have at it.

"Keep the Family Close" (prod. Maneesh)
"9" (prod. 40, Boi-1da & Brian Alexander Morgan)
"U With Me?" (prod. 40 & Kanye West)
"Feel No Ways" (prod. Jordan Ullman of Majiid Jordan)
"Hype" (prod. Boi-1da, nineteen85 & Beat Bully)
"Weston Road Flows" (prod. 40)
"Redemption" (prod. 40)
"With You" f. PARTYNEXTDOOR (prod. Murda Beatz)
"Faithful" f. Pimp C & dvsn (prod. 40, Boi-1da & nineteen85)
"Still Here" (prod. Daxz & 40)
"Controlla" f. Popcaan (prod. Boi-1da, Supa Dups & Allen Ritter)
"One Dance" f. Kyle & Wizkid (prod. nineteen85, 40 & WizKid)
"Grammys" f. Future (prod. 40, Southside, Cardo & Yung Exclusive)
"Childs Play" (prod. 40)
"Pop Style" (prod. Sevn Thomas & Frank Dukes)
"Too Good" f. Rihanna (prod. nineteen85)
"Summers Over" (prod. Maneesh)
"Fire & Desire" (prod. 40)
"Views" (prod. Maneesh)
"Hotline Bling" (prod. nineteen85)

A few joints on here. This def ain't for me. I'll check in with my lil bro and younger cousins to see what they think

"Weston Road Flows" is an early favorite.

i made it about halfway through the album. too much singing.

Where's the vigor of "If Youre Reading This" ?
All of the energy, flows, memorable hooks...what is this shit?

Maybe it's because I've been listening to Sturgill Simpson and Beyoncé all week (tight sounds, big hooks)...

Almost every one of these songs is a throwaway. The hallmark of this guy was songwriting, but there's no songs here, just drifting pissing and moaning and the SINGING ugh.

This is such a disappointment.

a couple joints are keepers, but the others i really gotta go back and listen to again. first listen, joints aint hitting.

>Maybe it's because I've been listening to Sturgill Simpson

My friend talked me into going to see him in concert last year in Boston (I agreed so long as he'd come to PRhyme with me the next nite) and it was one of the most awful experiences of my life. I *hate* twangy country music and he is the epitome of that.

So whatever, not for me, sounded just like every other country singer I've ever heard. But a couple people are into that stuff, pretty standard.

But his new album just came out or whatever and legit EVERYBODY is raving about it. So many people I wouldn't have expected included.

Just weird to me. Maybe it's just because of how "standard twang country" it sounds to my ears but I just can't understand why he stands out from the rest of the people who sound just like him. Haha.

In recent years he'd still play stuff from his first album which is definitely more twangy. He'll likely phase most of that out when he starts touring this new album.

If your mind is made up that's cool, but give this recent performance on The Daily Show a chance if you can. It's definitely not standard "twangy" stuff

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/pu2tn3/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-exclusive---sturgill-simpson----call-to-arms-

Also if I came off critical of your tastes I didn't mean to. Clearly I'm the minority. Just meant to express how perplexing it was to me that this one dude stood out so much to so many people. Obviously there's something I'm missing so I'm actually really interested to check out this performance and give the new album a spin.

I'll report back.


>In recent years he'd still play stuff from his first album
>which is definitely more twangy. He'll likely phase most of
>that out when he starts touring this new album.
>
>If your mind is made up that's cool, but give this recent
>performance on The Daily Show a chance if you can. It's
>definitely not standard "twangy" stuff
>
>http://www.cc.com/video-clips/pu2tn3/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-exclusive---sturgill-simpson----call-to-arms-

heard of dude, never heard his music. that was very nice.

You would've thought after TRAB shook up the game, Drake was gonna wanna come correct.

Nope.

This shit is really bad.
Lol.
I'm kinda stunned.

Don't even know what will hit, beyond One Dance...Controlla? The Rihanna collab?

To spend years on this project and come out with something so bland and unfocused is just weird to me. The mixtape was better. Even the tape with Future was better.

>Don't even know what will hit, beyond One Dance...Controlla?
>The Rihanna collab?
>
>To spend years on this project and come out with something so
>bland and unfocused is just weird to me. The mixtape was
>better. Even the tape with Future was better.

I'm confused by the disappointment in this post. Production-wise, Views sounds like a typical Drake album lol

theres some good stuff on there...but the fillers are overwhelming

Drake is in that Curren$y, Jay-Z, or Wiz Khalifa category of having that handful of subjects he never gets away from, this nigga really is making the same album over & over.

I see the Stans sticking up for it of course, and it's not awful, background driving music, but this nigga is making the same album.

