THE FLOW IS A COLLAGE

Drake - Juice

Colin Munroe (feat. Drake) - Cannon Ball

I'm still blown away by the fact that Wheelchair Jimmy from Degrassi: The Next Generation grew up to be the most talked about rapper/singer/ladies man of 09. And for good god damn reason. Dabbling in everything from straight hip hop, R&B jams, piano instrumentals, even re-arranging Lykke Li and Peter Bjorn & John jawns on his mixtapes, his sound is an effortless myriad of style upon style.

Taken from the Heartbreak Drake Pt. 2 mixtape, Drake jocks the melody line from Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner", puts it through a toy keyboard, adds some stomp and decides to give it the borderline-whisper-rap treatment. Trying not to bop your head to this is impossible. Cannon Ball is a joint I overlooked when I first posted about Colin Munroe a while ago. From the Unsung Hero mixtape, it's a pop explosion of super sweet keys and synths, melodies and guitars ensconced in reverb, Kanye-esque drums and Drake flowing with what I can only describe as "cruise control vulnerability".

[Drake MySpace]

[Thank Me Later is due for release later this year through Young Money Entertainment/Universal Records.]