All I see are fireworks

Drake: Fireworks

 "Fireworks" is the song that opens Drake's highly-controversial debut full-length Thank Me Later. I say "highly-controversial" because, after a handful of highly-regarded mixtapes (which lead to his being a million-dollar player on Lil Wayne's Young Money imprint,  the only one other than Nicki Minaj worth a damn thing other than a quickie splurt on "Every Girl In The World" ), it seems that Drake's self-conscious style, alternating on a dime between his grandmother and then about his Benzes and then about how he feels really really bad for talking about his Benzes when he should be talking about his grandmother and then hey look a girl, has grown wearisome for many. The bi-polar nature of Thank Me Later doesn't help--it's either about feelings or about cash, true, and the record seems to split itself down the middle, with the long-time fans of Drake's critically acclaimed mixtapes like So Far Gone preferring the more emotional, heart-on-sleeve Drake that seems to take a backseat to the paper-stackin' baller these days.

"Fireworks", with its refrain sung by Alicia Keys, seems to be the one song unanimously hated on by everyone, be they foe or fan of Drake doing what Drake does. And that, to me, is senseless, and I'm using the context of July 4 (America's Independence Day, let's ignore for the moment that Drake's Canadian) to take a closer look.

"Fireworks" is allegedly about Drake's working relationship with Rihanna post-Chris Brown, a time when she was probably scared, scattered and fragile as fuck (which the razor-sharp edges protecting a raw core of her most recent record, Rated R, gives validity to)--a relationship of professional issues that turned, again allegedly, into something romantic...at least for Drake:

"Let's stay together til we're ghosts", he pleads, "I want to witness love, I’ve never seen it close."

With all the condescension, the criticism, the never-thanking-Drake-again-at-any-time hatred being piled upon the whole of the Thank Me Later album as a whole, I venture to say that this sole line, this lyric, moreso than anything on the post-modern entrepreneurial pondering "Successful" or the hilariously real-life love-jam "Best I Ever Had", is what we need to thank Drake for right this fucking second. He hasn't lost himself at all--he is young, rich, broken-hearted and needing to tell us about it in a way that can only, ONLY be called post-Kanye. But where Kanye's suffering, blood pumping, for Art with a capital A, Drake's struggling simply to hold on to every moment of every day with a broken heart.

Photo via Blue Ridge Blue Collar

"Oh, today it begins
I've missed them before, but won't miss them again
I keep having the same dream
And I think that I just realized what it means"

"Fireworks", the most emotional (and yeah, emo--hold that thought) song on Thank Me Later, owes itself entirely to the situation which has created Drake's critically-berated schizophrenia between confessional backpacker and big-league paper-stacker. If he hadn't been signed to Young Money, if he hadn't been given a billion dollars from Sprite, if "Best I Ever Had" hadn't become an accidental anthem (by the way, check out the lyric in that song right BEFORE "like the Andy Griffith theme song"...how the fuck did he sneak that into a Hot 97 top ten radio jam? How? Brilliant.), he wouldn't have been in a position to be alone, in a room, with Rihanna during her transformation from pop starlet to The Hottest Bitch In Heels Right Here.

But that moment was fleeting, one that couldn't be held on to--and "Fireworks" is as much a plaintive jam as it is a joyous (but sad...there's joy in sadness, always) reminder to cherish the moments that won't, and can't, last.

It's the follow-up, in every way, to this:

From Jimmy Eat World's seminal Sad White Kid Record Clarity, "Just Watch The Fireworks" shares more than the titular colorful explosions in the sky. "Here you can be anything," the song begins...and it's true. It's open-hearted and gazing upward, the start of something that Drake's song reminds us can't be for long, won't be for long...and there's beauty in that. In fact, It's easy to imagine him lifting Rihanna's chin, looking to her eyes and speaking those words.

Play these songs. One after the other. And then tell me: schizophrenic? Nah. Money/fame/love/pain--it all begets itself, one after another, and Drake's holding on, and graciously letting us in as he figures it all out. It's brilliant, and it's beautiful, and it's all fleeting, and if anything Drake is reminding us to take not a damn thing for granted. To take chances. To, for one second, live, even if that means eventually being broken hearted. In his own words: "This time I'm really going off/fireworks."

"The only people for me are the mad  ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'"---Jack Kerouac

 

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[Kristin]

"You never see it comin', you just get to see it go."