Speaker 1: Yo, what's up? Music heads? Welcome back to Crash Course
Speaker 1: Pod and I'm your host ash Tone. After we went
Speaker 1: deep on Stevie Wonder, shout out to you guys for
Speaker 1: making that our most listened to episode ever, I wanted
Speaker 1: to pivot. We've been talking about legends and their prime
Speaker 1: Stevie Wonder, Phil Collins, but today I want to go
Speaker 1: back to the beginning of a legacy. How did this
Speaker 1: come about? Well, I actually re listened to this album
Speaker 1: mixtape last summer, like in August, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: do an episode then and I scratched it, and then
Speaker 1: it's been popping up in my head a lot recently.
Speaker 1: So here we are. So we're hitting to six think
Speaker 1: Baggy Jeans, MySpace Top eights and a kid from Toronto
Speaker 1: named Aubrey Graham trying to shed the TV actor skin.
Speaker 1: We're talking about Room for Improvement. Listening to Room for
Speaker 1: Improvement circa summer twoenty twenty five or even now in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, it's super nostalgic, it's raw and honestly
Speaker 1: it's the soul sampling drake that most people missed a lot.
Speaker 1: So let's get into it. Let's talk about the sound.
Speaker 1: If you're a fan of that warm, chopped up soul production,
Speaker 1: this tape is the Holy Grill. Even though he was
Speaker 1: a kid from Cannon, he was obsessed with the North
Speaker 1: Carolina sound. Think Nice Wonder and Little Brother. You hear
Speaker 1: it on tracks like AM two Pm and Thrill Is Gone.
Speaker 1: The beats aren't stadium anthems. They're dusty, soulful and intimate.
Speaker 1: And the flow it's high effort. He's rapping like he's
Speaker 1: got a point to prove. He hasn't found that effortless
Speaker 1: melodic drawl yet. But he's hitting every syllable using heavy punchlines.
Speaker 1: And you can hear the Loop a Fiasco influence all
Speaker 1: over the cadences. It's the sound of a student studying
Speaker 1: the masters, and it's not just Loop a Fiasco. If
Speaker 1: I had to describe the sound of this tape to
Speaker 1: someone who's never heard it, I tell them to imagine
Speaker 1: a melting pot of the grates. It's got that diggable
Speaker 1: planet's jazz cool and that late nineties Brooklyn grit. It
Speaker 1: sounds like Loopa and Bob had a baby in Toronto.
Speaker 1: There's even a bit of that early Mac Miller easy
Speaker 1: Mac energy. Just a kid and his friends making music
Speaker 1: in a bedroom, not realizing they're about to shift the culture.
Speaker 1: It's conscious, its backpack and incredibly nostalgic. Okay, so now
Speaker 1: for the music nerds, did you know that Room Improvement?
Speaker 1: Room for Improvement almost didn't happen. Drake actually had an
Speaker 1: entire other debut project recorded before this, but in a
Speaker 1: total two thousand and five nightmare, the computer it was
Speaker 1: on got a virus and crashed. I wonder if they
Speaker 1: were downloading from frost wire or LimeWire. Anyways, it crashed
Speaker 1: and everything was gone. Room for Improvement was actually the
Speaker 1: plan B. He linked up with DJ Small, the Southern
Speaker 1: smoke legend, to host it. So if you're new here
Speaker 1: back in the day, it was like a huge credibility
Speaker 1: if a DJ hosted your mixtape. So think about it.
Speaker 1: A kid from Toronto getting a major Florida DJ to
Speaker 1: co sign his tape. It was a genius move to
Speaker 1: get us ears on the project. They sold it as
Speaker 1: a retail mixtape and get this, Drake's first ever rap
Speaker 1: paycheck from this tape was about three hundred dollars maybe
Speaker 1: three hundred and four dollars from six thousand copies sold
Speaker 1: out of a trunk to millions today, literally from my
Speaker 1: trunk too, I don't know. To the millions, I don't know,
Speaker 1: But that's actually humble beginnings at its finest. That's the energy.
Speaker 1: While he did sell those six thousand copies, it's worth
Speaker 1: noting he was selling them for ten dollars each at
Speaker 1: the time, or so I heard, and the three hundred
Speaker 1: figure is actually what he had left over in his
Speaker 1: pocket after paying back the production costs and the DJ's
Speaker 1: smallest feme. It's a great humble beginning detail, if I
Speaker 1: do say so myself. So how did the world take
Speaker 1: it in two thousand and six? The reception was complicated.