I think it's funny how some people think he bit J.Cole's album cover this time around, but Cole held that album down solo and took a real picture at his actual home. Drake got the photoshopped cover, a few features, and sounding like he's following trends this time around.

contrived much?

i didn't really connect with anything on here, he's done all these types of songs before.

like there's not a single 'rough edge'... not a single idea that isn't polished and processed for your enjoyment.
no challenges to convention.

and as an unabashed POP album, there's very few smash hits on here to my ear.

i mean that fetty wap album was a straight up POP album... every song was swinging for a homerun.

this joint? ehh...

he's done all these songs before and he's retreading ground.

some experimentation would have went a long way to hold peoples attention, even if the overall direction of the songs was the same.

i'm sure this will sell millions of records and get flawless reviews regardless of this, because 21st century, right?

and this is a major problem in today's rap music in general... but here especially.

the effects, plugins and processing take precedence over the actual fucking notes played.

like yo, it's cool you reverbed and filtered the shit out that f# note, it still doesn't change the fact that you're only playing one goddamn note and holding it for 3 seconds or something.

like music of the past had more intricate phrasing because holding one note for a whole bar was... boring.

despite whatever effects and shit you could add to smooth out that one note.

this album doesn't have a single riff or anything that is memorable, just smoothed out, filtered pablum.

even tlop had some structured ideas for memorable riffs (wolves, fml, real friends)

this shit is all reverbed, airy vapor...
the same novice sequencing of the same familiar notes played in the most basic way possible.

The contrived persona? The over-polished sound? The lack of any experimentation or even, as you correctly identify, much musicality at all?

That's what I expected.

But what I also expected was HOOKS. And I don't hear that. I don't even know what's gonna hit off this beyond One Dance. Maybe Controlla, or the Riri joint if there's a video, but i don't know...maybe this is the beginning of the end for the Six God lol.

a strong hook can prop up an otherwise weak song... and yeah, where dey at doe? © t.i.

Even though I was never a fan, there was always a "Started From The Bottom," a "Worst Behavior" a "Headlines," a "HYFR" that niggas would be shouting in the club.
I didn't hear one of those one here.
Did anyone else?

>contrived much?
>
>i didn't really connect with anything on here, he's done all
>these types of songs before.

are these the photos from it? haha, that's hilarious as are these captions. http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/29/11537836/drake-views-digital-booklet-memes

but this is kinda garbage.

all the songs sound the same.

If you played a joint off this one
maybe not If You're..
but any joints off the 2-3 before it??

I probably couldn't tell which album the song came from.

I know it's cool to build a signature sound
and in turn, MANY people have bit that signature sound

he needs to be doing something else. getting outside production
and not have 40 work on it.

just bland and snoozy.

while laying on the couch with my girl when its raining out.

...but definitely at the bottom of his catalogue.

drake doesn't need to impress anyone, and he isn't gunning for GOAT emcee. he's already been exposed as someone who uses writers. there's no sense in him trying to make an experimental album.

this album has been described in some places as a "victory lap," which i think is accurate. this album is drake and 40 playing in the sandbox that they created and have utilized to ascend to the top of the game.

...remember his "I know good and well Kendrick is not murdering me in any format...The one guy I compare myself to is Kanye West."

Or the fact that he repeatedly says throughout his albums how he's the greatest. Trust, he wants to be recognized as one of the GOATs. It burns him up that he's not the critical darling Kendrick is.

But it did, and on it Drake used new flows for the first time, crafted memorable hooks, and successfully found a way to marry his "poor me" navel-gazing half with his anthem- master half. You can hear his enthusiasm in his vocal delivery on "If You're Reading This..."; it sounds like he even knows it's fresh and good.

"Views" is a step back. Sonically this is 40's least inspired work. Lyrically, it's Drake's laziest. These songs sound like retreads from the "Take Care" era, like the shit you'd expect to hear on the Target-exclusive disc for that album. And I think the biggest shame is not only that these songs sound like lesser versions of songs we first heard 5 years ago, but that he also led us to believe he was going somewhere else the last time we heard from him. You are correct in saying that he's earned the right to take a victory lap, but that's just lazy on his part.

He clearly was almost entirely reliant on Quentin. He had this album in the works before If You're Reading This dropped, and yet someone he doesn't even come close matching it's quality. It's just weird. Probably also doesn't help from my perspective that I really don't care for Singing Drake in the slightest.

>He clearly was almost entirely reliant on Quentin.

I doubt that kid wrote ALL of "If You're Reading This..." but "VIEWS" can easily lead one to believe that was the case.

And I also have very little use for singing Drake.

where he's been riding the same formulas and people are collectively just bored as hell.

lol

Drake at one time was King of the features and hooks on others joints.

his albums though... aside from If You're Reading...

he suffers from Eminem Angry syndrome.

Drake suffers from sad, lonely, and suspicious of women syndrome.


like someone above said... it's now acceptable to wonder how much
the Quentin kid REALLY wrote on If You're Reading because
Drake was taking his game to new heights and playing ball
with a new confidence that had him scoring buckets.

he back to being broke jumper Lebron.

