There wasn’t an album bigger than Views in 2016. From the record-breaking streaming numbers, selling a million copies in the first week, and the chart topping single “One Dance”, the album was everywhere in 2016. But even with the commercial success and records broken, the album remained polarizing if not disappointing all together. Views lacked cohesion and a unifying sound. The theme of the album was the change of seasons from winter to summer back to winter in Canada but unless Drake told you this, you would have never known. While Views succeeded with sales and solidifying Drake’s place atop the pop music food chain it left more to be desired. There was an abundance of lazy lyrics, generally uninspired music, and a lack of authenticity. What has come to make Drake so popular and adored was how genuine he came off in songs, that wasn’t the case with Views. Songs about his insecurities and failed relationships sounded more forced than contrite.
So when he announced he was working on a new “playlist” titled More Life in October of 2016 that would be released in December, just six months after the release of his most successful album, it seemed as if Drake was aware that he may have missed the mark. A signaling of him wanting to put Views behind him, if not redeem himself. He confirmed this last month in an interview with DJ Symtex when he said himself that Views didn’t come out the way he intended it to. And here we are, three months after the supposed landing point of the OVO playlist, with what has turned out to be a full Drake project. Whether it is referred to as a “playlist”, a “mixtape”, or an “album”, there is no denying this is the best body of work Drake has released since his 2015 side project If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.
More Life follows in the same template as Views, which isn’t a bad thing to do considering how commercially successful the album was, it just magnifies the strong points of the album while addressing the weaknesses. The album still has some of the caribbean feels on it that Drake has been dabbling with since Views. Songs like “Blem”, “Madiba Riddim”, “Fake Love”, and even “Ice Melts” with Young Thug. And “Passionfruit” is excellent detailing the risks and struggles of a long distance relationship. The lyrics are simplistic but catchy and relatable. But where the album really is a step up from Drake’s previous works is in the rapping aspect, there aren’t as many cringeworthy bars on here as there were on Views or lazy flows he used on the Future collaborative project What A Time To Be Alive.
The album immediately opens up with a banger “Free Smoke” where Drake is addressing everything from his humble beginnings performing at clubs, betting on shots with Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, and his beef with Meek Mill. Drake is at his best rapping when poking his chest out and being unforgivingly braggadocios. “How you let the kid fighting ghostwriting rumors turn you to a ghost?,” Drake raps in reference to his 2015 dustup with Meek Mill. Meek isn’t the only person who catches strays here either. Drake addresses Tory Lanez on “Portland” and “Do Not Disturb”. On Portland he raps “biting everybody , which is ironic cause your next album probably won’t ever see the light of day,” in reference to how Tory Lanez has been accused of sounding like multiple different artists. On “Do Not Disturb” Drake plays with Lanez name and album title I Told You. The rapping is more focused and wittier on here than it has been since IYRTITL which is the project where ghostwriting allegations arose with his relationship with Quentin Miller. Nine of the 22 songs on this project are strictly rap from Drake which is a lot from him, and it comes off as a response to detractors who question whether he writes his own bars or can even rap that well.
More Life succeeds where it’s predecessor failed in the sense that Drake takes the aspects of Views that were weak spots, such as rapping and introspectiveness, and addresses them here. A song like “Teenage Fever” follows the same model of previous Drake records such as “Shot For Me” and “Own It” but doesn’t sound the same. And the Jennifer Lopez sample of “If You Had My Love” is a pleasant surprise. The album can come off as bloated with 22 songs, some of which could be cut all together such as “Glow”, “No Long Talk”, and “Skepta Interlude”.
Titling this project as a playlist seemed as if Drake was buying himself a get out of jail free card if More Life was a disappointment. That won’t be a concern though, whether this is a playlist” or an album, it’s one of the best bodies of work in Drake’s catalog.
Kameron Hay 