Speaker 1: I was there. I know I personally loved it because
Speaker 1: I liked that Lupe Fiasco, Bob Digable Planets, jazzy hip
Speaker 1: hop sound, late nineties Brooklyn rap scene. I liked that
Speaker 1: type of vibe. So I loved it, and most everybody
Speaker 1: in my circle would clown me for it. But a
Speaker 1: lot of the music heads liked it too, So if
Speaker 1: the mainstream people kind of turned their noses up, but
Speaker 1: a lot of the underground people loved it. But anyways,
Speaker 1: outside of my own personal experiences, how did everyone else
Speaker 1: take it well. In Toronto, rumor has it that people
Speaker 1: were skeptical they saw quote unquote Jimmy Brooks from Degrassi,
Speaker 1: they didn't see a rapper. But on the underground forums
Speaker 1: people were losing it. See see I know my stuff,
Speaker 1: I know my stuff. He was the first guy to
Speaker 1: really bridge that sensitive soul vibe with real bars. It
Speaker 1: wasn't an overnight hit, but it set the stage. It
Speaker 1: gave him the confidence to know that he didn't need
Speaker 1: the TV show anymore. He just needed the booth. It
Speaker 1: was a great looking back on it, it's a great
Speaker 1: introduction into the music scene in my opinion. So for
Speaker 1: those of you that know nothing about it, I get
Speaker 1: your pants, get your papers, because we are going to
Speaker 1: list some of the songs you should listen to. So
Speaker 1: you need to listen to the intro. It sets that dusty,
Speaker 1: classic hip hop tone right out of the gate. My
Speaker 1: favorite beat selection track is City is Mine. It's a
Speaker 1: sample of a sample. And he was paying homage to
Speaker 1: jay Z, who was paying homage to the Miami vice aesthetic,
Speaker 1: all while trying to claim Toronto. So jay Z was
Speaker 1: claiming New York and Drake was claiming Toronto quick note.
Speaker 1: The City Is Mine track is essentially the birth of
Speaker 1: the Drake and boy Wonda partnership. It's a duo that
Speaker 1: eventually went on to run the charts for over a decade.
Speaker 1: So boy Wanda didn't just stumble onto this sound. It
Speaker 1: was a calculated move to flip the Glenn Frey you
Speaker 1: Belong to the City sample, and so by doing this
Speaker 1: he directly referenced Jay Z's The City His Mind from
Speaker 1: ninety seven. It was boy Wanda's way of giving Drake
Speaker 1: a New York legend foundation while they were sitting in
Speaker 1: the bedroom of Toronto. So most of the room for
Speaker 1: improvement has that Dusty knighte Wonder inspired Boo Bap feel.
Speaker 1: City Is Mind feels different, It's cleaner. It has that
Speaker 1: mid tempo eighties inspired synth sene that eventually became the
Speaker 1: blueprint for the Toronto sound. Boy Wanda has mentioned in
Speaker 1: interviews that while others were giving Drake conscious slow beats,
Speaker 1: he wanted to bring the tempo up. He wanted something
Speaker 1: that could play in a club or a car, or
Speaker 1: even if it was just at a local Toronto spot.
Speaker 1: And you got to mention that boy Wanda was about
Speaker 1: eighteen or nineteen at the time, working primarily on fl
Speaker 1: studio fruity loops. According to what I heard, so the
Speaker 1: beat wasn't made in a million dollar studio. It was
Speaker 1: made with stock sounds and clever sampling in a home setup.
Speaker 1: But anyways, they met and as soon as he heard
Speaker 1: Drake rap over his beats, he knew that Drake was
Speaker 1: the best local guy he'd ever heard in their rest
Speaker 1: is history. So they both actually went on to do
Speaker 1: big things in life. So that's a good song. I
Speaker 1: love the beat of that song, perfect beat selection and
Speaker 1: basically Aubrey's claim in the sixth before the world even
Speaker 1: knew his name. Then you have am to PM A
Speaker 1: lot of people like that one. Next thrill is Gone.
Speaker 1: You need to check that one out, bad meaning good.
Speaker 1: Check that one out. It shows his early connection to
Speaker 1: Southern rap culture despite his Toronto roots. The next one
Speaker 1: I like is a Scorpio's Mind. I think the song
Speaker 1: samples Don't Stop Loving Me Now by LTD featuring Jeffrey Osborne.
Speaker 1: It's a classic nineteen seventy seven soul track. If I'm wrong,
Speaker 1: correct me, but I think that's what it samples. The
Speaker 1: first real look into His emotional psyche is on this song.
