Today’s tune on this May Mock Draft Monday is Tuscan Leather (again) by Drake. The plan was to go Back to Back on this song because it’s a 6-minute intro off the album Nothing Was The Same. Today we’ll focus on the ending of the tune.
These were the last lines in Verse 2 so we’ll pick it up from there. I’ll add to last week’s annotation by stating my goal is also to have Week to Week Notes be around at least in some sorta capacity a decade from now. One thing that is important if I want this side hustle bit to work is learning about the next generation of stars in sports.
Last Monday, Drake’s Tuscan Leather tune helped reach 2 of the best CBs in College Football, as Benjamin Moore of Notre Dame and Travis Hunter of Colorado have now at the very least seen the logo.
Within the beginning lines of Verse 3, Christopher Nolan’s Memento movie is referenced. Guy Pearce, the main character, suffers from anterograde amnesia. It’s a rare memory loss case where people suffer from forming new memories while being able to remember the past. Essentially what Drake is saying here is that everything around his rise in the music industry was moving fast, but he still remembers his past.
Week to Week Notes has had a Drizzy tune every Monday from his catalog in close to chronological order for about 17 months and just Friday his newest song to date is Family Matters… Jeez, the world works in mysterious ways…
The Bundy family in Married…with Children are working class. The Winslow family in Family Matters are better well off. So he’s saying that his pen, or lyrics, helped his kinfolk.
Glengrove Avenue is a street where Drake grew up in Toronto, so he wrote this verse for a female friend of his.
Pora is a fairly expensive Italian wine with a high-alc percentage of 14.5%. Cappadonna was a member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan and the talk to ‘em ad-lib is sampled from their tune C.R.E.A.M. Tatyana Ali played Ashley in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, I wonder which one of them paid the bill?
Went with these lines for the Story & Reel. It should help play into the theme of this weekend’s Saturday Sports. Should make more sense Saturday.
Drake made YOLO (You Only Live Once) in The Motto, which was a single off his 2nd studio album Take Care. As an artist, Drake is more known as the hitmaker you play at parties, which is why when he made Nothing Was The Same, lines like these hit harder.
While of course, you could take these lines literally in that Drake was offering friends and family money to get them back on their feet; you could make the case he’s talking about making this album Nothing Was The Same as one that gets listeners up out of their funk and, or, motivated.
40, aka Noah Shebib, produced this track and Nothing Was The Same. Much like Martin Scorcese when he directs masterpiece movies, 40 was producing masterpiece beats for the album.
Bit of a money entendre with change (money you get back in a transaction) and paid, but the overall message of the last line in Verse 3 is that he wouldn’t change anything that got him to where he’s at.
Felt like breaking down this whole song into one Note would’ve been Too Much, he starts Tuscan Leather brash and ends it with a tone of introspection. The ending outro is an ad-libbed quote that R&B artist, Curtis Mayfield, said during a live performance. One helluva quote and nice words to live by.
On to the sports…
Building A Board ‘25 (Vol II)
The ‘25 NFL Draft won’t be in Lambeau Field until April 24th, ‘25. I don’t have a Mock Draft for that class, still have to learn more about the players first. So, just like last year’s Mondays, we’ll get started with the biggest names in College Football for this upcoming season, adding 5 more players every Monday Mock Draft to Build A Board.
Luther Burden III is from St. Louis, Missouri. The 5-star prospect elected to play for his home state after leading East St. Louis High School to a State Championship. His father, Luther Burden Jr., played college hoops at St Louis University, averaging 19.6 points per game his senior year in 1985. Luther Burden III as a freshman in ‘22, made 10 starts for the Tigers and caught 45 passes for 375 yards with 5 scores. That season he also found the endzone twice as a rusher and once as a punt returner. His 8 total TDs in ‘22 were the most among true freshman. It was a nice freshman campaign, but in ‘23, Burden III dominated college football as a sophomore. He had 86 catches for 1,212 receiving yards and 9 TDs. This earned him 1st Team All-SEC and 2nd Team All-American honors. At 5’11”, he may not look like the most imposing WR, but he can make contested catches and he will run DBs over with elite YAC ability. Expect Luther Burden III to be one of the Top WRs this upcoming CFB season.
Carson Beck is from Jacksonville, Florida, so he must know all about the great live music they play at Lynch’s Pub. A top QB prospect out of high school, he sat behind Stetson Bennett during his freshman and sophomore seasons at Georgia. In ‘23, Beck won the Georgia QB job and made all 14 starts for the Bulldogs, throwing for 3,941 passing yards with a 72.4% completion percentage. The accurate thrower had 6 INTs to 24 passing TDs. Despite his limited college experience, last year Beck put up very similar stats to Bennett, who won the Bulldogs back-to-back titles. Beck has lost quite a few talented teammates on offense to the NFL including his top pass catchers in TE Brock Bowers and WR Ladd McConkey along with some of his best blockers in C Sedrick Van Pran and LT Amarius Mims. Despite these losses, I’d expect Kirby Smart to have quite a few good reinforcements and would expect Beck to take another step with more experience this upcoming season.
