While Drake has never been my favorite rapper (I'm a Kendrick, Kanye, J. Cole kind of guy), I have always thoroughly enjoyed a lot of his music, and despite my hip-hop preferences, I was looking forward to "Views" more than almost any other album in the past five years.
The reason for my anticipation was mostly because I felt I had not understood Drake yet, what he was all about. And maybe before this Drake hadn't either. When he announced that "Views" was going to take us back to Toronto, I immediately avoided the "Degrassi" jokes and thought of two of my favorite projects to date: "2014 Forest Hills Drive" and "good kid m.A.A.d. city." These were Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole's musical biographies that taught us more about the artists than anything we'd previously heard. I thought "Views" would be this for Drake.
So, as I was expecting an origins album, I also eagerly waited for what Drake would come out with as his sound. And by that I mean over the course of his first three albums, as well as his EP "So Far Gone," Drake has been two conflicting artists. On one side we had a spitter with an uncanny flow, who could slow you down and make you feel something with songs like "Too Much" – my personal favorite – and "Fireworks," while simultaneously hyping you up as if you were about to go to the biggest party of your life with hits like "Trophies," "Energy" and "Over." That was one side of the coin with Drake. That's the Drake I always liked a ton and one I could hold up with his contemporaries.
And then there's the other Drake, which has crept into his music more and more. I'm talking about the pop, "missing my girl," sing to you, wannabe R&B singer Drake. I'm talking about "Hold On We're Going Home" and "Find Your Love" Drake. And don't get me wrong, I can appreciate him. It works for him. Hell, it suits him. He lulls in the girls, he can tell relatable stories about women and people love it. People love music about love. I guess that Drake just disappointed me because I saw his remarkable rapping skills spattered throughout his bodies of work with songs like "The Ride" and "Lord Knows," and as a big hip-hop fan I felt he was capable of even greater things as a rapper. I've never understood how Drake thinks he can sit atop the rap game when he sings as much as he raps.
So "Views" to me was the eternal question: is Drake a rapper, is he a pop/R&B guy, or will he continue to try and do both, without fully mastering either?
"Views" opens with what sounds like a cold, Toronto winter with gusts and chills that enter your eardrums, and then 40 seconds in Drake is singing about not having friends. "Keep the Family Close" really caught me off guard because on his three previous albums Drake opened with strong, yet gentle rapping. "Fireworks," "Over My Dead Body" and "Tuscan Leather" all set the tone, so immediately I was not sure exactly if this song would do the same. But it would as well.
For over five minutes, Drake reflects on losing friends and family, a nice anecdote, but one full of singing that had me worried if the album would have variety. It got me thinking to Kanye's "Ultralight Beam" and how that album opened up after. "Views" did not.
Drake's latest project is full of cries out to past lovers and a plethora of redundant singing, so much to the extent that I felt I was hearing the same song over and over again. Four songs in and the album seemed repetitive with more singing than rapping. The middle of the album had some really forgettable songs.
"Redemption" seems just like "Feel No Ways," the fourth track. Drake brings in PARTYNEXTDOOR and Pimp C, but neither add much to the album. The supposed King of the North is singing more than he has one any other project. Don't get me wrong, singing Drake is fine, but not on this many tracks. For me, Drake is at his best when he sprinkles in endearing singing around a mix of chill and hype rap tracks. He strayed from this on "Views."
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Most of these tracks are very fun and pop, but again formulaic and forgettable. They're more like a pop, love song to play in clubs or on the radio, not at Coachella in front of thousands of fans. "One Dance," his big single, scarily catchy and truly the best embodiment of his pop diva. It's like what "Hotline Bling" should've been. This will be his big hit, but that doesn't say much about the album. I never thought Drake would throw out a pop album. Truth be told I think "Views" was too long and the repetitive tone could have compressed the 20-track album down to 15.
And yet, Drake brings in rap as early as the second and third tracks, but with mixed results. "9" has Drake rapping slowly over a chill beat. This got me back into the album, until the chorus came in: "Turn the 6 upside-down, it's a 9 now." Drake will never be a lyricist like a Kendrick, but seriously, how do you choose such poor, unsophisticated lyrics as a chorus? The production keeps you in it, but just like the first song on the album, they felt dragged out, and again singing crept in too much for my liking.
His fifth track, "Hype," is a step in the right direction and comes in with exactly what it sounds like. He follows that up with what I think is one of the two best tracks on the album, a hip-hop record, and a song I thoroughly enjoyed.
"Weston Road Flows" is Drake's "Backseat Freestyle." I pictured Drake rapping this strolling down Toronto's white, snowy roads with his day ones. Drizzy shows on this track that he still can reminisce, and rap as well as anyone in the game, with an unreal flow. He shouts out Kevin Durant and makes a witty "what are those" reference. This is the Drake I really dig, which had me questioning why he wasn't channeling more of this on the album. The rap songs are nice surprises, but more because they don't feel like they fit rather than a nice, refreshing break from singing.
