Sure, Drake's bigger than ever. But if you look at how strong, inspired, and consistent the work was up until the Meek battle I think you can point to that moment as the moment when Drake stopped making authentic decisions.

Sure he survived the battle. Hell, he actually won it which is weird when you consider the impetus for it (Back 2 Back still kicks ass)

But his shit all sounds like it's tested in front of focus groups now, and the content is less earnest than it's ever been. In trying to figure out where he stopped challenging himself and instead focused on just maintaining his status I think it really starts at the Meek Mill battle.

Meek Mill sucks btw.

skirmish.

I feel like the Meek Mill battle made sense and was a traditional rap battle. Meek felt like he was subtley dissed by a Drake verse. He reacts and they in an old school battle that eventually ends and then they cool and doing songs together.

But that Pusha T battle where Kanye and Pusha T sneak attack him out of know where and used shit he confided in them about that affects his money, that seems dirty and messed with him in a way he seemed changed by it. Listen to the first couple of albums versus his last two albums, Drake seems a lot more bitter and don't seem to love the life the way he use to (same thing happened to Kanye too).

However, you might be on to something if Drake stopped using ghostwriters after Meek called him out and the ghostwriters were making him better. *shrugs*

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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Drake has now been releasing studio albums for over 10 years, so it may just be that he's less inspired than the first half of his run so far

The closest comparison I see is Jay-Z (in terms of mainstream longevity and superstardom in rap) and even he started to release less consistent work after 10 years:

Reasonable Doubt came out in 1996. 10 years later (2006), he released Kingdom Come. And since then, most of his albums have had big hits included on them, but are less likely to be played all the way through or considered classic. His last album, 4:44 (2017), felt more like a return to form in terms of a concise, complete, album.

Drake may be going through a bit of that as well with regards to being comfortable as one of the biggest pop artists in the world. But I do agree that his work has a more bitter tone since the Pusha-T and Kanye beef.

Personally, I'd like to see him do a shorter project that returns to the introspective Drake vibe (rapping and singing) over some soulful beats. As opposed to the jaded, bitter, but still on top of the world shit he's been on for the past two albums. They have bangers on them, but I'm not playing them from front to back.

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like Dynasty is actually pretty good, albeit uneven. It still yielded massive hits. But the noise around that album at the time was "more of the same old shit"...he'd return with The Blueprint - new producers, new flows, probably his most complete body of work

I think/hope Drake is the same impasse. He CAN'T possibly make this same Views/Scoprion/CLB album AGAIN can he?

i would love for him to stop chasing the streaming numbers (bloated albums) and just put out something concise that has a consistent theme/mood/sound

i agree with the statement in your later post that NWTS was probably his last great "complete" album in that sense

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Frisson Radio | Saturdays 6-8 PM EST | 89.5 FM (Toronto) | www.ciut.fm
https://www.instagram.com/frissonradio

Meek put Drake on blast for using a ghostwriter
there wasn't a W for him there
and probably got his feels hurt when he realized how many people don't f with him and/or feel the same way about him violating
but that's just my opinion.

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If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

Every album since NWTS (his last good album IMO) has been bloated to the point where it's clear he's just trying to get as many songs on a project as possible so that he can get more streams.

That's such a cynical way of making music isn't it?

"NWTS" is easily the last great Drake album and maybe his best album ever (assuming "If You're Reading This..." isn't a traditional "album")

i like scorpion a lot - but did it need to be a double? nah. could have used some editing.
but in fairness i feel that way about almost every double album