I listened to it one time with the published sequence before going into a&r/exec producer mode. The way I have it works better for old folks like me. And there's a gang of songs I like now. I front loaded it with rapping, used redemption as the bridge into reggae/singing drake, and closed it out with some more rappin.

There's no way views should've be the Intro to the album. It's like they lost their mind on the sequencing. And burying hotline bling at the end? I don't understand. I get that everyone has heard the song a lot but cmon Aubrey.

Reorderthing the album 'unlocked' it for me. I'm enjoying it. Dvsn as Drake's mid-90s r&b cover artist/dream come true works out too.



>
>"Keep the Family Close" (prod. Maneesh)
>"9" (prod. 40, Boi-1da & Brian Alexander Morgan)
>"U With Me?" (prod. 40 & Kanye West)
>"Feel No Ways" (prod. Jordan Ullman of Majiid Jordan)
>"Hype" (prod. Boi-1da, nineteen85 & Beat Bully)
>"Weston Road Flows" (prod. 40)
>"Redemption" (prod. 40)
>"With You" f. PARTYNEXTDOOR (prod. Murda Beatz)
>"Faithful" f. Pimp C & dvsn (prod. 40, Boi-1da & nineteen85)
>"Still Here" (prod. Daxz & 40)
>"Controlla" f. Popcaan (prod. Boi-1da, Supa Dups & Allen
>Ritter)
>"One Dance" f. Kyle & Wizkid (prod. nineteen85, 40 & WizKid)
>"Grammys" f. Future (prod. 40, Southside, Cardo & Yung
>Exclusive)
>"Childs Play" (prod. 40)
>"Pop Style" (prod. Sevn Thomas & Frank Dukes)
>"Too Good" f. Rihanna (prod. nineteen85)
>"Summers Over" (prod. Maneesh)
>"Fire & Desire" (prod. 40)
>"Views" (prod. Maneesh)
>"Hotline Bling" (prod. nineteen85)

LETS SEE IT

I'll give it another shot before I lose interest in it forever lol.

Here's what I have so far:

Rappin Drake (Duh Ha Duh Ha)
1. "Views" (prod. Maneesh) - It's the Jay-Z album intro song.
2. 10 Bands Added here
3. "9" (prod. 40, Boi-1da & Brian Alexander Morgan)
4. "Hype" (prod. Boi-1da, nineteen85 & Beat Bully)
5. Summer Sixteen added here
6. "Pop Style" (prod. Sevn Thomas & Frank Dukes) - Swapped it out for the one with 'The Throne'. It makes the pool comments funnier from Summer Sixteen.

Relationships Drake
7. "Weston Road Flows" (prod. 40)
8. "Childs Play" (prod. 40)
9. "U With Me?" (prod. 40 & Kanye West)
10. "Redemption" (prod. 40)

Dancehall Drake
11. "Hotline Bling" (prod. nineteen85)
12. "Controlla" f. Popcaan (prod. Boi-1da, Supa Dups & Allen Ritter)
13. "Too Good" f. Rihanna (prod. nineteen85)
14. "One Dance" f. Kyle & Wizkid (prod. nineteen85, 40 & WizKid)
15. "With You" f. PARTYNEXTDOOR (prod. Murda Beatz)

Promises to get it right Drake
16. "Faithful" f. Pimp C & dvsn (prod. 40, Boi-1da & nineteen85)
17. "Summers Over" (prod. Maneesh)
18. "Fire & Desire" (prod. 40)
19. "Feel No Ways" (prod. Jordan Ullman of Majiid Jordan)
20. "Keep the Family Close" (prod. Maneesh)
21. "Still Here" (prod. Daxz & 40)

'Bonus' Track
>>"Grammys" f. Future (prod. 40, Southside, Cardo & Yung
>>Exclusive)

With this version, you could reasonably stop after Summers Over and have a whole album with nothing that you'd dramatically 'miss'. I only feel kinda weird about where Faithful is.

Redemption --> Hotline Bling makes both songs better for me. And it sets up all of the dancehall songs to 'work' better than they do separated.

>
>I listened to it one time with the published sequence before
>going into a&r/exec producer mode. The way I have it works
>better for old folks like me. And there's a gang of songs I
>like now. I front loaded it with rapping, used redemption as
>the bridge into reggae/singing drake, and closed it out with
>some more rappin.
>
>There's no way views should've be the Intro to the album. It's
>like they lost their mind on the sequencing. And burying
>hotline bling at the end? I don't understand. I get that
>everyone has heard the song a lot but cmon Aubrey.
>
>Reorderthing the album 'unlocked' it for me. I'm enjoying it.
>Dvsn as Drake's mid-90s r&b cover artist/dream come true works
>out too.
>
>
>
>>

>

theres lots of fat that needs to be trimmed on there

Auto-delete the rest.