James Pearce Jr. is from Charlotte, North Carolina, where he was a 5-star prospect and top recruit from his state in the ‘22 class. As a freshman in ‘22, James Pearce Jr. saw limited action in 13 games as he collected his first 2 collegiate sacks. In ‘23 as a sophomore, Pearce Jr. exploded onto the College Football scene with 10 sacks and 14.5 tackles for loss, earning him 1st Team All-SEC honors. PFF College loved his game, grading him out as the top SEC pass rusher. At 6’5”, long, and athletic, Pearce Jr. can use either his strength to bulldoze over blockers or finesse to get by them. With another game-wrecking season, the top-returning pass rusher out of the SEC will be in consideration for being the first edge rusher off the board in ‘25.
Will Campbell is from Monroe, Louisiana, and was the highest-rated high school football player from his home state. In high school, he subbed in for an injured teammate as a freshman and hasn’t left the field since. He chose to play down in Baton Rogue and as a freshman was named the starting LT from Day 1 of training camp. During his ‘22 freshman campaign, Campbell earned Freshman All-American honors and was named 2nd Team All-SEC. In 882 snaps, Campbell committed 1 penalty and allowed just 3 sacks. In ‘23, Campbell made 13 more starts at LT for LSU and did not allow a single sack in 805 snaps as a sophomore. He was recognized as 1st Team All-SEC and was named the permanent team captain throughout the ‘23 season. At 6’6” and 320 lbs., he has the prototypical size for an NFL tackle. Will Campbell played a huge part in protecting Jayden Daniel’s blind side the past 2 seasons and will be a top tackle off the board in the ‘25 NFL Draft.
Deone Walker is from Detriot, Michigan. As a 4-star recruit, Walker chose to play for Kentucky because “it felt like home.” He had other offers from Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, and Alabama. As a freshman in ‘22, Walker made 11 starts on the Wildcats’ d-line. He totaled 40 tackles, 4.5 for a loss, and picked up 2 half-sacks. In ‘23 as a sophomore, Walker was a permanent team captain and was awarded 1st Team All-SEC. Despite facing a ton of double teams, the 6’6” & 350 lbs lineman had 7.5 sacks, 12.5 tackles for loss, and 8 QB hurries. He can lineup all over the defensive line interior and Kentucky even used him as a standup edge rusher at times in ‘23. Deone’s nickname is “D-1” and expect him to dominate D1 CFB in ‘25.
The First Round of the NBA Playoffs has concluded. The Cleveland Cavaliers have advanced to the 2nd Round of the Eastern Conference for the 1st time without LeBron James since 1993.
In their 3 games this regular season, the Celtics were the winners of 2 of them. These 2 Eastern Conference franchises have played each other 8 times in the playoffs and have split in advancing to the next round 4 a piece. During LeBron’s first tenure with the Cavs, Boston’s Big 3 Era knocked him out of the playoffs in ‘08 and ‘10, which was a huge reason he decided to take his talents to South Beach. When LeBron returned to Cleveland, he defeated the Celtics 3 times in ‘15, ‘17, and ‘18.
On Sunday afternoon, Cleveland defeated the Magic in 7 games. After being down by as many as 18 points at one point in the 1st half of Game 7, the game was won in the 3rd Quarter when the Cavs dropped 33 to the Magic’s 15. Donovan Mitchell joined LeBron as the only Cavs player to score 200+ points in a playoff series as he averaged 28.7 points per game. His combined 89 points in Games 6 & 7 (50+39), are 2nd most all-time to close out a playoff series and trail only Allen Iverson’s 90 that he scored in the ‘01 Eastern Conference Finals. As a team, the Cavs shot just 28.1% from beyond the arc against Orlando, nearly a 10% difference from their regular season percentage of 36.7% from deep. There is a slight chance that the Cavs could be getting help in that category with the possible return of Dean Wade. The stretch PF shot 39% from 3 this regular season, drilling 6 3-pointers in the Cavs’ win over Boston but has been out since mid-March and still hasn’t been officially cleared to play. While they won all 4 home games in the 1st Round, Cleveland will no longer have home-court advantage against the Top Seed in the Eastern Conference.
After a Game 2 loss at home, Boston defeated Miami handily in Games 3-5, not allowing more than 88 points the rest of the way. During the regular season, Boston had 3 20+ points per game scorers in Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Kristaps Porzingis. In the playoffs, it’s been Brown, Derrick White, and Tatum leading the scoring charge. White stepped up big time against the Heat, scoring a career-high 38 points. Throughout White’s career, he has only scored 30+ points 4 times in 6 seasons in the NBA, so this was rather peculiar. Boston is expected to be without Kristaps Porzingis for at least the start of their series with Cleveland after the former Knick injured his calf. The Celtics will insert 37-year-old Al Horford into the starting lineup in his absence and hope to get a similar production out of Derrick White in the scoring column. The Celtics match up very well with the Cavs as Cleveland’s top 2 scorers (Mitchell and Darius Garland) will be paired up with Boston’s backcourt of White and Jrue Holiday. Boston should sweep.
Prediction: Celtics in 4
YouTube Rabbithole
Curtis Mayfield - If There Is Hell Below (Live 1987)
Curtis Mayfield’s monologue at the end of Tuscan Leather is at the 5:13 mark.