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Drake · S5 E4
Pound Cake / Paris Morton Music 2
Jay-Z on the feature, 'cake cake cake,' and bars that silence every doubter
September 24, 2013, the closing track. A woman's voice recites a spoken-word poem about baking a cake, repeating the word over and over like a prayer. Then Jay-Z starts rapping, and everything else stops.
A$AP Rocky feat. Drake, 2 Chainz & Kendrick Lamar, Fuckin' Problems (2012). By 2013, Drake was the most requested feature in hip-hop. This is the proof: four of the biggest rappers alive on one track, and nobody holding back.
Fuckin' Problems, A$AP Rocky feat. Drake, 2 Chainz & Kendrick Lamar (2012)
The beat is stripped to the bone: pitched-down vocals, a minimal 808 pattern, and enough space for four MCs to fill without stepping on each other. Drake opens with the hook and it became one of the most quoted lines of the year. Listen for how each rapper brings a completely different energy to the same beat: Rocky is cool, Drake is melodic, 2 Chainz is absurd, and Kendrick is surgical.
“Cake, cake, cake, cake, cake. Five hundred million, I got a pound cake.”
— Jay-Z, "Pound Cake / Paris Morton Music 2," 2013
The Coronation
Jay-Z doesn't do guest verses casually. By 2013, a Jay-Z feature was the most valuable cosign in hip-hop, and he chose to put it on the closing track of a 26-year-old's third album. His verse on "Pound Cake" isn't a throwaway either. He raps about authenticity, about separating real from fake, and by showing up he's telling the world: this kid is the real thing.
TAP TO REVEAL: Why is the second half called "Paris Morton Music 2"?
The Second Half
"Paris Morton Music 2" flips the energy completely. The Jay-Z feature ends, the beat changes, and Drake is alone again, rapping about loyalty, paranoia, and the cost of becoming the biggest name in the room. It's the most personal stretch on the album, buried at the very end where only the dedicated listeners will find it.
Marcy Houses, Brooklyn, New York
The housing project where Shawn Corey Carter grew up before becoming Jay-Z. The man who grew up here chose to appear on the closing track of Drake's third album, completing a passing of the torch that started with "Light Up" three years earlier.
Pound Cake: The Details
Before "Pound Cake," on which Drake album track did Jay-Z first appear as a featured artist?
Connect, Drake
From Nothing Was the Same. One of the album's most overlooked tracks, "Connect" is Drake at his most exposed: singing about wanting closeness while admitting he's built walls that make it impossible. Where "Pound Cake" is Drake performing for the world, "Connect" sounds like he's talking to himself in an empty room.
Connect, Drake (2013)
Read the lyrics while you listen. "I want to connect with you, on some let's-not-talk-about-it level." The honesty that lives underneath the bravado of Pound Cake.
The Closing Statement
Two-part album closers are a power move. Kanye did it with "Last Call." Jay-Z did it with "My 1st Song." Drake did it with a Jay-Z cosign and a callback to his earliest days, and the message was clear: Nothing Was the Same, and it never would be again.
The album is done. On September 24, 2013, Nothing Was the Same goes on sale, and 658,000 people buy it in the first week. Next: the numbers, the reviews, and the moment Drake becomes the biggest artist in the world.
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