To tell the truth, I heard this song about a week ago when it hit the web, but it has taken me a long time to write about it because I am constantly going back and forth between loving it and hating it. I am not generally one to post a piece of music just to bash it (well…), so I did not want to feature this song on WGWI if I was just going to write a long rant about how musicians should not be brought back from the dead. Even though the Tupac hologram was a pretty cool, novelty idea, when I heard rumors of the hologram going on tour, I was disgusted. Just let him rest in peace, you know? And as much as I love Aaliyah (who doesn’t), I am not so sure I am excited to hear a whole album of remixed songs with rappers just using her voice as a backdrop to promote their own agendas. If she was alive and allowed them to do that, then fine, but it just feels kind of creepy to me to use her voice as a backing track when she has no say if she wants to do a song with you or not.
That being said, this song is pretty solid. Especially the Aaliyah part (but that should be no surprise, I guess). And if there was anyone who was going to do a track with her, then it would definitely be Drake. I mean, for God’s sake, he has two tattoos of her and he admits to loving her in basically every song he’s ever released (it is okay Rihanna, he still loves you too).
The track is low key, soft and erethral and the beat is exactly what you would expect from a dead R&B sensation and a soft-core hip-hop phenom collaboration. The entire thing is pretty minimalistic, especially since there seems to only be a drum machine and maybe two or three other actual instruments. The rest is all effects. While Aaliyah sings about the need to talk things out by singing “Can’t you talk to me / can’t you talk to me / tell me what you need / tell me what you need” over and over along with other “talk to me about your problems boo” sentiments, while Drake raps about how being rich is hard. While these two things do not really seem to work together, Drake throws in a very quick head nod towards Aaliyah’s part of the song by saying “I don’t know if speaking on it helps / This is just the shit that’s on my mind / I’ll just keep it to myself, ya know” as his last few lines on the track.
Looking at this track as just that, an individual track, I am really happy with it. But if I am given an entire album of this, then I am not sure if I will be as content to just nod along with this type of thing. Can we just let the dead stay dead? I appreciate the fact that he wants her music to be shown to the world, but if it was really about Aaliyah, then he would not tack his own name onto her new music. It just seems like a marketing tactic to me, and I am not that big of a fan. However, there is some promise that this could be good, so you might be reading me eating my words once/if the full length of Aaliyah/Drake drops. I guess only time will tell. But in the meantime, check out “Enough Said” below and let me know how you feel about this track and collaboration!
