In doing a comparative analysis of two songs, I chose two  songs that indirectly and directly related to each other and showed how they helped me understand one another. The songs that I chose to analyze were the songs Up All Night and Charged Up both by Drake. Up All Night is the 6th track on Drake's platinum debut album Thank Me Later, which was released on June 15th, 2010. Charged Up was originally released on SoundCloud for free earlier this year, but later turned into a hit single that made its way onto iTunes after receiving over 5 million plays in the first 24 hours of it's release on SoundCloud. Never the less, both of these songs topped numerous music charts and billboards among their releases and can still be heard by Hip Hop listeners today.

In the first few lines of Up All Night, Drake starts of quite boastful and very outspoken, emphasizing on how he prefers the better things in life. With Drake being one of the most influential and prominent artists of our current generation, it only makes sense why he would only enjoy nice things. He then goes on to touch on the always touchy topic of money in the line, "People with no money act like money isn't everything", basically saying how people who don't have a surplus of money, like he does, are quick to say that money isn't everything. He also indirectly implies that once you start making a surplus of money, a lot more comes with that. People who don't have as much money as he does may not have that same viewpoint on money, simply because of their financial situation in comparison to his. Drake later calls himself "nothin' nice" which goes to reinforce that he doesn't want to be viewed as nice for his viewpoints on assets like money, cars, and expensive jewelry.

In the beginning of Charged Up, Drake starts the song off in a much humbler tone with the line "I did some charity today for the kids." This shows Drake's huge attitude change over the course of 5 years as he has progressed through his career. In 2010, he was well known but  still finding his way to the top, where as in 2015, he knows he is on top and is much more grateful about it. In being on top, Drake still knows where he came from and what he had to go through to get to this point which goes to show in the next line, "But I'm used to it cause all y'all charity cases." Like the title reinforces, Drake still knows that he is now charged up and refers to himself as "Six God" later in the hook of this song.

In analyzing the song Charged Up, it also can't go unnoticed that this was also a diss song towards Meek Mill. A diss song is a song that's primary focus is to call out or disrespect another artist or music group. That is definitely a reason for Drake to continue to bring forth that same boastful attitude that can be seen at the first few lines of Up All Night. There were speculations and rumors that Drake had a ghost writer, or someone who wrote Drake's lyrics for him, in more than one of his songs. These speculations were brought forth by Meek Mill, another prominent artist of our generation, in a diss song towards Drake, named Wanna Know. Charged up was one of two diss songs that Drake released, the other being Back to Back, towards Meek Mill. 

At the time of the songs release, Meek Mill was also dating another huge figure in our generation and Hip Hop culture, Nicki Minaj. Other than the ghost writing rumors, Nicki was thought to be partially the reason of the controversy between the two artists as well. Nicki can be found featuring on several of Drake's songs throughout his career, including Up All Night. In Up All Night, Nicki shows how close of an ongoing connection her and Drake have by starting her verse off with the line "Drizzy say get her, I'mma get her". In saying that, Nicki means that if Drake has a problem with a female and feels like she needs to be dealt with, she has him covered. Whether they had something going on under the sun at the time of Charged Up's release or not, it is no secret that Nicki Minaj and Drake have a bond that cannot be broken.

In Up All Night, Nicki Minaj also expresses that same type of boastful attitude that can be seen in Drake's first hook. After showing her and Drake's connection she goes on to say, "I got that kind of money ". This only reinforces Drakes viewpoints on money and how once you get it, a lot more comes with having it. With Nicki being the only female on the Forbes list, she knows that having an abundance of money is not only going to bring her fame, but draw more hate from other females who can't do what she does. She keeps that attitude throughout the song, as well as her throughout her career, and emphasizes on her viewpoints a bit more in the next line by saying, "Which female you know made a million off a mixtape?" A mixtape is a compilation of songs that some hip hop artists puts together for fans and promotion.

