While the below-par wordplay could be seen as a sign that Drake’s ghostwriters are no longer his woes, the sheer bloat of the album severely exposes his limitations as a rapper. When Meek Mill claimed that Quentin Miller was ghostwriting for Drake, it didn’t necessarily negate his best performances on IYRTITL, but did leave the listener wondering, what if? Perhaps that could explain the sheer wealth of faceplant-worthy lines on Views, from ‘Pop Style’s already infamous “got so many chains they call me Chaining Tatum” and ‘Weston Road Flow’s “I get green like Earth Day” through to the title track’s wealth of bricks: “Far-fetched like I threw that shit a hundred meters” “Staple in the game / all my papers together” “My wifey is a spice like I’m David Beckham”.
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Without the family issues to sort through, he’s coaxed himself into beavering away at Drakeisms concerning failed relationships.ĭrake started as a weak rapper before developing into a nimble, direct MC who could conceivably live up to his boast of riding ‘Tuscan Leather’ for an hour. Views aims to be some type of zen cycle, until you hit play and realise there are few maxims to be found. Talking to Zane Lowe last week, he described the album as going from “winter to summer and back to winter again”, a process that “creates a different person”. Views is intended as a snapshot of his Toronto hometown shifting through the seasons, affecting his moods – effective because Drake’s music is largely mood music, a high-definition mix of ‘90s R&B, international club sonics and post-Kanye rap confessionals culminating in a glimmering, sophisticated sparseness. Yet on Views, having closed the book on his family issues, a clear narrative is missing, leaving him in a type of creative stasis. It’s the closing of a chapter in Drake’s career: the family’s struggle symbolically put to rest.Įach Drake album concerns itself with a narrative, usually around an uneasy relationship with fame, squandered relationships, and being the local boy done good. 2015’s strings surge and surge, leaving 2009’s drunken panic in the past. At the song’s closing, an orchestra soars above Boi-1da’s warm instrumental and a sample of 2009’s ‘The Calm’, a track recorded back when the younger Drake got drunk off alcohol he couldn’t afford and was paralysed by the personal chaos his career could cause him.
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“I’m content with this story,” he beatifically admits. They’re rich, successful and everyone knows time (and Canadian dollars) heals all wounds. “Show him some love,” the rapper tells his mother on ‘You & The 6’, accepting that his father made mistakes that can’t be easily repaired, but that it’s time to let go and move onward. Near the end of last year’s surprise mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, Drake talks to his mother about her ex-husband, his father, the Memphis musician who heats up Instagram with his moustachioed adventures.