[su_permalink id=”http://www.drakeofficial.com/” target=”blank”]Drake[/su_permalink] [su_permalink id=”https://soundcloud.com/i-d-online-1/i-n-conversation-drake” target=”blank”]once said[/su_permalink] that by the time he turned 30, he planned to no longer be rapping. I remember feeling respect for this; he was an artist in his prime recognizing that aging artists rarely come close to their career highs and instead begin a long, slow crawl toward increasingly dated and mediocre music. Drake foresaw his own inevitability and decided, at least in that interview, that heโd attempt to go out on top (despite the success of acts like Run The Jewels, whose members are both 41, and the fact that Kanye is still dropping acclaimed albums at 38). Then-28-year-old Drake dropped If Youโre Reading This Itโs Too Late (2015) and kicked off his best year to date, repositioning the perennial sad boi of rap as a jaded sheriff who ceased giving a fuck and let fly his revolver in every which direction. That summer brought his beef with Meek Mill in which Drake came away victor by unanimous decision after dropping two diss tracks that were so popular they charted. In August, Drake released a decent mixtape with Atlantaโs rapper-of-the-moment Future; then in October, as Drake approached 29, โHotline Blingโ took over the internet with its wonderfully meme-able music video and infinitely sing-a-longable chorus. So when Drake claimed that Views From the 6 (retitled Views just prior to release) would be his magnum opus — his coup de grรขce, his grand statement — to put Toronto permanently on top of the pop-culture landscape, I was as much a believer as anyone. His albums had only gotten better, his singles had only charted higher, and his collaborations had only become more interesting as time went on; three weeks ago it seemed like nothing would stop Views from achieving mythical status and being Drakeโs landmark record. Drake So how bad does Views have to be for me to spend two paragraphs building it up? Not bad, actually. Just mediocre. Painfully mediocre, and repetitive, and anti-anthemic, and too long, and really unremarkable in every way. Should we have seen this coming? I donโt think so. Drakeโs a workhorse, and heโs been touting Views as his biggest project to date for over a year. An epic failure actually would have been more predictable than the amorphous grey blob of hip-hop he serves up as a musical counterpart to the stormy Toronto sky on the recordโs cover. Speaking of Toronto, for a record meant to be an ode to The 6, thereโs a considerable dearth of Toronto-centric sentiment. On second track โ9,โ Drake declares โI made a decision last night that I would die for it!โ before rambling off eighteen more tracks about how long heโs spent wracking his mind over breakups that took place in clubs and hotel rooms around the world. Personally I think Drake knows — and loves — himself far too much to die for anything, but hey, on an album with maybe seven good songs, โ9โ is one of the better ones, so Iโll buy it. Drake And those other good songs are sometimes awesome. The mid-album, back-to-back, Caribbean-inspired dancehall fodder โControllaโ and โOne Danceโ are painful reminders of the direction Views could have taken. Culled from the same warm, tropical territory that made โHotline Blingโ such a breath of fresh air compared to the dark, haunting atmosphere carved out by trapโs sudden rise in mainstream popularity, both tracks give us the sweet, sing-rapping Drake who bends and pieces his words together like a seamless sine wave. โThat’s why I need a one dance / Got a Hennessy in my hand / One more time ‘fore I go,โ Drake sings on โOne Danceโsโ jaunty, piano laden chorus, and itโs in these impersonal but romantic statements that Drake shines brightest (see โIโll take care of youโ and โJust hold on weโre going homeโ from previous smash hits). But these twin fantasies are immediately usurped by the low-pitched, uninteresting โGrammysโ featuring a Future verse that has the unfortunate effect of looking like the unrefined little brother of current chart-topping rap single โPandaโ (which is understandably criticized for ripping off Future’s iconic sound). The second part of the recordโs second side is a similar slog through the typically slow, brooding production Drakeโs become known for (credited to his longtime friend and producer Noah ’40’ Shebib). The production that on If Youโre Reading This sounded industrial and aggressive has become a murky swamp of anti-production. โFaithfulโ is a painfully slow ballad reminiscent of middle of the road โ90s R&B that sees Drake wade for the hundredth time through the newly-in-love Drake quagmire, with lyrics more generic than anything heโs ever made (โGet all your affairs in order / I won’t have affairs, I’m yours, girl, faithfulโ). Ditto for โFeel No Ways,โ which at least brings in the fan favorite weed-and-sex Drake (โThere’s more to life than sleeping in and getting high with youโ). Drake (and Nicki Minaj) Picking apart Drake rehashing previous Drakes is almost unfair, though. Drake is the quintessential self-aware rapper. Heโs only ever rapping about one life, one perspective — his. But the guy has put out 50-something songs in the last year, which averages out to a song a week about Drakeโs life. Is there enough material there to be mined? Views would suggest a succinct โno.โ โPop Styleโ features tough guy leader-of-the-crew Drake (seen most famously in 2013 on โStarted From the Bottomโ). โFire & Desireโ is I-just-wanna-get-married-and-be-happy Drake (โYou just like my sidekick, I just wanna wife / fulfill all your desiresโ), a sentiment heโs been moping about since 2010 on โUnforgettableโ. The Drake we donโt see a lot of on Views, unfortunately, is fun-loving, happy Drake. The wink at the camera โHotline Blingโ comes in as a throwaway at the end of an otherwise grey album, brightened by the aforementioned highlights as well as the Shakira-esque Rihanna collaboration โToo Good.โ โChildโs Playโ also features a great lyric about fighting in The Cheesecake Factory that serves as a portal to an additional bizzaro Views, one in which Drakeโs often humorous personal anecdotes donโt serve to show him as a sobering, serious sex and alcohol addicted heartthrob but as an affectionate and affable rapper trying to navigate his own romances under public scrutiny. โU With Me?โ is a favorite for its clever wordplay describing a troubled relationship via text and Tinder symbolism (โAll that grey in our conversation history / we both doin’ the same thing / Slidin on a late nightโ), but these come between quasi-sentimental ballads in which Drake bashes himself through one degree of separation by bashing his romantic partners. Drake And thatโs the core issue at the heart of Views. Drake is trying to make serious, extremely personal music, and itโs just not fun to listen to or stimulating to think about. I buy into the Drake image more than anyone; I get the seemingly contradictory dichotomy that Drake projects as both a tough guy and an emotional punching bag. Itโs classic rock star bullshit, but Drake gets a pass; heโs famous enough to be whatever he wants, and every time I listen to โEnergyโ or โKnow Yourselfโ from If Youโre Reading This, I almost even believe itโs true. Views, by contrast, offers no compelling reason to buy into 2016 Drake. There are some great tunes here, as is to be expected by someone with his connections and experience, but Views is an ocean away from the great album Drake promised, that heโs spent years working to perfect. โIโm assuming everybodyโs 35 and under / thatโs when I plan to retire man itโs already funded,โ Drake raps on the only old-school Drake song on the record, โWeston Road Flows.โ I just hope that when he gets there, heโs not trying to push it to 40. Article by HR Huber-Rodriguez Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Currently you have JavaScript disabled. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser. Δ