DRAKE’S BEST TRACKS
5 Controlla
Like all good pop stars, Drake knows how to pluck from the underground and claim as his own. Who else could soak up multiple corners of his hometown’s multicultural fabric and turn it into a monolithic, era-defining “Toronto sound”? In recent years, Drake has delved further into Jamaican dancehall, perhaps most famously on Rihanna’s Work. For this slow burner, dancehall crossover star Popcaan made an appearance on the original non-album version, but the spotlight remained trained on the Canuck.
4 Know Yourself
If Drake has a true classic album side, it would have to be the first act of the 2015 mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. He’s in fighting form throughout, trading his usual snappy/suave schism for consistent bars. By the end, dull and drab Toronto was reborn as the confident 6ix, a nickname that’s stuck.
3 Back to Back
Before Pusha T knocked him out with a single punch, Drake was a regular Rocky Marciano, riding an undefeated streak in the rap beef ring. The Frazier to his Ali was Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill, who Drake was more than happy to remind in this hastily uploaded rejoinder that Joe Carter’s heroic World Series-winning homer came off Phillies closer Mitch Williams. Drake’s confidence is infectious and he’s at his most indefatigable here.
2 Started From the Bottom
Sometimes the truest indicator of a rapper’s reach is his or her ability to create expressions from thin air that eventually become part of our daily lexicon. Hardscrabble upbringing or not, most can relate to humble beginnings and celebrating personal growth. Nowadays, it’s commonplace to simply say “we started from the bottom, now we’re here.”
1 Marvins Room
The archetypal sensitive Drake song, and the one in which his multiple facets really snapped into place: the witching-hour phone-tag confessionals, the questionable decision-making, the swagger, the uncomfortable intimacy, and a memorable vocal hook (“I’m just saying, you could do better”) that hits like a ton of bricks. When Drake fires on all cylinders, the listener is riveted by the admissions while simultaneously feeling like they’re caught in the middle.