page_title: Dark Lane Demo Tapes
section_title: Themes and production
hierarchical_section_title: Dark Lane Demo Tapes / Themes and production
caption_attribution_description: English: Drake at the Sound Academy, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
context_page_description: Dark Lane Demo Tapes is a commercial mixtape by Canadian rapper Drake. The mixtape is a compilation of songs that were released on SoundCloud or leaked on the internet, as well as new songs, and is considered a "warm-up" to Drake's upcoming sixth studio album release in the summer of 2020. It was released on May 1, 2020, by OVO Sound and Republic Records. Production was handled by Drake's longtime collaborator 40, among other record producers. Featured guest appearances include Future, Young Thug, Chris Brown, Playboi Carti, Giveon, Fivio Foreign, and Sosa Geek.
  Dark Lane Demo Tapes sees Drake moving away from his "hitmaking formula" to more experimentation, with common producers on his previous records being absent on the mixtape. With its production taking influence from lo-fi, UK drill, trap, Soundcloud rap, R&B and soul, the mixtape is noted for not being as cohesive as Drake's previous records. Rooted in dark, ambient sounds through prominent use of unpolished synths, themes on the mixtape include failed relationships, complicated relationships with friends, and braggadocio surrounding Drake's prominence in the music industry.
context_section_description: Dark Lane Demo Tapes sees Drake rapping and singing about topics that have often featured on his previous releases, including failed relationships, complicated relationships with friends, and braggadocio surrounding his prominence and success in the music industry. Writers of Time regarded the lyrics on the mixtape as introspective and not featuring hooks, with them being "surly, withdrawn and clearly indifferent to radio or viral success". The same writers observed that the mixtape has a "wealth of sad boy songs", while Erik Skelton of Complex said that the mixtape features "sleepy, introspective rap songs". Noah Yoo of Pitchfork highlighted the mixtape's lyrics as Drake at "peak paranoia in his relationships, both business and personal". Grant Rindner of Complex found similarities between Dark Lane Demo Tapes and the If You're Reading This It's Too Late (2015) mixtape, as both mixtapes see Drake rapping over "leaner, grittier beats" and focusing more on "traditional bars and delivery than melodies and hooks".
  Rapping about his "toxic romantic ways" and love interest, Drake interpolates Eminem's flow from his 2002 single "Superman" on the pre-chorus of "Chicago Freestyle". Drake raps over the beat that borrows the same soul sample as Jay-Z's 2001 single "Song Cry" on "When to Say When". Featuring American singer Chris Brown, "Not You Too" is an R&B song that is led by Drake, while Brown provides "soothing" ad-libs. The mixtape's hit single, "Toosie Slide", was called "strictly a business decision" by Pitchfork due to its dance craze-inspired lyrics aimed for virality on the video-sharing platform TikTok. "D4L", named after the Atlanta hip hop group D4L, sees Drake collaborate with American rappers Young Thug and Future for a trap song. Featuring Playboi Carti, the highly anticipated "Pain 1993" sees Carti and Drake rapping in a high-pitched flow known as the "baby voice". On "From Florida with Love", Drake raps about the value of friendships and growth. On "Demons", a Brooklyn drill influenced song, Drake raps in an urban London accent and makes use of urban UK lingo, which was labelled as "Top Boy–esque" by Aaron Williams of Uproxx. The song features New York drill rappers Fivio Foreign and Sosa Geek. "War" sees Drake use a typical "UK drill flow" over a UK drill beat by AXL Beats. Notably, on the song, Drake narrates the squashing of his feud with Canadian contemporary The Weeknd.
  Michael Saponara of Billboard described Dark Lane Demo Tapes as a "doom-and-gloom record", while Max Cea of GQ highlighted the mixtape's "hazy synths" and "dim, ambient beats". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian described the production as a "drizzly electronic haze", and Exclaim!'s Riley Wallace noted that the mixtape is "rooted in the dark, sombre, solo drive through a sleepy city aesthetic". Yoo also recognized the mixtape as "hazier than Drake's most recent albums". Josh Svetz of HipHopDX described the mixtape's tone as "basking in dour ambiance, projecting a setting of drizzling rain cascading from the clouds in the grey sky as vibrating 808s set the tone", while Drake "sounds like he's crooning from the balcony of a high rise loft at 3 a.m., draped in a Versace Baroque bathrobe as he sips on red wine." Referring to the  COVID-19 pandemic, Svetz noted that Drake captures the "shared sadness" of the pandemic, and that Dark Lane Demo Tapes is a "fitting soundtrack to the grim reality we all currently live in." Writers of Complex found that the mixtape's cover—Drake wearing a balaclava—is a "dark, moody image that accurately reflects the music found inside [Dark Lane Demo Tapes]."
caption: Critics noted that the "gloominess" of Dark Lane Demo Tapes is similar to Drake's second album Take Care (2011).[25]
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "905", "Image ImageLength": "2020148480", "Image BitsPerSample": "578", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image DateTime": "2012:02:03 11:54:03", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS-1D Mark IV", "Image Software": "PaintShop Pro 17.00", "Image InterColorProfile": "[]", "Image IPTC/NAA": "[28, 2, 55, 0, 8, 50, 48, 49, 49, 48, 56, 49, 49]", "Image ExifOffset": "206", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3950", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8568", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "555", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "564", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:08:11 01:33:47", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:08:11 01:33:47", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "22", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "22", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "3200", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1040241/125000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "163200/43", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "816000/209", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Unknown", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "220100283"}