So Far Gone

When this album came out I was a sophomore in High School. I remember buying an iPod touch off of craigslist at the beginning of the year, and then rolling the dice for weeks straight by downloading music off of LimeWire and hoping to God that I didn’t just give my windows 98 ass computer cancer. If that didn’t just send a wave of nostalgia over you, then I apologize because your childhood probably sucked.

Apple released the entirety of So Far Gone Friday and I had such a strange inclination to listen to every track uninterrupted. So Far Gone really redefined music. In 2009, this pop music culture was really at its highest. Radio still played the same 30 songs every day, but the market wasn’t as saturated with noise and recycled lines as it is today. 2009 Drake was a different beast. 2009 Drake was lyrically on point and he had a very distinct flow to his music. 2009 Drake was the soundtrack of every high school dance after party.

Now So Far Gone is nowhere near as ground breaking as Thriller by Michael Jackson, but it had a very significant impact nonetheless. I almost guarantee you that everyone in 2009 had the exact same playlist. We always talk about music retrospectively and regardless of musical taste, I think we can all agree that Drake is among the top 3 most popular musical artists in today’s music. I don’t agree with some of his music, and I think his flow is monotonous and pandering sometimes, but I don’t listen to music to learn about the world or learn how to write. Music is the background noise of our life. Yes Tupac is an amazing writer, and his music will live on for ages, but let’s not forget he dropped a diss track calling Biggie a fat motherf___er and said that he f___ed his b__ch.

The subliminal emotions that are attached to smells, sounds, or tastes is the strongest pulls we’ll feel in life. Hearing the chorus of Successful, or the intro to Best I Ever Had puts me back in high school with my ridiculous shoulder length hair and my old ass Volvo S40, playing So Far Gone through my cassette auxiliary cable converter. We listen to music that we resonate with. We listen to music that gives us the greatest sense of security. As stupid as it sounds, this album is that solace for me… even if it’s very fleeting.

Check out Drake’s album So Far Gone that Apple Music rereleased.