On November 10, 1891, Arthur Rimbaud died. On November 10, 2011, on the 130th anniversary of the hapless French poet’s death, Drake’s album “Take Care” was leaked. And for the last four months, he’s unknowingly embarked on a tour to resurrect Rimbaud’s central thesis of maddening love – in packed arenas across the country. And Friday at the San Jose State Event Center, the audience will respond.
A lofty premise, to be sure. We know the rapper is sensitive. The evening will see Drake speak, or rather sing, interspersed with moments of rapping. He’ll do it with some discomfort. Though a loner at heart, he so badly wants to be an accomplished showman, to command the world’s attention in a way that bigger icons like Jay-Z now seem born to do. The high paranoia and introspective dint of “Take Care” would seem to jibe better in an intimate setting—not a college stadium. And so, fortunate for him, the album’s true message is padded with hip-hop cliches like a spoonful of sugar, so you’ll better digest the emotional medicine.
In “Tale,” one of Rimbaud’s most famous poems from his collection Illuminations, he spoke of a monarch’s driving motivation – perfection in love:
“A Prince was annoyed at always being occupied with perfecting vulgar generosities. He foresaw amazing revolutions in love, and suspected that his wives could come up with something better than complacency adorned with sky and luxury. He wished to see the truth, the hour of essential desire and satiIsfaction. Whether or not this was an aberration of piety, he wanted it. He possessed at the very least a rather broad human power.
Drake thinks much about “vulgar generosities,” “revolutions in love,”, “something better than complacency adorned with sky and luxury” – and has tried to convince us to celebrate them.
None of his accomplices can know about this. The evening will begin with Harlem’s resident ‘it’ kid, A$AP Rocky, who, in the cyclical nature of popular culture is refreshing because he’s a nostalgic. As is Compton’s Kendrick Lamar, who once saw Tupac Shakur in a dream, and sometimes displays Pac’s ability to inhabit misguided spirits so he can better understand them (on the subject of dates, their birthdays are a day apart).
Drake will have to breathe life into some dispiriting material, and relive bravura highs and bravura lows in the span of a less than two hours set. If not heard in the appropriate order, “Take Care” is manic. The emoting can get intense, and the cagey, expected machismo he proffers in return might ring untrue to less sympathetic ears.
Just how he’ll distribute the story of his relationships will prove interesting—how will the narrative unfold? Will the saga of his recklessness, with confident and knowingly brash tracks, like 2010’s “Money to Blow,” or his verse on DJ Khaled’s posse cut “I’m On One” be paired next to the superficial idol worship of “Best I Ever Had” and “Make Me Proud”?
What he does best is pay homage—to women, to his family and sometimes unconvincingly, to himself. Strange as it is to ask a rapper to be further self-aggrandizing, it’s just as much in Drake’s interest, as it is in ours, that he celebrate himself.
Drake performs at San Jose State Events Center on March 10 with Kendrick Lamar and A$AP Rocky. Tickets are sold out.
.Show Preview: Drake at SJSU Event Center