Speaker 1: If you listen to Sorry for the interruption, but anyways,
Speaker 1: if you listen to a Scorpio's Mind, you'll notice it
Speaker 1: almost feels like a lost tahalib Queeli chat. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: it's got that raucous record's backpack energy. Drake is really
Speaker 1: focused on the craft here, trying to prove he belongs
Speaker 1: in the conversation with the other conscious greats. The next
Speaker 1: one is str e ss stress. I forgot what it
Speaker 1: stands for. Maybe I'll look it up. But anyways, if
Speaker 1: you want to hear the moment Drake stopped being Jimmie Brooks,
Speaker 1: listen to Stress. I'm gonna just say it like that.
Speaker 1: He's doing something here he rarely does. Today. He's talking
Speaker 1: about race and class head on. He's got that line
Speaker 1: about how rich families use Filipino and black nannies to
Speaker 1: raise their kids while they chase checks. It's sharp, it's observant,
Speaker 1: and it shows that he was paying attention to the
Speaker 1: world around him. He also drops this black and Jewish line,
Speaker 1: which became a signature part of his identity, even with
Speaker 1: his mentor or I'll say mentor, but co conspirator on
Speaker 1: the album or mixtape Nicholas F. On the track, Drake
Speaker 1: is the one who really commands the energy here. He's stressed,
Speaker 1: he's hungry, and he's ready to blow. In fact, Nicholas
Speaker 1: F is the most frequent collaborator on this tape. He's
Speaker 1: basically Drake's lyrical mentor during the mid two thousands. So
Speaker 1: he appears on money remix, am to PM Escorpio's Mind
Speaker 1: and Stress. So he's like just a little history. He
Speaker 1: was a Virginia Battle rap legend and Drake actually, according
Speaker 1: to my sources, I don't know if this for sure,
Speaker 1: but used to fly him out to Toronto just to
Speaker 1: soak up his pen game and so yeah, the rest
Speaker 1: is history. Of course, we can't talk about this tape
Speaker 1: without mentioning Caick Push. Drake didn't just cover the song.
Speaker 1: He got loup A Fiasco on the remix. Think about
Speaker 1: the flex. Though, you're an unsigned kid from Toronto and
Speaker 1: you're sharing a track with the leader of the new
Speaker 1: school of conscious rap. It fits that Scorpio's mind energy perfectly.
Speaker 1: It's smooth, it's melodic, and it shows that Drake wasn't
Speaker 1: just chasing radio hits. He wanted to be respected as
Speaker 1: a lyricist by lyricists. So if you want a snapshot
Speaker 1: of what two thousand and six felt like, this is it.
Speaker 1: This remix. Over all, the jazzy feel of Room for
Speaker 1: Improvement was actually, in my opinion, a rebellious movie at
Speaker 1: the time. Why do I say that because in two
Speaker 1: thousand and six the radio was dominated by snap music
Speaker 1: and krunk. So if you weren't around during that time,
Speaker 1: think Lo John, think Dem Franchise Boys, think Soldier Boy.
Speaker 1: So by choosing these vibes, the Tali Kueely, Digaboo Planets,
Speaker 1: Nineties Brooklyn jazzy flow meets hip hop vibes, Drake and
Speaker 1: Boy Wanda and Loupe Fiasco even were Oh and Nicholas
Speaker 1: f were actually in a way rebelling from the mainstream.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what I believe. They were basically saying,
Speaker 1: we don't care what's on the radio. We're doing this
Speaker 1: for the music heads. And that's the beauty of Room
Speaker 1: for Improvement. It's not perfect, but the hunger is unmatched.
Speaker 1: It's a time capsule of a version of Drake that
Speaker 1: was just happy to be in the conversation and that
Speaker 1: rapped like he had a point to prove. If you
Speaker 1: haven't gone back and listened to a Scorpio's Mind or
Speaker 1: City Is Mind lately, do yourself a favor and hit
Speaker 1: that play button. It's pure nostalgia. Also, you need to
Speaker 1: listen to a M. Two pm and stress, So that's
Speaker 1: gonna do it for this episode of Room for Improvement.
Speaker 1: It's a real nostalgic listen. It defines what two thousand
Speaker 1: and six is about for me. Despite the snap rop,
Speaker 1: it was the ushering end of the newer sounds, the
Speaker 1: newer hip hop youngins of that scene. So thanks for
Speaker 1: tuning in. All the details for more entertainment is down below. Bye.