Robert Dinkins
Contributing Writer
What…The…Fuck…Drake?!?! With lyrics such as: “All these handouts, man it’s getting outta hand”; “Tipping scales, bars heavy like Triple XL/That can’t sit well” ; “You toyin’ with it like a Happy Meal?”; and my favorite, “I get green like Earth Day”. These are the lyrics that will have you scratching your head as you listen to Drake’s fourth studio album Views.
Drake announced the album on August 6, 2014, and almost two years later it is here, and I have to say, quite mediocre. The album fails to live up to the hype that accompanied it with each new Drake single. Especially considering the beef between Drake and Meek Mill that caused the release of “Back to Back,” one would think that Drake is at the top of his game and ready to deliver a treasure to the world. Instead of being the treasure that Views was hyped up to be, it is frankly just plain.
The lyrics, delivery and producing are all just average. It pains me to say, but maybe Meek Mill was right, Drake relies on his ghost writers too much. This just goes to show that Drake is considered a jack of all trades with a lot of his music, easily able to cross genre borders. However, he does not excel with any particular genre which shows that he is a master of none.
It has pop/dancehall songs like “One Dance,” “Too Good” and “Controlla.” It has the typical Hip-Hop songs with “Grammys,” “Pop Style” and “9.” And of course regular R&B songs like “U With Me?,” “With You” and “Fire & Desire.” The problem with all these different types of songs is that they generally sound the same and really have no song that stands out.
For example, “Grammys” sounds like it should’ve been on What A Time To Be Alive; “Feel No Ways” is an update of “Hold On, We’re Going Home”; “Redemption” is another version of “Marvin’s Room”; and “Hype” and “Still Here” sounds like If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late (IYRTITL). His music was aggressive, edgy and new. Views sounds like he compiled a lot of his throwaways into one album. To me, Drake decided to stay on the safe side instead of taking the same risk that allowed him to continually flourish at the top.
One of the things that made IYRTITL so good was that it had songs for a lot of occasions and they sounded different. IYRTITL had tracks such as “Know Yourself,” “6 Man,” “6PM in New York.”
The tracks were memorable and covered a lot of different music groups. Drake’s tries to essentially accomplish the same thing with Views but falls extremely short because a lot of the songs are not unique and often get mushed together instead of standing out. For an album to have 20 songs that constitute over an hour of listening, and to have a lot of the songs sound the same, it’s frankly just sad.
Drake is supposed to be in the prime of his career releasing music that would change the game, but instead he puts out “this.” The best tracks in my opinion are “Hotline Bling” which is a year old and “Summer’s Over Interlude.” Yes, the interlude is one of my favorite songs solely due to the producing on the track.
One person commented that if IYRTITL was released as Views and vice versa everything would be okay because it would’ve showed improvement. The bottom line is this is an entirely different Drake than the Drake we were expecting to hear with the release of this album.
This is not the Drake that killed Meek Mill with the line: “Is that a world tour, or your girl’s tour.” This is not the Drake who was able to evoke listeners’ feelings and having them try to slide in their ex’s DMs. This is not the Drake that started from the bottom and now is here. Truthfully, I have no idea which Drake it is. Is it the Drake from Take Care or Nothing Was The Same.? It is surely not the Drake from IYRTITL. Factoring all of this, I have to give the album five out of 10. Perhaps this is Drake’s Yeezus. If it is his Yeezus, that means his next album is going to be superb.
Y’all know this is just my opinion, right?