“When you get around Future, it’s a vortex,” said Drake of his Altanta-based collaborator (real name Nayvadius Cash) on this uneven, but ultimately thrilling, 11-track mixtape. At first, the imbalance in their contributions (Drake supplies no more than a third of the verbals) suggests it’s the mild-mannered Toronto megastar who’s been sucked in. But in the end, Future’s eerily Auto-Tuned sing-song vocal style, suspended somewhere between Lil Wayne’s salacious croak and the spiritual suspended animation of a Gregorian chant, seems to energise him, so by the superb, closing 30 for 30 Freestyle, Drake is sounding as dynamic and engaged as at any time since 2009’s stellar So Far Gone.
