Family Business: Part III

Pop

I don’t know how often my father calls people “Poppa Jr.”, but I’m willing to bet no one has been demoted (or adjulated) to such more than yours truly.

When he calls someone this, it is actually in reference to his eldest son, oddly enough; my oldest brother.

I have two brothers and I will express my memories of the closer brother in age in a later post.

This one is about the guy that most everyone with our blood refers to, simply, as ‘Pop’.

Drake’s debut album Thank Me Later was released a smidge over a decade ago, which is mind-boggling to think about because I still remember exactly how I was introduced, or submerged into this record.

But first, a side anecdote from the current era.

Over the past year, and especially over the past six months, my father and I have been trying to maintain and enhance our 2001 Cadillac Deville in hopes of getting it ready for me to drive back to school for my sophomore year of college. An honest enough intent, my father invested a lot of money, time, and energy into this whip which externally looks great but has more covert deficiencies than the United States government.

(By the way, make sure you vote!)

What this car has more than anything is sentimental value to our family and, in particular, my siblings and me. It was the first car all of us drove if I remember correctly, and since I was the last to learn to drive, it was my responsibility for the longest. A LOT of great memories have been bred by that car in just the past three years alone of me driving it.

But one of the fondest is from 2010 when Pop was in his senior year of high school. We had moved about thirty minutes away from his school earlier in the year and instead of transferring, he made the trip every day from our new hometown back to our old one, much to the dismay of my mother.

That summer, he had football practice almost every day. Plus, most of his friends were still in the old town. And he had that Cadillac.

He also had two younger brothers.

I still don’t know how he managed to get his coach to sign off, but he dragged me and my other brother to his football practices every morning. This was before I ever played so it was my first run-in with the locker room culture, the comradery of the team, and how practice went. But, back then, my brother and I were just waiting for when it was over and we could go home.

Anyways, Pop got the Drake album that summer. I had heard "Best I Ever Had" before, but I wouldn’t be able to put a face to the name for another couple of months.

Pop played this album front to back. Every. Single. Day.

I honestly couldn’t believe it. I was barely paying attention but I still connect the opening pops of “Fireworks” with the highway at 6 in the morning.

But, by the time school started, I could recite “Karaoke” fluently, I had credited Soulja Boy’s “tell mayyyyy was rilly goin ownnn” with Drizzy, and “Miss Me” was further confirmation that nine-year-old me hadn’t heard anyone rap better than Lil Wayne.

To me, this album is unlike anything Drake has done since. It's hungry and humble. Smart and confident. Not to say he hasn’t evoked this since then, but there is something about his demeanor in that era that doesn’t seem manufactured or choreographed.

Today, Pop is almost a completely different person. As am I. Since then, he started and finished college and began his life as an adult. I, now, have started playing college football, an idea that would have disgusted me at the time that “Find Your Love” was getting radio spins.

And Drake is about a million times more popular. (Yet, he has yet to top his debut, in my humble opinion.)

However, we remain those same individuals, all of my siblings do. We love to recall fond memories and make new ones.

Thank you, Pop, for making me and my brother do things we didn’t want to do. Those early morning car rides have led me to one of my passions in life and I will continue to champion you as one of my inspirations (and champion “Light Up” as a top ten Drake song).

By Billy Listyl

October 14, 2020