After over a year, Drake finally dropped his highly anticipated “Views” on April 29, marking the fourth studio album for the Toronto rapper. Prior to the album’s release, Drake mentioned the record would have a lot of music and the listener will “have your full share of Drake music for the summer and for the year. Forever.”
The 20-track compilation is outspokenly, as Drake said, “a collection of diverse music that feels timeless,” during a podcast stream on OVO Sound. The album resembles a combination between two of his previous albums, using fierce raps such as in “Nothing Was the Same,” and emotionally-driven vocals such as in “Take Care.” The production stands out the most on the album, due to a separation from softer, more vocalized tracks to hip-hop bangers.
Pioneering the wave for a new style of music, Drake continues to modernize his music on “Views,” and it is shown instantly on the album’s defiant intro, “Keep the Family Close.” The record’s theme is the changing seasons in Toronto, Ontario, Canada—the trap-based rap songs are tailored toward the summer, while the R&B tracks backtrack to the winter. On “Keep the Family Close,” Drake opens up with rigorous vocals and uses lyrics that refer to the past.
Let’s face it, pop music has been so commercialized that every song on the radio is beginning to sound repetitive and annoying. However, on this album Drake finds new ways to combine his style of Toronto pop and revolutionize it. “Feel No Ways” is a groovy, swift track that has easy listening vocals; while “Too Good,” featuring Rihanna, is probably the best pop hit off the album.
The album’s bangers are not extremely distinctive, but one of Drake’s most noteworthy traits is the confidence found in his lyrics, which serves to benefit these tracks. His self-reliance on flows helps add to these over-vaulted songs, such as “Grammys,” “Hype,” “Weston Road Flows” and “9.”
Alongside one of his best sidekicks, Future, on “Grammys,” Drake speaks about his prolific legacy, “OVO we a gold mine/But I’m goin’ gold in no time.” Drake can often say questionable lyrics on these bangers, but he says it with such poise that the audience then feeds off of them.
He reaches a new style throughout the album, which was unexpected for the record. “Child’s Play” samples a Ha-Sizzle track and uses a drum kick to make for a unique sound. “Faithful” takes the deceased rapper Pimp C and uses him on a verse, while Drake mixes rigid rap with instant vocals. “Controlla” dives through wavy beats and is such a indistinct track as he uses sexual lyrics to attract the listener. “With You,” featuring PARTYNEXTDOOR, reflects the epitome of the newfound resonance Drake successfully accomplished on the album.
The question is not whether the album is noteworthy, but where it will rank at the end of Drake’s career. In the 80-plus minutes of the record, it is already becoming one of the top projects that Drake has released due to its depth.
Three months down the line, this album will be frantically banging on music platforms and flooding social media with one-liners. Drake is one of the most marketable artist of this era and there is sure to be many diamonds throughout the album that will emerge to the spotlight in the coming months. The difference from his past albums and mix tapes to this record is that “Views” sounds timeless; this album will continue to influence Toronto rappers and others for generations.
Adrian Broaddus may be reached at [email protected].
