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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