The real problem for Drake is that in a genre that is intrinsically self-reflective, he sounds frustratingly shallow. But Thank Me Later feels as personal and authentic as any other major rap release in recent memory. Drake is clearly coming from a different social mil-lieu than most other hip-hop artists plenty of rappers come from single-parent households, but not many could relate to a line like, “How many of our parents’ marriages lasted?” To many hip-hop heads, who prize authenticity over all else and for whom rap is forever tied to the inner-city experience, Drake is a personality-less and cynically commercial ploy from a flailing industry. Instead, Drake, born Aubrey Graham, a Canadian with an African-American father who was raised by his white mother in an upper-middle class neighborhood and who starred as a teen in the Canadian TV show Degrassi: The Next Generation, continues in Kanye’s middle-class rap tradition of introspection instead of street-talk.

While Thank Me Later boasts the kind of strictly A-list guest spots (Jay, Wayne, Jeezy) and producers (Kanye, Swizz Beats, Timbaland) that are the hallmark of event releases, in this post-808’s and Heartbreak world–and can we all agree now that Kanye’s album was a visionary classic that was slept on because of its pettiness and misogyny?–and because of Drake’s ability to sing hooks and unique backstory, the album doesn’t follow the same boring formula of one-for-the-street, one-for-the-ladies that has made so many original voices sound generic while still failing to sell. Drake, like Nelly before him, sings nearly as much as he raps and constructs songs that more closely follow pop song structure. It was probably Nelly ten years ago and that’s not actually a bad comparison. It’s hard to remember the last time there was an emerging rapper with the kind of real crossover pop stardom potential as Drake clearly has. Drake is the great record industry hope of 2010 or at least the hip-hop version.

Drake thank me later album sales