Jay and Meek references in the first song, LET'S GO. He just mentioned the Jay Z advice, I really like this. This is the Drake I like, think about his verse on “Big Amount.” This is the kind of rapping I wanted on Views. Feels rather Atlanta, bragging about drunk texting J.
Don’t know what free smoke is, must be hookah. And it switched to a beat, hard-hitting, trap drums thumping with the kind of rhythm that will make Uzi Vert shoulders shimmy. She’s playing the piano, Alicia Keys vibes. More Life to all our readers, More Life to all the rappers. Each song will receive my gut reaction from start to finish. In usual 1-Listen fashion, the rules are the same: no skipping, no fast-forwarding, no rewinding and no stopping. I’m not going into this listening experience looking for a classic album, but I would be happy to get some classic Drake. We look forward to the debates we’ll more than likely ignore.Regardless if the “playlist” is good or bad, Drake will once again take over social media and rule the music world for days, weeks, and probably several months heading into summer. The variety of genres on More Life stratifies the many sides of Drake, succinctly displayed in the diversity of the record’s top four songs.Įnjoy my ranking on behalf of VIBE.
Moreover, what’s notable about this list of 22 Drake songs is more than half of them are good if not great, which can’t be said of very many artists. What this list reinforced is that the best Drake songs are carried by their memorable moments, Easter egg-laden songwriting, and, of course, the emotion he both conveys to listeners and elicits from them. It’s easy to say, “T his is top five,” but actually creating the order and then quadrupling that number is my villain origin story (*cues “ Free Smoke”*). Ranking this project was challenging yet fun. More Life is often kept out of the “ top Drake projects” conversation for a variety of reasons: His labeling the project a playlist (perhaps to alleviate pressure), its technical “ commercial mixtape” title a la Wikipedia, the underutilization of the compiled songs post-release, and other potential factors. Everyone may not love everything, but there’s something, possibly a lot, for everyone to enjoy here. He packed so much into one project, delivering at a high clip within each sub-genre. More Life was one of Drake’s most daring efforts, and it landed. I now have more empathy for my fellow list-writing journalists. In fact, I hate my editor, Austin Williams, for making me rank songs that mean so much to me, but, of course, thank him for the opportunity to put my pen to work. Now, revisiting this project wasn’t all pleasant. I reflect fondly on being able to bounce back from the losses the same way Drake touched on his ability to do the same, following his commercially successful yet critically panned 2016 album, Views. This collection instilled in me a much-needed, two-pronged sense of confidence, in that there was more to life than the failures that bogged me down because I had “ more life” within me. Today, on its five-year anniversary, I reflect on being in the midst of my (first) senior year at Cornell University and coping with the reality I would graduate a semester later than planned. More Life is one of my favorite projects ever, as the music transports me back to one of the most pivotal times of my life.