It looks like “Drizzy” has done it once again. He’s reminded us why he’s one of the best rappers in the game right now.

Drake’s newest album/mixtape, “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late,” dropped Feb. 12 and surprised everyone with its similarity to Beyoncé for having no promotion at all, an odd move for the commercial artist. With seventeen tracks of hard-hitting melancholia, “sixth woes,” and early 2000s R&B sampling, the album is a well-done, oversized portioned, 3-course American-Canadian meal that has fed the starving masses of rap music enthusiasts at last.

It has been a long time since Drake used his “wrist motion” technique to cook something up, (his last album “Nothing was the Same” was released in 2013) so for a minute there I began to think of him as a whiney, over emotional, hyped up, stripper obsessed, Degrassi rapper, and totally forgot how much talent he actually possesses.

Songs like ‘Madonna’ feature well matured vampy vocals and a slow, pilled-up beat with a ghostly piano in the background. Whereas songs like ‘Energy’ and ‘6 Man’ have a heavy nonchalant, thug-life vibe to go with the clean deliberate beat.

Drake made the smart decision to limit the use of collaboration with other artists to four songs. Lil Wayne collaborates on the song ‘Used To’ where they make it clear that their street cred is not to be trifled with even though they’re famous now.

Without a doubt my favorite song on the release is ‘Jungle’, a song about Drake’s self-awareness of his unfair treatment to a much deserving woman in his life. Opening with a whispy and angsty R&B sample and murky piano undertones, it’s a perfect example of the trancelike Toronto sound Drake’s label OVO is known for.

‘Jungle,’ along with many other songs, is produced by the original sad rapper’s sidekick Noah “40” Shebib who’s known for codeine-laced drone beats. Boi-1da is another influential Producer on the mixtape producing seven songs, PND produces a bit too and new rapper Travi$ Scott, produces and is featured on the song ‘Company’ with cage-like slightly auto tuned rapping.

With his new title, the ‘6god,’ Drake actually lives up to his opening track named ‘Legend’, there’s an undeniable genius to Drakes newest album. Perhaps this genius is most evident on my second favorite song “You & The 6”, written like a one-way conversation between the rapper and his single mom, it’s extremely conscious and sensitive and reveals the striking realization that being a rapper isn’t a choice for the former ‘Degrassi’ actor but is an art form that embodies every fiber of his being, he gets downright neurotic and uses an “aggressive tone” with his mother in the hypothetical conversation where he tries to get her to understand why he is the way he is:

“You got the sweetest heart but I’m not here to give out compliments, or boost nobody confidence momma
I got no friends in this momma
I don’t pretend with this momma
I’on joke with this momma
I pull the knife out my back and cut they throat with it momma
I’m “Game of Thrones” with it momma
I’m “Home Alone” with it momma
I’m t-
I really hate using this tone with you momma
I really hate getting aggressive on this phone with you momma
I just- I- I can’t be out here being vulnerable momma
I mean I kill em every time they do a song with me momma
I sing a hook they sing along with me momma
What more they want from me momma?”

And to the last line of that excerpt I respond with nothing, we need nothing else from Drake to prove his genius, he’s solidified his place with the greats in “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late”.