Happy Fifth Birthday, So Far Gone

In 2009—a day that will go down in Canadian history—Aubrey Drake Graham released So Far Gone. Even though it wouldn't become an official commercial album until seven months later, the project captured the attention of the music world in the same way a major release would due to its blockbuster rollout and mesmerizing production. If College Dropout was your soundtrack to the start of highschool, So Far Gone carried you into your freshman year. Similar to how Kanye's debut defined an era of hip-hop five years earlier, Drake's became the bookmark for a generation of music that we're just now exiting. The mixtape pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in rap and provided a raw look at Noah "40" Shebib's new signature sound. You can't admire Drake's current global domination in the field of rap without studying his past for context. Fortunately Aubrey has never shied away from confession.

Before music, Drake played the role of Jimmy Brooks for six seasons on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Jimmy Brooks was the coolest character on the because he was a jock capable of making smart decisions. Jimmy Brooks never cheated his friends or got someone pregnant, which made his eventual handicapping due to a stray bullet all the more tragic. After leaving the show Drake jumped right into music, opening for acts that came to Toronto during their tour. Allegedly, he was booed off the stage while opening for Mos Def & Talib Kweli. His first attempt at a big budget hip-hop song made for radio came with "Replacement Girl", a 2007 duet with Trey Songz. But even with a cosign from one of the biggest R&B acts at the time, Drake was still nothing more than another local rapper from Toronto with pockets deep enough to snag an established artist as a feature. It wasn't until he had spent two years in the United States that Drake would finally get a chance to prove himself with a proper coming out party. His time in Atlanta, Memphis, Los Angeles, Houston and New York allowed him to absorb the unique sounds of those regions without being rooted in any sort of allegiance to the traditions that come from those cultures. He rubbed elbows with famous people who would go on and introduce him to even more famous people, which is how he eventually met Lil' Wayne. His time on the American circuit helped inspire the sound of So Far Gone and the connections he made would convince people to listen. In addition to the Lil' Wayne cosign that would prove to be instrumental in establishing Drake's credibility amongst his peers, Drake was able to convince LeBron James to come to Toronto and host the mixtape release party at 6 Degrees.

So Far Gone established Drake as an artist with an ear for mixing left field beats not traditionally used on a mixtape with the standard Just Blaze hits du jour. Rapping over Lykke Li, Santigold and Kanye West songs may not seem like a big deal when we have Kendrick and Imagine Dragons collaborating on the same song in 2014, but it was still a novelty in 2009. For all of the attention So Far Gone brought Drake, it served in equal part as 40's showcase. Along with Boi 1da and Arthur McArthur, the three were the architects of a new Toronto sound, and So Far Gone was their first official monument. The mixtape introduced international fans to a burgeoning sound that was coming out of Toronto at the time, a sound that was built on a blueprint of the dreamy drums that punctuated 808s & Heartbreaks and felt inspired by the slowed down tempo of the South. "Best I Ever Had" and "Uptown" were polished hits by Boi 1da and McArthur, two artists whose talents would eventually reach all corners of hip-hop royalty through working with guys like Eminem, Dr. Dre and Jay Z. But 40's debut was instantly marked for its potential. He had said in interviews that he listened to 808's & Heartbreaks as he was making So Far Gone and you can tell that he was trying to take Kanye's sound to its furthest extremes, making his percussion and drums sound like they were coming from three doors down the hall and through ten feet of water.

The lyrical content of So Far Gone left little to the imagination regarding Drake's personal life. Unable to rap about poverty and the class struggle that he never experienced, Drake chose to rap about what he knows. Relationships were described in vivid detail, the main focus being the women that he had left behind on his path to success. When he chose to rap instead of sing, his delivery was tight and in the pocket, and he exhibited phenomenal breathe control. He rapped honestly as someone who had a lot, but wanted a lot more. His tales of moving into fame and beyond his past could come off cynical, but it was also admirably harrowing of Drake to make you relate to his deeply personal and specific struggles, whether they be internal or romantic. That level of openness had not been exhibited since Kid Cudi, but Drake framed his experiences through the lens of learning from them instead of feeling remorse or regret.

Most of the criticisms of So Far Gone landed somewhat justifiably on the quantity and the quality of the singing. At a time when rappers weren't trying to act as their own R&B feature, Drake's approach to harmonizing with the melody was a polarizing approach. Every individual track was so unlike the one before it that it almost felt uncohesive upon first listen, but with each additional playthrough you found something new to gravitate to. If you didn't like the apologetic crooning on "Sooner Than Later", you found solace in Drake's breathless doubletime delivery on "Unstoppable", and thanks to vocal features from Lloyd, Omarion and Trey Songz, Drake's new school way of half-singing didn't have to be the only voice you heard throughout the mixtape. Feeling comfortable in your artistic talents requires you to experiment with something unfamiliar, making songs like "Little Bit" a necessary stepping stone in the path that leads to "Hold On We're Going Home".

Toronto isn't a city of early adopters, but it is a city full of loyal fans. So Far Gone was a huge moment for music and sent a ripple of ecstasy through the city that we're still enjoying today thanks to Drake's continued stake in the metropolis. His success meant that one of our own was capable of reaching an international audience with the right talent. So Far Gone was a great American rap album made by a Torontonian with a bleeding heart and a penchant for networking. It was a well-thought out approach to making an impact and it was a bold piece of music; an entirely new introduction to a new brand, one that identified with owls and blogspot accounts. As the current golden boy in the music industry, it's important to not only acknowledge Drake's current impact, but to see where it all started. Nobody could have known that the owl would eventually become an unofficial Toronto logo, or that the blogspot account would be the only thing keeping Google from shutting down the service entirely, but listening to So Far Gone you is the closest you can get to putting yourself on the cusp of world domination.

@SlavaP lives in Toronto and feels like he deserved a text message too.