• Record Label: Island
  • Release Date: Sep 24, 2013
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 558 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 57 out of 558
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  1. Dec 16, 2013
    6
    I'm generally new to Drake, but since "Started from the Bottom" & "Hold On, We're Going Home" gave me completely different impressions I figured I'd check this out as a full-length introduction. I definitely like it more than I don't, even if I'll have more to say on the negative side of things. The album starts with 2 great songs that capture the best of both sides of Drake'sI'm generally new to Drake, but since "Started from the Bottom" & "Hold On, We're Going Home" gave me completely different impressions I figured I'd check this out as a full-length introduction. I definitely like it more than I don't, even if I'll have more to say on the negative side of things. The album starts with 2 great songs that capture the best of both sides of Drake's songwriting. “Tuscan Leather” has a very interesting instrumental, taking one vocal sample & manipulating it into 3 differently-paced & equally well-arranged beats, one for each verse of the chorusless track. Lyrically it's basically brag-rap, but the kind of brag-rap I can get behind, more than anything because it sounds authentic in a way. He takes the time to feel rightfully confident about his success, while never getting overly obnoxious or idiotic about it. Is it complicated or clever all the way through? Not exactly. But I think it does what it set out to do pretty well. Same could be said about closing track “Pound Cake Paris Morton Music 2”, which has a decent verse from Jay-Z & another great vocal sample-driven beat. Meanwhile tracks like “Furthest Thing”, “From Time” & “Too Much” lament the effect these successes have on personal relationships & the conflict presented between loved ones & fame in a really clear & effective way over comparatively much more downbeat & solemn instrumentals driven by atmospheric synths. And while “Hold On, We're Going Home” has a few lovey-dovey cliches & can be a bit repetitive, but I still can't help but love it as a well-written smooth R&B-laced pop song. Either way, it's clear that Drake does have the talent to make songs with moods this different work cohesively together.

    Unfortunately I feel like he can't really carry either of those personalities over the duration of a whole hour-long album, since after a while both tend to get stale. On the braggadocios side of things, for me “Worst Behavior”, “The Language” & “All Me” (feat. the always insufferable 2Chainz & Big Sean) are all major low points, filled with lazy about wealth delivered with a delivery that sound like he's not even trying to have any real flow or cadence. Then there's “Started from the Bottom”. Look, if you've seen any kind of criticism of this song then you've heard the arguments that he grew up an actor on a very popular show & lived in an upper-middle class neighborhood with a very stable home life, which is far from “the bottom”. Also that his ideas of “struggle” are traffic & the occasional argument with your parents. But I read an interview where he said that his real troubles were with getting into the rap game transitioning from TV. Which really makes this song more of a wasted opportunity than anything else. I would've found a song where he details the problems he faced making this transition in the beginning of his music career very interesting if he put enough good thought & imagery in there. Instead he made a short, lazy throwaway single that didn't exactly help convince hip hop fans that he's worth listening to. But on the other side of things you have these monotonous breakup songs that just drag the album down for me & paint Drake as a whiny prick who just won't let go of the past. One more track I'll mention is “305 to My City”, a bizarrely pointless love song to a stripper that's pretty much inconsequential & has a chorus that really grates on me.

    The other problem I have is Drake's vocals. I get that he wants to blur the lines between rapper & singer, and he's definitely capable in both areas on a technical level, but would it kill this guy to emote once in a while?! Around 70% of the time, he's in this flat monotone that's somewhere between the 2 vocal styles that just comes off awkward to me. No matter how emotional his lyrical content might get, I can never feel him expressing it vocally. And it's not like the rapper/singer vocalist hasn't been done well before. It's just that Drake seems to be unable to decide what to do on a given song, and instead settles for a boring medium that does neither vocal style justice & only drags the song down because of it. Heck, the few moments where he dedicates a song or verse to one of these styles, like “Tuscan Leather” or “Hold On, We're Going Home”, are easily 2 of the moments on this album I found most entertaining sound-wise. Overall, I didn't dislike this album as much as I was fearing, but I didn't like it as much as I was hoping. It's a decent outing, if quite a mixed bag. While I'm not a fan of Drake quite yet, I can definitely see potential in his abilities to make an album that's great top to bottom.

