5 Years of ‘Views’

5 Years of ‘Views’

Today marks five years since Drake dropped his fourth studio album, Views. At this point in his career, Drake had more than proven himself as a star with staying power, but with this album, he made it clear that we were witnessing a legend in the making.

With Views, Drake demonstrated mass appeal in ways he hadn’t before. The album’s two lead singles — “Hotline Bling” and “One Dance” (featuring Kyla & WizKid) — would become his biggest hits yet, with the latter becoming his first No. 1 hit as a lead artist. Views opened with over a million album-equivalent units moved in its first week, with over 850,000 units in pure sales. And as impressive as those numbers were, what’s most notable about that debut is that it dethroned Lemonade and was selling at a much quicker pace.

As with every Drake album, we get a whole lot of soap opera rap (e.g., “U With Me?”) juxtaposed with bravado (e.g., “Pop Style”), but unlike the rest, Views was particularly ready for consumption. So many of the album’s tracks slap on the first listen and maintain appeal even after fiftyleven hundred replays. I speak from experience.

As a vocalist (if we’re being generous), Drake shows even more improvement on Views. On tracks like “Feel No Ways” and “Too Good” (featuring Rihanna), he sounds like an actual singer as opposed to a rapper fucking around in the studio.

Another characteristic that is unique to Views is Drake’s dabbling — for lack of a better term — in West Indian and West African sounds, most notably on singles “One Dance,” “Controlla” and the aforementioned “Too Good.” Said dabbling has earned the rapper/singer accusations of cultural appropriation, especially in light of his part-time West Indian accent, which has even been the topic of thinkpieces.

In many ways, Views marked Drake’s graduation from superstar to icon. The scale of everything he has done post-Views has been much larger, and he has gone on to break countless records in the years since. The critics weren’t so keen on the album, but I’d have you know that Michael Jackson’s Thriller also got mixed reviews. The fact of the matter is that Drake understood the assignment when he made Views, and five years later, the album is holding up like the classic it is.

Favorite track: “Too Good” (featuring Rihanna)