The album is a twenty-song window into everything that Drake was in 2016. There were several different schools of thought surrounding the album, but one of the biggest criticisms of Views was its lack of clarity. When Views finally did come around, the reception was mixed to say the least. His embrace of social media combined with What A Time and the Meek beef that summer had pushed into a somehow even brighter spotlight. But Meek Mill’s claims that Drake owed his success to a ghost writer were generally ignored in the aftermath of their feud, and almost totally erased with the release of What A Time To Be Alive a few months later. Historically, the discovery that you didn’t write your songs came with career-ending implications. IYRTITL may have been a rap album, but Drake was becoming a pop artist. Still, the project received love from all sides. There was no album trailer, no billboards, and almost no features. When he dropped his mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late in 2015, there was no rollout a move that showed off his growing influence while also avoiding a build-up of expectations. After following Take Care with Nothing Was the Same, he pushed himself onto a bigger, more critical stage. Looking back, this breaking point was inevitable. The album-originally billed as “Views From the 6”-was teased, hyped, and discussed for almost two years before actually being released. In fairness, these expectations were, for the most part, created by Drake himself. No longer playing with house money, he was finally confronted with the obstacle that all growing artists must face: expectations. Hindsight is 20/20, but IYRITL tracks like “Used To”-an entire song about the unexpected adjustments of success-were early, pre- Views indicators that the Drake we knew was changing.
After outgrowing his underdog reputation with 2013’s Nothing Was the Same, and reinforcing his popularity with mixtapes like If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, Views was Drake’s official debut as rap’s mainstream champion. Wandering, lengthy, and endlessly discussed, it marked a turning point in the rapper’s career.
0 kommentar(er)
