“Nothin' tell the truth like the eyes will/ Lived so much for others don't remember how I feel,” he raps over a sparsely programmed drum track backed by a woozy sample of The Singers Unlimited’s “Michelle” pitched by Masego to create a hypnotic soundscape. On the album opener and one of the project’s best numbers, “Champagne Poetry,” Drake recounts his success, a theme he’s turned over in song before, but here he infuses his bars with the leeriness of someone who isn’t exactly sure who he’s lived his best life for. There’s also, however, a man trying to peel away the layers of armor he’s amassed on his way to the top just to feel a thrill again. There’s the usual catnip for Drake critics, who call out his material for being vapid and repetitive. What would proper reflection bring to a Drake album?Ī mixed bag, it turns out. For the first time since his meteoric rise and reign, he had to take a seat amid quarantine. The project had been long-in-the-works, but derailed first by the Covid-19 pandemic and then by Drake injuring his knee. Which brings us to Certified Lover Boy, Drake’s recently released album. The guy looks like all he does is have a good time.”
He lives the kind of on-the-go lifestyle that made Chance The Rapper once tweet “I can’t be the only person that wakes up wishing he could hang out with Drake more. Let alone his global travels, dating life and growing business portfolio. It was the type of introspection provided by time, which Drake rarely affords himself between recording, releasing and performing new music. He closed by adding that he’s spent an “incalculable amount of hours trying to analyze what I did wrong.” Feeling so lucky and blessed that the fear of losing it keeps you up at night.” “It’s being so unsure how you’re getting it done, that you just kind of keep going in hopes of figuring out the formula. Instead, he offered advice about his come up. “I rarely celebrate anything,” he told the audience. For all this effort, he was honored as the Artist of the Decade by Billboard earlier this year, where he gave a memorable speech. His melange of melody, rap and crooning as he explores the inner-working of his psyche has went from innovative to becoming de rigueur for the next generation of rappers (Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, to name a few who’ve sampled from the Book of Aubrey Graham).
Drake has used his ubiquity over the past decade to transform the sound of pop music writ large, all the while expanding his personal real estate on the charts. Whether it’s via official albums ( Thank Me Later, Take Care, Nothing Was The Same, Views, Scorpion) Soundcloud loosies (“0 to 100/The Catch Up”), a “playlist” LP ( More Life), collaboration projects ( What A Time To Be Alive), culled together outtakes ( Care Package, Dark Lane Demo Tapes), guest appearances (“Amen,” I’m On One,” “Life Is Good,” etc.) or his Scary Hours digital EP series. Since his star turn in 2009 with his So Far Gone mixtape, the Toronto titan has turned himself into a one-man factory of music. It proved immensely popular with critics too, making numerous end-of-year lists and winning Best Rap Album at the 55th Grammy Awards.Drake never really goes away. Billboard chart (selling 631,000 copies in its first week alone) and eventually went double-platinum. Such an approach was often at odds with the machismo of hip-hop’s past, but it proved hugely influential, helping forge a more emotionally direct form of hip-hop in the decade that followed.įollowing its release, on November 15, 2011, Take Care debuted at No. Typified by the likes of the drunken phone call-turned-confessional “Marvin’s Room” (so named because it was recorded in Marvin Gaye’s studio) and the beautifully soulful, spectral, piano-assisted “Look What You’ve Done” (a moving tribute to members of Drake’s family), Take Care offered a fascinating insight into the sometimes-fragile mind of a global superstar. Perhaps Take Care’s most lasting impact, however, was in the openness of its lyrics. It’s perhaps a sign of the rich vein of form that Drake was in that even the album’s bonus cut, the club banger “Motto,” was stellar fare successfully released as a single, it gave birth to the popular phrase “YOLO” (You Only Live Once) in the process. The club-friendly, Rihanna-assisted title track provided Take Care’s huge international hit, reaching the Top 10 in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Denmark.