Thank Me LaterCash Money ***

Canadian rappers and actors – Aubrey "Drake" Grahams had a long-running role in teen soap Degrassi: The Next Generation– don't usually generate much label buzz and peer love unless they're something special.

In Drake's case, it's how he assimilates and recycles the winning attributes of mentors Lil Wayne, Jay-Z and Kanye West that already has registers ringing. You can certainly see splashes of The College Dropoutor Late Registrationin the sweeping strings and synths on the finely tuned Up All Nightand Fancy.It helps that there's a gallery of A-list producers such as West, No ID, Boi 1da and Swizz Beatz joining longtime Drake associate 40 to round out a hip-hop album covering most on-trend sonic angles (lots of space-age squiggles, for instance).

Next time, let’s hope Drake has the gumption to drop some of the me-too techniques and bust some of his own moves.

See myspace.com/thisisdrake

Download tracks: Up All Night, Fireworks