I was flipping through some songs on Spotify Sunday night while simultaneously looking through my Facebook feed. Given that I’m not one for excessive social media, I admit that I am online a lot, and to that, I am on social media quite a bit. However, I like to utilize Facebook as a source for information and news more than I would say I use it for actually socializing and liking photos from a friend’s recent posts. That is the reason that I was pleasantly surprised and excited to see the Facebook post letting me know that Drake had released a mixtape on Thursday, February 12th, with little recognition and notice to the public, aside from a short film given the name “Jungle,” that was released on his website earlier that day- little did we know that this title is also the title of the 16th track in the mixtape.

Onto the mixtape itself. Firstly, I need to say that with any piece of art, my position is that it simply exists; and, to judge it with an aspect of absolute fact and giving the critic that much influence is to brutalize something that is delicate and an evaluation of the human state as the artist views it. Secondly, with that being said, I am glad to say that I personally enjoyed this mixtape and its subtle touch, and adding to that, I find myself listening to its songs more and more lately.

Atop of the music in the mixtape, I also genuinely enjoyed the short film and I think Drake is solidifying his role in the world as a sensible leader and a caring person. At the same time though, some sources like The Corner News are honoring the film with appraisals in the key of “sulkfest” and “boring and pretentious.”

His film touches on our imaginations and ideas of others in that we may think that someone stands for this and that, and that they are just the image of another person that they remind us of- and even we might have ideals to grade another person with. Although, in reality, we really only see an infinitely small and considerably negligible piece of the grander puzzle.

Pittsburgh’s Malcolm McCormick has also realized a similar thought saying that “I just don’t believe I am an actual person. I’m actually just an idea to everybody. We don’t actually exist as people to anybody, we exist through the ideas that we give to the world.” For anyone stumbling around the name Malcolm McCormick, you might know him better as the rapper Mac Miller and possibly the producer Larry Fisherman if you’re one of the weirdos into that kind of thing. Just kidding, of course. I’ll have to pencil that one in to my notebook.

Call it an exploration in existentialism and metaphysics or maybe an avant garde attempt to be hip and “in,” or whatever you want to call it, if you even want to call it anything. Though, honestly, I call this one just another reason to admire Drake and to analyse his widespread success.