    Top 5 tracks: Furthest Thing, Hold On We're Going Home, Tuscan Leather, Too Much, From Time
    Score: 64/100
    (For a longer & more detailed review, look up the Facebook page "That Non-Elitist Music Fan".)
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  2. Sep 24, 2013
    4
    Drake isn't rap. It maybe a form of hip hop-certainly a part I can do without. I can positively say he speaks real and is different from alot of things out there. I liked maybe 2 tracks at most. But less than half the tracks on the Cd actually have him rapping. The rest are attempts at singing or something like that. If I want singing I can find much more talented artists to listen to.
  3. Sep 24, 2013
    5
    Drake Did his Homework!!!!!! Can't tell if it his best work ever? Did not have the well rounded sounds of "So far Gone" and fells different from the drake we've grown to know, but he did well.
  4. Sep 24, 2013
    6
    Possibly Drake's best album, after a few run throughs I am still left thinking that Drake has yet to put together his talent into an really top-notch album. There are moments, namely on "Tuscan Leather", "Furthest Thing", and "All Me", where I think that Drake may have finally reached his potential, but then tracks like "Own It" and "Worst Behavior" convince me otherwise. Overall, tooPossibly Drake's best album, after a few run throughs I am still left thinking that Drake has yet to put together his talent into an really top-notch album. There are moments, namely on "Tuscan Leather", "Furthest Thing", and "All Me", where I think that Drake may have finally reached his potential, but then tracks like "Own It" and "Worst Behavior" convince me otherwise. Overall, too inconsistent to be more than average, but really close to breaking through with his first win in my books. Expand
  5. Sep 25, 2013
    5
    I think Drake lost the best rapper in Young Money once Ace Hood came in. Although this album is not bad, it's extremely forgettable and it seems like if this wasn't Drakes album, it wouldn't sell more than 10,000 copies. Song after song you get Drake singing with a touch of rap. Even though there is less singing than on his previous albums, he needs to cut back on singing a lot more. TheI think Drake lost the best rapper in Young Money once Ace Hood came in. Although this album is not bad, it's extremely forgettable and it seems like if this wasn't Drakes album, it wouldn't sell more than 10,000 copies. Song after song you get Drake singing with a touch of rap. Even though there is less singing than on his previous albums, he needs to cut back on singing a lot more. The beats were horrendous. They were these weird cloudy beats followed by some trap and bad trap at that. Also Drakes lyric game was pretty off on this. The only thing saving this album were the songs that didn't have a ton of singing and the beats that weren't to cloudy. This album is Born Sinner without the lyricism and although Drake has his moments on this thing, it's not enough to save it. Expand
  6. Jan 10, 2014
    6
    Nothing Was The Same I thought was a fairly decent album. Songs like Pound Cake and The Language made me feel like I was listening to some old school hiphop which I very much enjoyed. Tuscan Leather opened the album brilliantly. I thought the production of it was excellent with the change of beats between hiphop and orchestrated sound. All Me and Worst Behaviour were songs that I believedNothing Was The Same I thought was a fairly decent album. Songs like Pound Cake and The Language made me feel like I was listening to some old school hiphop which I very much enjoyed. Tuscan Leather opened the album brilliantly. I thought the production of it was excellent with the change of beats between hiphop and orchestrated sound. All Me and Worst Behaviour were songs that I believed Drake put a lot of energy into which made me enjoy them. The effort really payed off. However, the downside of the album is half of it reminded me of his previous LP Take Care which made it seem too repetitive. Songs like Furtherest Thing and Own It were standouts to the claim. Wu-Tang Forever made me scratch my head. I realized that a Wu-Tang Clan sample was put into the production of the track but it just wasn't enough for me to think it was paying homage to one of the best hiphop groups of all time. Nothing Was The Same was generally overhyped and I hope Drake does try to do something new with his next project. Expand
  7. May 15, 2014
    4
    This album was a disappointment, I heard a few songs on the radio before the relies and they sounded alright but when u listen to the album much different... This album feels rushed meaning less lyrics drakes going over the same topics song after songs, this album get boring and a joke, for example the song worst behavior is terrible, this album was a big let down. Again if your into mainThis album was a disappointment, I heard a few songs on the radio before the relies and they sounded alright but when u listen to the album much different... This album feels rushed meaning less lyrics drakes going over the same topics song after songs, this album get boring and a joke, for example the song worst behavior is terrible, this album was a big let down. Again if your into main stream rap you'll probably like it..3.9/10 Expand
  8. N10
    Nov 4, 2013
    6
    With his sophomore LP "Take Care" and songs leading up to this point, my anticipation for "Nothing Was The Same" was high but what this album suffers from is Drake's rapping abilities. Lyrically I found it weak and he tackles topics corny and boring. At times it get cringe worthy.
    His flow is good for the most part and he has his really bright moments but to often raps like "F*ck going
    With his sophomore LP "Take Care" and songs leading up to this point, my anticipation for "Nothing Was The Same" was high but what this album suffers from is Drake's rapping abilities. Lyrically I found it weak and he tackles topics corny and boring. At times it get cringe worthy.
    His flow is good for the most part and he has his really bright moments but to often raps like "F*ck going platinum I looked at my wrist and it's already platinum.. ni**as talk more than b***hes these days just let that sh*t sink in.. I remember when my schedule was as flexible as she is".. man I don't know what this dude is trying to accomplish with it, I can't almost even see why people are so behind Drake on this album. With plenty mediocre verses/lines appearing on this LP I don't see how people can claim this and Drake to be great and interesting lyrically, as I once found him to be. Though he's maybe not know a top 10 rapper, as a mainstream artist he was definitely bringing something new to the game, and topping 90% of them.
    But, rhymes after rhymes, he struggles with lines, Drizzy got my trippin' to his thing, what happend to the great 2011 writes, the direction was good, but the raps was just not a do.
    Sure his a good rapper, and a much better collect for the mainstream scene, he's built and sharpened up his own lane to. Don't get me wrong, I loved "So Far Gone", "Take Care" and tracks like Tuscan Lether, From Time, Hold On We're Going Home, Too Much, and I actually enjoyed Worst Behavior a lot, it was fun and energetic. Even though his last verse on Worst Behavior started of with some Mase raps he had tight delivery to it, and the switch up on the track Furthest Thing, that's the Drake that I love, great verse on it.
    To be honest the singer-songwriter Drake was 10 steps ahead of the rapper on "Nothing Was The Same", his melodies and hooks are catchy, his singing is laidback, to top it off, the more he sang, the more I felt for this album. The R&B side was loved, he could have skipped some rapping and do more singing in my opinion.
    Aside from Drake, the production was absolutely amazing. If you just listen to 40 and all the hot producers work to it's beats and Drake's crooning and hooks then it's a great experience. However, that's not me, lyrics and delivery comes first, still a fan, but this was just not it except from some beautiful tunes and it's fantastic production. Drake needs the criticism, too many of y'all seems to be going crazy about this, but hey, Drake's raps are sneaky even though I found spots to be trashy he's not throwing them at your face when he got such a phenomenal production backing it.
    And thanks to that, the album dosen't fall under a six on the scale.
    One of 2013 most dissapointing and overrated album to be released, if not THE!
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  9. Mar 18, 2015
    5
    BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRING.

