Dont be scared.
Please dont be scared of me.
Thats what Aubrey Drake Graham says on “Fear”. The year was 2009 and I would play this track over and over again. @brian_ovo loved it too.
So Far Gone was the introduction to Emo-Rap. A hip hop artist freely expressing his emotions. Talking, above a good beat thats equally layered with emotion and instrumentation like only Noah Shebib can.
At the time, the mixtape was a pirated download. It was released on the October’s Very Own blog. And a whole culture of other possibly depressed millenials devoured the download and sat up late into the night going through every single track on that mixtape.
It was suddenly cool to have doubts, to know you’re destined for greatness and yet be fearful, of the limits of your creativity and how far society would accept your emotional disclosure. And to realise the pressure to be brilliant and yet fear that it wasn't enough.
Because if you are scared, that gets me scared, and our fear will destroy us, babe?And we wont be able to deal with the life thats coming. Yet, you are the reason that I got here, you propelled me into this position. You gave me this love. You know?
In the song, Drake is talking to a girl who was there in his come up. He’s telling her that although the future is bright, and his moment of greatness is arriving, he’s saying if you are not scared of whats coming, we’ll be around together and we’ll be just fine. Dont be scared.
In later years, Drake would be accused of using ghost writers. Because he was winning too much. But you would think that if you didn't know him in 2009. You wouldn't know the power of the dude’s pen.
Yet, everywhere in the corporate world we are told of how important emotional intelligence (EQ) is. And Drake showed us how to use emotional awareness to create greatness in his music and to reach out to the listening crowd. That is why he is successful.
@sir_ronron said to me the other day that Drake is the only artist in the world right now that can put out a 24 track album like Scorpion, and people would stream the hell out of it. Thats because we connect with emotions, first. I didnt tell him that.