As the album reaches it's final third, Drake has more forgettable pop and almost tropical tracks. In between is "Grammys" with Future, which sounds like a reject from "What A Time To Be Alive." Rihanna makes another appearance and frankly is what makes "Too Good" somewhat enjoyable. Besides that, the other standouts are "Pop Style," which gets Drake rapping again, but again his flow and lyricism seemed to have taken a hit on this album. "Hotline Bling," for some reason, closes out the album, which says a lot about Drake's choices.
The lone standout on the rest of the album is a song ironically titled "Views." Even more ironically, I would have loved an album based off of this song. Following a nicely sung interlude, Drizzy comes out swinging to an unreal drop and performs his best rapping on the entire album. I would have loved to hear this song from the get go to open the album. "Thoughts too deep to go work 'em out with a therapist/ I get a blank page when I try and draw a comparison," raps Drake. It's kind of alarming how much better flow and bars Drake has on this track compared to the others on "Views." But when I heard "Views," the song, I realized why it was placed so late and not so early. That's not what Drake was going for here. This was Drake finding his soft voice, and sprinkling in hip-hop, when it's usually been the other way around.
In a lot of ways, I blame myself for not liking "Views." The production is some of his best work and maybe, just maybe this is in fact the real Drake. Maybe he's not the rapper I've always wanted him to be and thought he could become. Maybe he's a hybrid rapping-pop star, who loves a good time, love stories and woes the public can relate to. Maybe when I thought Drake was producing the next "Forest Hills Drive," I threw off any chance I could give the album.
At first, my biggest problem with "Views" was that it wasn't a hip-hop album, but once I got over my selfish desires, I realized one major flaw about the album. This was supposed to be a coming of age, looking back on home album, but I could barely tell you anything about Toronto or Drake's upbringing from two listenings of the album. What I loved about personal albums from other artists like Kendrick and J. Cole, was that you could really understand the environment they grew up in and could point to lyrics that explained critical junctures in their lives. This was severely lacking on "Views."
"Weston Roads Flows" is the only real exception. Yes, clearly Drake dives into a lot of his personal life and relationships on the album, but to me it gets lost in the redundant singing about problems with women and trust. Where were the stories about his friends, their shenanigans and the events that shaped the man he became? Or maybe that was it. Maybe Drake didn't have these moments or that there was a lot of love lost in his youth.
Yet, it goes from wanting to give him sympathy to wanting to give him an earful for whining too much. It feels like the album lacks multiple layers and dimensions. Several times I felt I was listening to the same song I'd just heard. The production was different throughout, consistently very dope and easy to listen to, but the lack of variety in lyrics and storytelling hurt the album in my eyes. I felt like Drake performed three different versions of "Marvin's Room" on this album. It's one thing for him to be in his singing bag and find his niche with a solid balance; it's another when it's 70 percent of the album.
Still, that doesn't retract from the fact that this is not the Drake I prefer. This is not the Drake I hold in high esteem. It's just not my kind of music. I'm drawn to clever word play, crescendos and flow. "Views" is not that kind of album. This is not a hip-hop album. This is a singing, pop album. And I guess, at least for now, that's who Drake is as an artist. It's hard for me to accept that when I love so many of his rap heavy songs.
But that's what makes Drake, Drake. That's what makes any artist who they are. It's their music, their voice, their sound. So I applaud Drake for, if this is true, finding his real voice on this album. I just wish it had a little more "Tuscan Leather" because I didn't need one more dance. I wanted one more rhyme; one more bar. How can Drake claim he's the "best rapper 35 and under" when he barely raps on his latest project?
But that does not make it a bad work of art. I can understand why many people enjoy it. It is easy on the ears, has the radio hits and is not too complicated to follow along. He has enough rap and pop for everyone. Drake's production is at its best and his rapping is at its worst, while his singing is most visible, creating quite a lot to digest. This is a new Drake.
I think it says a lot about Drake that one of his best rap songs was a diss track. Maybe that told us more about Drake than we thought it did at the time. Of course he can rap. That was evident. But to see his career trajectory go from well-balanced albums in "Take Care" and "Nothing Was The Same," to following that up with a very mediocre mixtape and a collab with Future, that was closer to a frat party playlist than a masterpiece collaboration like "Watch the Throne," that arc might have given more hints as to the artist he was becoming.
Yet, that's what makes a track like "Views" so infuriating. You can see clear as day he still has it in him. But, I'm not losing sleep over this album and the rap music Drake won't make for now. Who knows, more could be on the horizon. But for me, "Views" was a great opportunity for Drake to channel his Toronto roots and drop a hip-hop classic. I can't fault him for making the album that he wanted, but I'll always think of what could have been had be put his heart, soul and hype into a rap album. The bottom line is this: Drake is simply not capable of, nor does he care to, produce a classic hip-hop album. That's what I'll be losing sleep over.
Annenberg Media