EDIT: delete most of the rapping ones too.

>EDIT: delete most of the rapping ones too.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/drake-views-album-review-rarely-has-one-man-moaned-quite-so-much-a7013171.html

Drake, Views - album review: 'Rarely has one man moaned quite so much'
Also Kacy & Clayton, Thomas Cohen and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers

Drake - Views - Island - 2/5

Download this: Still Here; Hotline Bling

Drake’s latest offering isn’t improved by being heard straight after Anohni’s: rarely has one man moaned quite so much about so little. Over 80 interminable minutes, the Canadian rapper appears to find no satisfaction in anything at all: in the opener “Keep The Family Close”, he blubs about someone who “chose a side that wasn’t mine”, the first of an endless litany of autotuned complaints regarding his tiny world of rivals and girlfriends, the latter wooed and warned within virtually the same breath. It’s not completely without merit - some of the b

Men lie, women lie, numbers don't. c. Jay Z.

i mean, it's his first #1, congrats on that, but it is so generic, beat wise and chorus wise. i mean, that chorus is HORRIBLE (then again, this is the same dude who made "i know when that hotline bling" a hot line.)

when Drake's on his Jay status where he's culturally relevant but not a factor based on his quality of music, we're gonna look back & realize this was the album that marked his turning point from great music to living off reputation with moments of greatness.

I fuck with the dancehall/tropical/reggae/etc. vibe he's incorporating. It's new for him & those tended to be the best hooks/"songs" on here.

But the rapping was subpar. it sounded like joints that didn't make IYRTITL/WATTBA. There weren't any "hits" or super memorable parts that you'll be singing in the club or songs where he was really killin a verse.

And then the singing sections sounded like Take Care leftovers.

Jay got famous first and foremost for rapping well on hit songs. He's definitely mostly famous for being famous now, but 99-03? Nah dogg. The music brought him to the party - dumb "mogul" myth making and marrying Beyonce kept him there.

Drake is cool. In fact I loved "Take Care" and last year's "If You're Reading This" was my favorite album of 2015...and he's definitely as big now as Jay was in 2000 I'll give you that. But Drake is probably the most deliberate rap star we've ever seen. I mean who knows if he even writes his own songs, right? That's evidence of someone who's obsessed with perception. He wants to be everything to everybody, and that's ok too because he's actually pretty good at everything (great on SNL last night) But all Jay wanted to be from 99-03 was the most badass rapper in the world - and he was.

Drake is good but he doesn't have a Can I Live. Period. No Dynasty Intro, no Heart of the City, no So Ghetto. Drake's Tuscan Leather is awesome; U Don't Know is an earthquake. Even Drake's smashes don't compare to Hov's honestly - Drake would sell a testicle for an anthem as unanimously approved of as Big Pimpin.

I think I read your post wrong. You weren't saying Jay didn't make great music, just that he isn't known for his music today. And I would actually tend to agree with that. My bad.

>I think I read your post wrong. You weren't saying Jay didn't
>make great music, just that he isn't known for his music
>today. And I would actually tend to agree with that. My bad.

It is the innanet man! Go down with the ship of your original argument like a confed flag waver! JUST KIDDING!

With rap, the 'I refuse to like popular stuff...especially if other people like it' contingent will stand on top of tall items, scream/type really hard, and try to muffle at least some of the love that almost anyone gets before they get super big. That or the social and other media will try to catch a dude doing/saying/wearing/not wearing/thinking/standing by someone else doing something goofy to take him down a notch. It really is crazy.

AKA I don't know if any act can get to where Jay was in the late 90s. And even he ate some hatero's when he was clearly a machine who could do most things any rap cat would've wanted to do. Nas came from a borderline career deathbed and gave the contrarians a leg to stand on with the Jay hate. Now, it doesn't even take a murderous Ether. The innanet alone will hate a dude down a notch.

Maybe I'm overstating all of this since Drake is the star rapper, J. Cole is rich, Fewcha is the underground/mixtape master, and Kendrick is the (old) people's champ. Maybe that is it...there's more 'lanes' than ever but it is damn near impossible to have a whole freeway. Even a cat like Curren$y almost messed up when he came from out of his cave and tried his hand at having an 'on the table' hit or two. Now he's back giving away basic but solid work and I'm guessing he's fine.

i was reading your first response like, 'what does this dude think he's replying to?'

>I think I read your post wrong. You weren't saying Jay didn't
>make great music, just that he isn't known for his music
>today. And I would actually tend to agree with that. My bad.

ha, all good man.

Yea, I'd say Drake never got to Jay's level as an mc but he had HITS. And love it/hate it, that plays into perception. And when you keep coming w/hits, you get that status.

But this feels like the first album where he is gonna get by on everything else but the music.