On his new album-length mixtape, "If You're Reading This, It's Too Late," released by surprise on Thursday, the Toronto rapper Drake opens with grim realization. If the 28-year-old superstar dropped dead today, he'd become one of a rarefied few: artists who died too young, at the peak of their powers.
The notion is the hook to the first track, "Legend": "Oh my God, oh my God, if I die I'm a legend," he sings in a theme-setting tone on the misty, minimal, Partynextdoor-produced work. Implicit are questions: Am I worth more dead than alive? What makes a legend? How many more years of relevance do I...
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