‘Nothing Was The Same’ Revisited In Reverse

Three years ago today, Drake released his third album Nothing Was The Same. Three years later and it’s generally regarded as one of his top two albums, constantly battling Take Care for that prestigious number one spot.

In 2013 Drake was a little more enthusiastic about doing interviews and so along with many other publications, he sat down with VIBE. They touched on a number of topics including his influences, Kendrick’s (new at the time) ‘Control’ verse, censoring himself in his music and a lot more. But one answer has always stood out to me.

When told that NWTS is the most cohesive of his albums, Drake revealed the original plan for the deluxe version of the album.

“The initial idea was to release two versions of the album. The deluxe version was going to flip the whole track list, so it would go ‘Pound Cake’ then ‘Too Much’ — it would go in reverse. It was a cool, different listening experience. We never brought it into fruition; I think it was some iTunes (issue) or something like that”.

Interesting. So assuming the idea worked out, this would be the second track listing:

1. ‘Pound Cake’ (Feat. Jay Z) / ‘Paris Morton Music 2’

2. ‘Too Much’

3. ‘305 To My City’ (Feat. Detail)

4. ‘The Language’

5. ‘Connect’

6. ‘Hold On, We’re Going Home’ (Feat. Majid Jordan)

7. ‘From Time’

8. ‘Worst Behavior’

9. ‘Own It’

10. ‘Wu-Tang Forever’

11. ‘Started From The Bottom’

12. ‘Furthest Thing’

13. ‘Tuscan Leather’

To just play the album in that order today in celebration of the project reaching its three year anniversary would be wonderful, but it would also be the easy way out. Over the years, Drake has been praised for his meticulous planning and to do that justice, this version of the album should be analysed thoroughly.

It must be noted that we don’t know how early or late into the process that the iTunes restriction was discovered so it’s difficult to tell how much of the album was made with that concept in mind. ‘305 To My City’, ‘Too Much’, ‘The Language’ and ‘Worst Behavior’ were all created within the last three weeks so it’s highly unlikely that they fall into the pattern. I must also credit KTT for touching on a lot of these things a couple of years ago. But here we go.

‘Pound Cake’ kicks the album off just right with the sample from ‘Jimmy Smith Rap’, which is ironically the outro to Smith’s Off The Top. Here’s an interesting line in context:

“We hope you enjoy listening to this album half as much as we enjoyed playing it for you”.

“Enjoy”. Future tense. Hmm.

I’ve always said that a good intro works well as an outro and vice versa and that is exactly the case here. The end of the ‘Paris Morton Music 2’ verse finishes with the album title, perhaps just as much a grand opening as it is a grand closing. You could also argue the case for some foreshadowing when we hear a voice say “be on your worst behaviour” as the track closes.

Next is ‘Too Much’, one of the four songs made late in the process. Apart from the irony that I was perhaps thinking entirely too much about this concept, there was hardly anything worth mentioning here. All I noticed was “money got my whole family going backwards” but that feels more like a happy coincidence. After that is Detail collaboration ‘305 To My City’ which was also created in the final stages of the project. We do have what feels like another coincidence, though. “We so far from finished, I brought you right back just so we can relive it”.

Disappointingly, despite being great songs, ‘The Language’, ‘Connect’ and ‘Hold On, We’re Going Home’ also fail to add anything of value to the theory which would put most people off from delving any deeper. But it’s from that point on where things start to get interesting.

‘From Time’ is in the middle of the album which means regardless of the LP being in reverse or not, it sits at track 7. Right at the halfway point of the song, the instrumental changes a little bit for the second verse, almost like it’s being played backwards. Then right after Baka’s outro, the piano closes the track abruptly.

‘Worst Behavior’ immediately follows and starts with a noise fading in. A noise which sounds like a tape being rewound. Amazing. It’s also important to note that the energy Drake brings on this song is totally the opposite of the last song and it feels like a new beginning. The second half of NWTS is officially underway.

The next time something truly special happens is towards the end of the album with ‘Started From The Bottom’. Hell, even the name fits the theory perfectly. “Started from the bottom, now we here” has a whole new meaning.

The penultimate song ‘Furthest Thing’ boasts one of the biggest moments on the album when the production changes from 40’s to Jake One’s about two thirds of the way in. Drake retorts that this is what he wants to “go out to” multiple times before the actual outro ‘Tuscan Leather’ begins.

This final song samples the late Whitney Houston’s ‘I Have Nothing’ three different times on three different instrumentals, all chopped up differently — very reminiscent of this concept. Throughout the song, Drake raps “how much time is this nigga spending on the intro?” and for many that would disprove the theory but here’s something that the more inquisitive have noticed.

On the third beat, Drizzy follows the line with “lately I been feeling like Guy Pearce in Memento”. In the film, Pearce’s character suffers from amnesia. Spoiler alert: the entire film is backwards. Director Christopher Nolan shows you the ending first and then goes in reverse from that point all the way to the beginning.

As if that wasn’t enough, ‘Tuscan Leather’ ends with a Curtis Mayfield sample just like the album kicked off with Jimmy Smith. He says:

“We’d just like to close off with something inspirational… Close out with something, some food for thought for all of us”.

And just like that, the album can never be heard in the same way again.

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