IS DRIZZY FIZZLING?
Eight years is a long reign
In June, Drake scored his eighth consecutive No. 1 album on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart with the release of Scorpion. From that album, the Canadian rapper has also topped the singles chart three times, and he is Spotify’s most-streamed artist, with 61.5 million monthly plays. On the surface, it appears his star wattage is as bright as ever as he approaches a decade on the charts. (His mixtape output goes back to 2006.)
When Drake hits the Bell Centre with Atlantan trio Migos on Tuesday and Wednesday, fans will undoubtedly cheer for the ubiquitous new singles In My Feelings, Nice for What and God’s Plan, arguably the strongest sign of an album’s success.
Still, if Drake could be considered a statistical darling in this age of streaming-weighted sales, one can’t ignore two foreboding numbers that also tell a story of an artist perhaps entering a creative funk: 69 and 67. Those are the aggregated scores on Metacritic for 2016’s Views (which included two of his biggest hits, One Dance and Hotline Bling) and Scorpion, respectively. More Life, his 2017 mixtape in which he acted more as a curator, fell closer to his career average of 76.
And then there’s his age as of this October: 32. Not ancient by any means, but compare that to some of the newest stars in hip hop, like 18-year-old Lil Pump and 19-year-old Trippie Redd.
At 32, Paul McCartney was a year removed from Band on the Run, which probably felt like a lifetime away from the Beatles, and Bono was five years removed from The Joshua Tree and into U2’s left-turn phase. Still popular, but arguably a few years on from their most highly regarded works.
As prolific as Drake has been with his near-annual releases, in the same period of time that elapsed between his first and most recent No. 1 album, Pink Floyd had gone from Atom Heart Mother to Animals, with The Wall only a year away. That’s the bulk of the decorated band’s discography.
Then there are the other recent shots through Drake’s once impenetrable public-relations armour. A rivalry with American rapper Pusha T exposed the Canadian’s secret child through a diss track, and myriad delays have befallen the current Aubrey and the Three Migos tour, including one of his hometown shows in Toronto. His initial response to the Pusha T revelation was a tepidly received video for the Scorpion track I’m Upset starring his former Degrassi colleagues, a concept he likely kept in his back pocket for years. It came across more as desperation than innovation.
So, which Drake is real? The one continually smashing streaming records or the one dividing critics and getting fustigated by less popular rappers? Nearing a decade since his debut full-length, Thank Me Later, is Drake still at the top of his game, or is he just gaming the charts?
When Scorpion came out in June, Spotify subscribers were inundated with messages about its release. His face was plastered on all-important playlists like RapCaviar and Today’s Top Hits in a marketing campaign dubbed ScorpionSZN. The album was impossible to avoid, and one can only wonder how many extra plays this ploy garnered. U2 was rightfully pilloried for foisting an album upon iTunes users without their permission, and this wasn’t any less invasive.
At this point in his career, it would be understandable if Drake ceded his position as pop culture influencer to a new graduating class and began work on cementing his legacy as not only one of the most important artists of his generation, but one of the greatest Canadian acts of all time. Sales aren’t everything, and while he has a pantheon spot sewn up purely based on No. 1s, a graceful slide into less critically acclaimed, albeit less commercially viable projects would likely do more to cement his reputation than gerrymandering the singles chart year after year. He may already be etched into Canada’s musical Mount Rushmore based on existing output, and he probably still has decades of music to go.
Remember when I suggested 32 isn’t ancient? In the rap space, Jay Z is still putting out solid records into his 40s, even if they’re not resonating with teenage listeners. And as far as fellow Canadians go, Neil Young released Harvest Moon when he was days shy of 47.
Even with countless memorable songs and a respected output, an anecdotal sign of Drake’s waning clout can be seen in what’s clicking with young rap fans, who were out in full force at Osheaga last month. Their idols: festival headliner Travis Scott, who supplanted Scorpion on the Billboard chart with Astroworld (which owns an impressive 84 rating on Metacritic), and Post Malone, who set streaming records earlier this year with Beerbongs and Bentleys.
Malone notwithstanding, you can hardly hear Drake’s oncedominant R&B/pop/rap sound in the younger set. If anything, the Pumps and Redds of the world resemble Drake’s tour mates Migos more than the headliner, from the repeatable hooks to staccato vocal stylings. And why would a young person have a personal attachment to Drake’s music? An 18-year-old at Osheaga was only 10 when Thank Me Later came out. Did someone turning legal voting age in 1987 care about Supertramp’s legendary Jarry Park shows?
Music trends move quickly, and eight years is a long time to be on top. Drake isn’t ready to abdicate his throne, and he’ll continue to sell out arenas for years to come, but there are signs October’s Very Own is approaching the autumn of his career.