    REMEMBER?!!! WORST BEHAVIOUR!!!!!!! REMEMBER!!!!!????????

    Hold On We're Going Home is really **** good though
  10. Nov 17, 2013
    6
    This album is nothing very special, but it definitely emphasizes Drake's musical abilities and what he is capable of, in general. The songs will stick in your head for about a week, but become forgettable. I'm pretty sure that I'm not buying this album, but it's nice to have it around.

    Summary: Interesting, yet forgettable
    Grade: 62%
  11. Aug 1, 2015
    5
    The album is kinda boring judging from my first few listens and lyrically he sounds worse compared to his rapping on Take Care. I've pretty much learned nothing new about Drake than I have already had from his previous projects.
  12. Jul 19, 2023
    5
    Review só pra lembrar a nota que eu dei pro album:
    album ok, agora só escrever pra passar dos 75 caracteres.
  13. Jul 24, 2023
    6
    I feel like the sounds don't go much with the lyrics on the album, maybe if I rapped them differently it would be a little better sounding to listen to. It's not the best of Drake but it's not the worst either
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 33 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 33
  2. Negative: 1 out of 33
  1. The Wire
    Dec 11, 2013
    70
    Drake has certainly mastered the art of making Drake records. [Nov 2013, p.66]
  2. The Source
    Nov 26, 2013
    80
    Nothing Was The Same is straight to the point, and in just over an hour, Drake closes the book on Take Care, yet opens the chapter to a brighter future. [Nov 2013, p.89]
  3. 50
    Drizzy’s candid lyrics about battered egos and insecure relationships were refreshing early on in his career, but the persona is wearing thin as he recalls how rich his melancholy has made.