His wrath here is presumably aimed at Meek Mill. “Hype” could have easily fit on the pop-averse If You’re Reading This…, with a grinding, no frills beat crafted by frequent collaborator Boi-1da and a seemingly more animated Drake using a tumbling, snowball flow that throws shade in the direction of anyone who’s ever come up and tried starting something. Jordan Ullman crafted the beat, which is all old school skittering hi-hats and pastel synths, sounding like a smooth R&B version of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Posse On Broadway.” This time Drake laments the fact that his woman doesn’t share his career ambitions, eventually leaving her behind to spread his wings: “I try with you / There’s more to life than sleeping in / And getting high with you / I had to let go of us to show myself what I could do.” That sounds like a nice morning, Drake! Dang man, you gotta do you, I get it, but leave some room for some Netflix and chill. Save for the DMX plotline, it doesn’t leave a mark.Īnd just as I was getting worried this whole album would be sleepy Drake getting sad about stuff, the refreshing and bold “Feel No Ways” hits with its tricky production. In the grand scheme of Views, there are a handful of songs like this…as there are on every Drake album. Neat DMX sample to open the track aside, this is basically a standard model Drake song: mid-tempo, high art R&B beat, with Drizzy pensively determining whether or not his girl is loyal to him and obsessing over text messages. Granted, that’s basically his default setting, but it feels much more vivid on “9.” But that relationship isn’t nearly as clean cut as one would think, with Aubrey admitting “All these handouts, man it’s getting outta hand / I’mma start telling niggas ‘Get it how you can.'” Again, another slow burner to open the record, but the production asserts a very real atmosphere: It sounds and feels like a track he wrote while cruising around his hometown in the back of a limo, late at night, alone, after an existentially unfulfilling night at the club.
As expected, Drake has the weight of the entire region on his shoulders, asserting he’d die for his city if need be. Produced by Drake’s best friend and #1 producer/business partner Noah “40” Shebib, “9” is a chilly, space synth exploration of his relationship with Toronto. The song and its slowly building drama, punctuated by staccato bursts of drums, is a smoldering entrance/statement of intent (or restatement of intent) that works extremely well. This is basically Drake doing “Real Friends” (which was basically Kanye doing Drake), seemingly pitting life-or-death stakes on someone not getting in touch with him when he’s going through a hard time. Sweeping strings, soft Drake voice and a sense of grandeur fitting for a song about his second most emo subject: loyalty among friends and family. Views is mostly a surface view.īut enough of the context let’s dive in with a track-by-track review. He might think Views is a bigger statement than that…but it’s not. Regardless, the majority of the album is a blast to listen to, moving deftly between vibing late-night cuts, club-ready, dancehall-influenced R&B tracks, hip-hop bangers with angry verses and the type of emotional, limber sing-song raps that Drake basically made his career on. There are few experiments, if any, and there’s a real sense that Drake will never venture outside his comfort zone the way Kanye, Beyoncé or Kendrick have. And while the album does feel like a big-budget confirmation of his constantly growing stature amongst not just hip-hop artists, but pop music as a whole, the bloated nature of the project means he often relies on his old tricks a little too much. Regardless, from the way the album cover instantly became a Twitter-consuming meme, to the multiple tracks that are basically “I’m sad about a girl,” to the plethora of corny-ass one liners, there’s no mistaking this as anything but a standard Drake album.īut musically, at 19 tracks (an even 20 with the bonus “Hotline Bling”), Views is a robust showcase of every Drake style, affectation and interest he’s dabbled in across his career. Even the album title change is telling, moving from Views From The 6 to simply Views, implying maybe a slight exhaustion with the implications of being the de facto king of Toronto (even while still repping the “6” at every turn), or maybe it’s just a symbolic move to emphasize his region-spanning appeal. If the dank, claustrophobic atmosphere of Drake’s 2015 mixtape-cum-fourth album If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late was a fascinating and necessary detour that showcased Drake at his most insular, Views (out April 29) is his reinstatement as the most globally popular rapper alive.
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