship he had with a girl. On this smooth synthesizer and background cymbals, Drake mentions the love he had for this girl, the good times, the mistakes, the regrets, and how he loved her too much but now that she is not here anymore, he feels lost and lonely while driving around in his Audi TT thinking of her. I would understand most people would hate that song but honestly, sometimes some songs speak to you, and if you haven't gone to the same situation as the artist, you wouldn't like or understand the song.

Party and Losses

Halfway through the mixtape, we're at the song "Landed" and it sounds like a club song or a song that you'll put in your car on full blast. Scratch what I just said about "Landed". If you want a song to blast a song to explose your car speakers, "D4L" featuring Young Thug and Future is the specific song for that. The instrumental is a killer but if you're a hardcore hip-hop fan and you like to pay attention to the lyrics, please don't and just enjoy the vibe of the beat. The song also pays homage to the Atlanta group D4L, who popularized the catchphrase "What's Hatnin'" which is said a lot in the song "D4L". D4L also included late member Shawty Lo who passed away on September 21st, 2016. Then we have another trap music song called "Pain 1993" featuring Playboi Carti. I'm already not a fan of trap music, and this song did not help the case of me liking it, and I don't know who Playboi Carti is, but his verse was bad. "Losses" is where Drake tones down the album, where he opens up about relationships, not only love relationships. He talks about old friends or new people who pretend to be friends and people who walked out of his life without any notice. The song includes Instagram stories that Drake did with his father. The following song "From Florida With Love" is where Drake reminisces about the times of Young Money with Lil' Wayne recording the Carter 3 with Static Major, Drake, and the late Kobe Bryant was in the bus with them listening. The album finishes with the songs "Demons" featuring Sosa Geek and Fivio Foreign and "War".