Stronger and Nice For What are classic summer smash hits that help define the extensive catalogs of Kanye West and Drake respectively. Both are chart topping second singles from the albums that mark their commercial peaks to date: Graduation and Scorpion. I’d like to compare and contrast these songs as cases of defining both rap megastars in ways that highlight their similarities and differences from each other.

Kanye and Drake both center their songs around the concept of ‘getting stronger’. Kanye paints a personal narrative about his own strength, alongside another narrative in the verses about a presumably specific woman, whereas Drake tells a story of the strength of a woman who presumably represents all women. And this perfectly encapsulates the standpoints Kanye and Drake have operated from for their entire careers: Kanye speaks his mind, Drake speaks for the people.

Production & Composition

Both songs are backed by a midtempo hiphop club beat with: a busy kick pattern, a whole note harmonic rhythm, and a prominent 8th note-based recognizable vocal sample that spells out the underlying chords whilst being sped/pitched out of their original keys - running throughout as the linchpin of the beat. Stronger has a sci-fi synth pop/hiphop hybrid sound and Nice For What is squarely rooted in being a New Orleans bounce hiphop/r&b beat. Both are also notable for their big beat breakdowns

Each chord progression starts with an Eb chord; however, Stronger uses an eb minor chord to kick off a melancholic descending progression while Nice For What us an Eb major chord to kick off a progression that doesn’t move far from the first chord and even returns to the first chord at the end of it. Though they begin with variations of the same chord, the difference in chord progressions highlights the difference between the two as artists: structurally similar yet one feels darker and more epic while the other is a bit lighter and more static.

Stronger samples a Daft Punk song, which echoes Kanye’s taste for non-hiphop music that he fits into hiphop sensibilities. Nice For What samples a popular Lauryn Hill r&b anthem, which echoes Drake’s aim to appeal to women and the average r&b/hiphop listener (by using blatant intertexuality that sparks nostalgia in a way that is only rivaled by Disney - which is fitting as he pretty much is the Disney of hiphop)

Rhythm & Rhyme

The verses in each song share a very similar flow and rhyme scheme. They both use a 16th/8th note rhythmic pattern where the flow begins with a series of 16th notes before the first bar and the rhyme hits right on the first bar with 2-3 8th note syllables, along with a short silence right before the third beat of each bar (silence after ”lost tonight” and ”mothafuckin roll on”). Each flow is pretty rigid with only slight variation, and the most radical rhythmic variation coming in the last line when the flow slows down (”and take this…haters” and ”and you showin off/but it’s alright/it’s a short life”).

Kicked off by a call-to-action for the listener to “get” something as in “to go do,” (”let’s get lost tonight” and ”everybody get ya mothafuckin roll on”) the verses are rapped with a high energy and commanding tone, based around the Bb note in both of their upper 3rd octave registers, which then get more melodic in the chorus. However, Kanye’s voice gets lower while Drake maintains that high pitched delivery. The verses then drop their busy drum patterns for a near-drumless, affirmation-driven stadium chant-worthy chorus (”now now now that that don’t kill me can only make me stronger” and ”that’s a real one in your reflection; without a follow, without a mention”).

Music Videos

The videos for Stronger and Nice For What are big budget cinematic spectacles that can be something of colorful light shows throughout:

They both allude to film to compliment their subject matter (back to intertexuality), with the former being a homage to the legendary anime film Akira and the latter being a tribute to famous actresses:

Though the difference here is interesting as well: Stronger uses its intertexuality to convey the personal narrative of the song and show off Kanye’s personal taste while Nice For What uses its intertexuality to convey the impowerment message of the song through cameos for the audience to recognize (much like Disney uses its intertexuality for the audience to recognize).

Conclusion

Kanye West and Drake are undoubtedly two of the best to ever do it in this culture we love and evolve with. If two songs - two moments - help capture that, it’s Stronger and Nice For What. And though both men are different in many ways, they are also very similar in ways that complement who they are as artists, much like Michael Jackson and Prince before them.

- BRAVE

Didn’t read

not reading all that. Nice For What is an absolute smash though

Dope, will read in a bit

crazy i love drake but didn't enjoy a single song on his album

stronger better

The three people above are the reason we don’t get quality threads on this site anymore lmao

My uncle is the reason this s*** is so long btw

cool thread even though low attention span mfs and dopamine fiends will try to derail as per usual

really agree that the songs show at least part of what both artists were about at their commercial peaks

I ain’t gonna hold you, your OP intimidated the f*** outta me, but I will come back to it. Looks like you put a lot of effort into it.

In on a @Brave thread <3

This s*** would intimidate me too lol but thanks

seek help @op

🙏 king

I love when people break songs down like this this the type of s*** I do in my head all the time it’s so dope to see it written out

this was a great read the breakdown of each got me thinking

OP goat

receipts

🐐🐐