Aubrey Graham‘s first full-length album, ‘Thank Me Later’, has been pushed back again. It’s kind of like that “third times the charm” theory, except in a bad way. Since his rise to household name, he struggled to shake the shadow of “Jimmy “Wheelchair” Brooks” & finally became Drake, the next big thing on Cash Money Records, unless you count Nicki Minaj’s ass. But the last 6 or so month’s have seen him backslide worse than Whitney Houston after she offered Oprah receipts from her cocaine pusher. Now, Drake, who was once in a position to take over the rap game, especially in the absence of the realest nigga in Hip Hop, is no more than another artist, in a stable of other artists, struggling to live through their music. He’s officially “that Black kid on Degrassi” once more.

I totally understood what the big deal about Drake was when his buzz started acquiring momentum, but what I didn’t understand is why he signed with Lil Wayne in the first place. In hindsight, that seems more like a groupie move than business decision. Hell, he could’ve just FaceBook’d him for an autographed copy of ‘Tha Carter III’ if that was the case. Or if he were a chick, could’ve just had one of his kids. Wayne seems to have a thing for redbones anyway. But instead, Drake opted to sign to a record label whose track record was based purely off the success of one man. Even I know that’s not the smartest move.

Never mind the fact that many people’s careers are totally built behind a “Do It Yourself” work ethic, sometimes with no corporate backing whatsoever. We’ve seen independents make a decent amount of noise, which to an indie label, spells definitive success. Forget about the fact that the infamous Sylvia Rhone was sniffing around his Canadian bacon bits. Never mind the fact that his music, pre-Young Money, was already so popular to the teenage set that I guarantee in the next couple years, the name “Drake” will have replaced “Barack” as the most popular name in the ‘hood. Never mind that dude was already a TV star & ultimately could’ve achieved notoriety in music strictly off of that. Look at Nick Cannon. Contrary to what people believe, he’s more than just Mariah Carey’s coat rack. Drake wanted to scream “Young Moolah, Babee!!” into the Peter Frampton machine (google him if you’re curious) & ended up making commercials for Hip Hop’s favorite sugar water. Some would even say that’s an appropriate sponsor, but that’s neither here nor there.

Wayne filmed 9 videos before checking into the bing, so looks like the boss’ vacation won’t even open up Drake’s lane. He shouldn’t be mad, though. HBO is (always) hiring (rappers).