On May 1, famous rapper Drake released his newest mixtape entitled Dark Lane Demo Tapes. The mixtape was announced only a day before it’s release, and was promised to include “a lot of the songs people have been asking for (some leaks and some joints from SoundCloud and some new vibes),” according to Drake.

Previous to the release of the mixtape, Drake surprised his fans with “Toosie Slide”. The song quickly blew up, and like several of Drake’s songs, had a viral dance to go along with it. With the release of this song, Drake left his fans eager for more. I really didn’t have any big expectations going into this tape, but after listening, it is clear Drake knows what he’s doing.

The 14 song mixtape covers many different emotions. Most of the songs follow classic Drake style; they are slower and incorporate much more depth. Other songs are more upbeat and are definitely able to get you off your feet.

The tape also includes an above average list of features. Big names include Future, Young Thug, Chris Brown, Playboi Carti, and more. In my opinion, almost every feature was a good addition to the songs, except Playboi Carti’s verse on “Pain 1993”. Not only did he not fit on the song at all, but his style of rapping made it impossible to understand anything he was saying. The song was very good until his verse, and honestly, he ruined the song in my opinion.

When it comes to scoring the mixtape, I would give it a 7/10. Obviously, this wasn’t intended to be as good as a normal Drake album, and was just a collection of songs that have been leaked or held onto for a while. Like I said, pretty much all of the songs are more relaxed and chill songs. But with that, this mixtape held a lot of raw moments as Drake rapped about personal relationships. The lyrics were phenomenal and I could really feel what Drake was trying to portray in his songs.

Luckily, Drake also announced that his new album will be releasing this summer. I’m eager to see what the Canadian rapper will be able to produce, given the great work he did with this album.