Nicki Minaj is known for her amazing rhyming skills and they have been the reason for much of her fame and success thus far. Like her fans, Drake knows about her skills much too well and emphasizes on this in a line in Charged Up while dissing Meek Mill at the same time. Drake goes to say "No woman ever had me star stuck, or was able to tell me to get my bars up". By the term bars, Drake simply means the rhyming that Nicki puts together in her songs. This again reinforces how good Nicki is at what she does, while showing how close of a relationship Nicki and Drake have continued to have over the years of their growing success. With that relationship being so strong, Drake still wants to make it known that he is the reason for all of his personal success and a female will never be able to tell him to do better, or be known as the better artist when compared to.

Anybody that has heard Drake's music, knows that he embraces his much deserved success and is not afraid to show it in his musci. He carries that upper echelon attitude because he remembers the Jimmy Brooks in Degrassi; The Next Generation days and doesn't plan on going back. In Up All Night, he shows this by saying "Fame is like a drug that I've taken too much of." He has gained this fame over his long, prosperous career, and finds himself almost addicted to it. But that doesn't stop him from still remaining true to his self and his moral values which can be seen in the next line where he goes to say "But I never ever trip, just peace, happiness, and love."

By remaining true to him self, he also continues to pay homage to those who paved the way for him and helped him receive his fame. In Charged Up, Drake says "I still got love for my idols, I got me a deal with Apple and I still feel entitled." Drakes most well known idol is Lil Wayne, who gave him an opportunity to rap for his label back in 2009. Without that opportunity, we may not know Drake as we know him today. Since then, Drake has transitioned into building his own label, named OVO Sound, which he promotes very often. This self promotion can be seen in multiple lines in Charged Up like "Come live all your dreams out at OVO" and "It's sound, sound, sound 'til the day I die."

In listening to and analyzing these two Drake's hits, it is also very evident that he is a pacifist. Although Drake gave in, and gave Meek Mill the response he wanted by responding back to him with the diss song, Charged Up, he usually focuses on the things that truly make him successful. That can be seen in Up All Night as well as in Charged Up. In Up All Night he says, "I'm busy getting' rich, I don't want trouble." alluding at the fact that beefing with other artists isn't really his thing, he'd rather accumulate more wealth. In Charged Up, Drake goes on to say "Cop are killing people with they arms up, and your main focus is tryna harm us?" referencing the massive amount of police brutality going on in our country. Drake feels that we should focus more on that instead of putting our focus towards bashing each other.

In Charged Up he also makes an interesting reference to Thank Me Later, the album Up All Night Can be found on. At the beginning of the second verse, Drake says "I bought my clique rollies off of Thank Me Later." This shows not only that Drake made such an immense amount of money off of this album, that he was able to buy several thousand dollar watches, but that he is also the type of person to show gratitude and thanks to the people around him. A lot of the wealthy people in our country tend to make a lot of money, they can't even use, and just hoard it instead of putting it towards something positive, or giving back. Drake shows that he isn't one of those people in Charged Up. He'd rather give back to charity like or actually help his posse out.

That particular line really helped me, personally, understand Charged Up up a little bit more and vice versa. Now instead of only seeing the boastful side of Drake, which can be seen in a lot of his songs, I can now more clearly understand why he may say some of the things he says. The surplus of money was at one point the goal and now that he has attained it, he wants to give back. There may be other artists, like Meek Mill, that get in the way of that but in the long run he will do what he's supposed to do. No matter the circumstances, there will always be road bumps in the journey of success but that can only make you stronger.

In making a claim for the two songs I analyzed, Charged Up and Up All Night, it is evident that Drake makes his success a priority. By putting his success first, he also makes it the reason behind everything he does. In doing that, he knows that the money and material items others strive for in life, will come when they begin to do that as well. Drake is also a pacifist who doesn't like violence or beef, but instead likes to keep the peace and always move in the forward direction with positivity, leaving all of the other negatives for other artists. With that, Drake is and always will be one of the most iconic and well known artists as we know it.

