This album is one that has been anticipated since Drake’s latest project with Future. The album What A Time To Be Alive was an album that was mostly fast, hard, crisp rap. The album was taking off with great success. Being played in nearly every club across the world. It was hard to go somewhere and not hear a song on the album. Drake’s latest album, Views, had very high hopes from everyone. It is going to be hard to top his last album. Would he reignite the beef that he had with Meek Mill over the summer? Would he have more songs featuring top artists like Future and Kanye West? People were ready to turn up and jam these songs all summer long. After listening to this album for weeks it is easy to say that Drake has completely transitioned from modern rapper to R&B mogul. You can tell just by the album art that he has been posting on his social media and website. He did a photoshoot with scenery from multiple places in “The 6”. Wearing thick leather coats, posing with models, sitting in his Rolls-Royce Phantom, standing in front of mansions with his dog. Nearly every picture gave a very lavish feel to the project.The most notable being his album cover which depicts him sitting on the edge of the 1500 ft CN Tower in Toronto. Drake religiously reps Toronto, the city with which he calls home. The music on the album is very similar to his early work. He is using his vocal range in many songs and has amazing instrumentals. This album might have some of the best sounds that I’ve heard on an album in a very long time.

Starting off the album is the song ‘Keep The Family Close’. Having an adlib at the beginning of a Drake song is something to be expected. Speaking on how all of his “let’s just be friends” suddenly aren’t there when he needs them. As soon as he is not giving people money or love they are gone. They completely abandon him, even though they seemed like they would have been with him through everything. Moving to L.A. was something that he had to adjust to, and something that he wishes didn’t have to happen. This is a good opening track.

The song ‘Redemption’ is a song where Drake sings about ex flames, it is very similar to ‘Marvin’s Room.’ On the track he reflects on how he gave his girl everything and that it just wasn’t enough. Now that he is one of the most popular rappers in the world she has feelings of redemption every time she thinks of him. She still drives the car that drake bought her, still wears the jewelry and the clothes that he gave her. This does not sit well with Drake. Even though she is happy with another man, Drake doesn’t care. He knows that he is her best option.

‘Faithful’ is a track that has some great featured artists. Starting with an adlib featuring social media goddess Amber Rose where she can be heard saying “I’m high maintenance a little bit but not in a, not in a negative way, I just like extremely expensive things”. Next is a very short 20 second intro verse from Pimp C. Drake talks about a very successful powerful woman that has little time to waste on relationship with him because she is so busy “working” on her career.  We get an idea of who he is talking about… possibly the stunning “work work work” artist? If she were to put her time into a relationship with Drake he promises to not have affairs and to be faithful. He wants to put what they talk about in texts into reality. Finishing up the song is dvsn, he absolutely kills it. He has one high note in the song that is just so satisfying. Overall a fantastic song.

One of the more notable songs on the album is ‘One Dance.’ With a touch of reggae and islander influence this song has hit the top of charts. After being featured on Rihanna’s latest album Drake has been accused of being a bandwagoner when it comes to the reggae sounds. Reggae is actually very alive and well in Toronto believe it or not. It is a possibility that Drake had been surrounded by that type of music his whole life. Either way he managed to grab people’s attention. The song talks about how once Drake has a Hennessy in his hand he can’t resist his girl and needs one more dance before he leaves. The instrumentals on the song are extremely catchy. The lyrics are nothing extraordinary but the overall sound of the track is.

Drake and Future have once again collaborated to make a power song. ‘Grammy’ is a reminder that Drake still has aggressive bars to throw. There is no smooth R&B vocals on this track. Once Future is brought in on the song it takes a turn from aggressive to turn up. Repeating the line “They gon’ think I won the Grammy” several times before his verse. Future has dropped 5 very successful albums that many people would argue should have won him a Grammy by now.  Kanye West the God of twitter recently took to his social media to let the public know that he believes that Future needs to be at the next Grammy awards. If Future keeps up his work ethic he should make it eventually.

‘Child’s Play ‘is one of my favorite songs on the album. Starting out with a very funny adlib saying “breaking news…. If your girl is at any season opener basketball game….she is sleeping with one of them”. The song has a very catchy repeating instrumental that fades out into a sleek vocal session. Speaking on how he is annoyed with his girls “child play”. He buys her everything and gives her everything that she could ever dream of but she still argues with him at the Cheesecake Factory. The best line on the song and possibly the album is when he says “Momma is a saint, yes she raised me real good. All because of her I don’t do you like I should. Don’t make me give you back to the hood. Don’t make me give you back”. This caused some controversy among people on the internet saying that Drake didn’t respect women. While I’m definitely not of that same opinion, the song is still very catchy and fluid.

‘Views’ starts out like a Chance The Rapper song with a gospel choir and fiercely transitioned into a hard hitting bar session. This is Drakes “I told you so” track. Putting all of his competition and haters in their place with this track reminding them who’s king. Who put in the work, who’s the rap mogul of 2016, who gets the girl, who runs the game? That’s right, Aubrey Drake Graham does. He lets them know of all his accomplishments and how he didn’t need anyone to get him there unlike all of his competitors. He tells them that he jump started their careers.

Finishing off the album is ‘Hotline Bling.’ This song took over the internet months before the album was dropped. With a very plain but very affective music video Drake managed to become an internet meme. He wasn’t necessarily being made fun of, it just became an iconic dance. The song talks about how whenever his cell phone rings late at night he knows that it is a certain girl that wants his love. It is the perfect song to end the album and one that you would expect to end it.

Throughout the entire album there are lines dropped ripping apart Meek Mill. Drake has a way with music where you can listen to a song and get lost in the instrumental and not even pay attention to the lyrics sometimes. It’s the same thing if you were to listen to song in a different language. As long as the song sounds good you continue to listen. There are some people that listen to Drake’s music for the sound and some that listen for the poetry and lyrics. That is why he kills the game so much. He is able to strive in both departments. Drake has a very bright future ahead of him and i’m very excited to see what he cooks up in the future. I am very satisfied with this album and I will have something to jam to all summer long.