Cold, ice cold. Cold in a minus 20 in the 6 way. Cold in the way “VIEWS” formerly known as “VIEWS FROM THE 6” starts off. With the air howling, it sends shivers down every person’s spine who knows how cold winters get in our city.
Much of Drake’s highly anticipated spring album titled “VIEWS” leaves a lot of his haters out in the cold (sorry Marques Houston), but somewhere in the middle Drake takes us into summer and that’s really all we can hope for.
I’ll start off by saying my favourite album from Drake is hands down Take Care, it’s an album where I still play it through in full four years later. You get a sense of what type of Drake I’m down for, having said that I think “VIEWS” is a great album; I just don’t think it hit the target of what I was hoping for it to be. I think that’s what happens when something is so hyped like “Views from the 6” was, Drake hyped It up as an ode to Toronto, but then removed the 6 from the album name a few days before the drop.
And it’s not like the album is riddled with Toronto references any more than his other albums. Sure, Weston Road Flow is titled after a major road in Toronto, cool. He talks about the TTC, how original. Vince Carter, been gone.
Still, I’m down for this cold angry version of Drake. His beats are harder, right off the top on ‘Keep the Family Close’ the back end of the track has some harsh beats that hit you, then he talks about how he turned the 6 upside down, literally titling the track ‘9’. He even samples DMX at the beginning of ‘U With Me?’ aka the angriest person alive.
But this angry Drake also has a lot to say, and he says it straight up, with no holding back. On ‘U With Me?’ he talks about other artists putting a price on his songs, ‘A lotta n***as cut the cheque so they could take this flow’. He gets a little playful in ‘Weston Road Flows’ referencing a popular Vine saying, ‘I’m lookin’ at the first week numbers like what are those!’ At the end of the track, he quietly samples Jelleestone’s ‘Money Can’t Buy Me Happiness’ remember that song?
Then there’s Drake and all the girls. We don’t know who all these girls are, and maybe there isn’t a whole bunch of girls, maybe it’s like two girls, but he definitely makes it sound like there’s a whole lot going on there and it’s all juicy. He makes you want to listen, like listen real hard, drown out the background beat and just listen to his words. You’re waiting for the Ri drop, and then it happens on ‘Hype’, ‘You cannot be right next to me, Don’t you see Riri right next to me?’ I don’t know what his intention was with the girl at the beginning of ‘Faithful’ but it’s laughable. “Drake: You expensive you know that? Girl: I’m high maintenance but not in a negative way. I just like extremely expensive things” The part that made me laugh the hardest was the opening voice over of ‘Child’s Play’, “Breaking News my n***as, if your girlfriend has went to any season opener basketball game, best believe she’s f****** somebody on the basketball team”
So is it entertaining? Yes. Is it TTC commute and/or delayed due to an emergency alarm activated on another train worthy? For sure. Are there some tracks I advise you to stray from? Yes. ‘Summers Over Interlude’ is the shortest track on the album and it really is some mellow interlude-y track that doesn’t really go anywhere. Listen to it, hear the words, and then you’ll probably never go back there. Besides, who wants to sing about the summer being over when it hasn’t even begun? I’m not crazy about ‘Redemption’, it’s super slow, and barely has a beat to it, it reminds me of ‘Cece’s Interlude’ from Thank Me Later.
Drake, I still don’t forgive you for removing the 6 from the album name, but obvi I love you. Bye.
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