Our favorite crybaby boy is back. Less than 11 months after
the mixed-reviewed “Views” was released, Drake has shook the world yet again. With
a rushed release in the late hours of Saturday, March 18 and with what should
be his seventh album, Drake has released what is actually his first playlist
titled “More Life.” The album cover features a vintage picture of Drake’s
father and a subtitle below stating “A Playlist by October Firm.” October’s
Very Own Sound (OVO) is the name of Drake’s label but it’s unknown what the
October Firm is and what part it plays in the label.
At 81 minutes (“Views” actually being the same length of time)
and 22 songs, there is no one sound on this album. The New York Times says of
the album, “A playlist in the streaming era, by contrast, is a collection of
moods, impressions, influences and references; it’s a river that flows in one
direction, ending somewhere far from the beginning (if it ends at all).” That’s
what Drake is giving us with the playlist: an album that is a collection of
moods and unique sounds. Calling it a playlist puts it in a different
classification than Drake’s other albums and mixtapes because it is something different.
It seems like Drake has walked away from rapping and like
he’s become more of a singer within the past two releases. There are guest
appearances from Kanye West, PARTYNEXTDOOR and Young Thug apprears on two
songs, along with more. Drake brings in lowkey British singer and producer
Sampa on a beautiful “4422” and Black Coffee, a DJ, on “Get It Together,” a
song reminiscent of classic Drizzy.
With more rapper releasing mixtapes (an album that isn’t
released through a record label. Think Chance the Rapper.), Drake has everyone
wondering why he would release what feels like a full-length album or mixtape,
and offer his vocals to every song, and call it a “playlist.”
Drake’s cultural relevance and evolution as a rapper and
performer can be summed up with the existence of the first album/playlist. By
coining the term playlist as a valid idea for an album, Drake is redefining
what an album is after the release of “More Life” and we will likely see more
playlists and concepts after this.
Drake gives me a personal shoutout (or would you call this a diss?) in "Can't Have Everything" with the line "We evolved, used to think vacation meant Niagara Falls/Swear to God, shout to Buffalo, never duckin' low." I saw Drake in concert this summer in Buffalo and he said he loved Buffalo so I'm gonna go with personal shoutout.
With the opening song “Free Smoke” comes the great line “I drunk text J-Lo/Old number, so it bounce
back” (the two were rumored to have been dating at the end of last year) and
Jennifer Lopez’s lyrics from her 1999 song “If You Had My Love” is featured in
“Teenage Fever.” The closing song “Do Not Disturb” features the line “I'll be
back in 2018 to give you the summary” telling us the 6 God will be back to give
us more music and more revolutionary music.
Standout tracks: “Nothings Into Somethings,” “Get
It Together,” “Blem,” “Teenage Fever,” “Lose You,” “Can’t Have Everything”