OVERVIEW

So, during the OVO Radio Sound Beats 1 stream last night, Drake dropped a new track from his upcoming “Views from the 6” which he announced would be released sometime in April this year.

Summer Sixteen is a 3 minute track produced by Noah “40” Shebib, Boi-1da, Brian Bennett & Cubeatz, and the track essentially is Drake discussing his career and taking subliminal shots at a few people. President Obama was recently asked about “Kendrick vs Drake” and his answer was:

“Gotta go with Kendrick,” the President answered, without a hint of hesitation. “I’m just saying. I think Drake is an outstanding entertainer, but Kendrick, his lyrics — his last album was outstanding. Best album, I think, last year.”

Drake kicks off the first verse with saying that his verses are just as bulletproof as Obama’s cars, and also rekindles the beef that is Drake vs Meek Mill:

I let the diss record drop, you was staying right below me, nigga We must have played it a hundred times, you was going to bed

Meek makes a reference to this in his latest track “War Pain” which dropped 15 minutes after “Summer Sixteen”, where the situation was that Meek and Drake were staying in the Four Seasons hotel at the same time in Toronto – Drake and his crew played “Back to Back” constantly and he claimed to have planned staying right above Meek’s room. Somehow, Meek got the lyrics or track before its released, which he attributes to “The Ghostwriter” on Instagram – most likely referring to Quentin Miller who is the supposed ghostwriter for Drake on “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” and R.I.C.O, a track on Meek’s “Dreams Worth More Than Money”.

The second verse sparks some potential beef between Drake and Tory Lanez who he refers to as the “New Toronto” – making a reference to Tory’s mixtape “The New Toronto”. Tory has previously been throwing shade at Drake:

“This whole calling Toronto the “6” thing .. It’s not cool bro”

He also boasts about how he is this generation’s Jay-Z, and compares his pool to Kanye’s, which isn’t necessarily a shot at him, but more of a measure of how successful he has become in the game the past few years, which as a Drake fan and I’m sure many others have seen through his multiple achievements – a Grammy, three Juno Awards, six BET awards and setting multiple Billboard chart records (plus Kanye would have called him out on Twitter looking at you Wiz).

THOUGHTS

For me, I was kind of hoping we wouldn’t get this type of track and instead got something reminiscent of what I think is Drake’s best project – “Take Care”. Don’t get me wrong, this song has a really good beat (the switch is pretty good) and has alright lyrics, but with all the hype surrounding the album since IYRTITL, I just expected something with more depth – the track had more of a “Back to Back” feel with a beat switch, which indeed was a good track but again, was expecting something different.

Going to the beat switch up, it occurs just before the second verse starts – reminiscent of the switch up by 40 in “0 to 100 / The Catch Up” except instead of transitioning into a slower, melodic beat, the second half of this track gets more hyped up – which also reminded me of the beat drop in “Know Yourself”, which Boi-1da worked on. Beat switch ups have actually become more popular in the past year, a few tracks that comes to mind are “u” and “Hood Politics” from Kendrick Lamar’s TPAB, “Paradise” from Logic’s TITS & “Open Interlude” from Bryson Tiller’s TRAPSOUL. It’s a good technique but I just hope Drake doesn’t try to replicate the style of a hyped beat switch conveyed in the single to other songs – if I have to be honest, I would prefer tracks similar to “0 to 100 / The Catch Up”, “Star67”, and “Cameras/Good Ones Go Interlude” rather than “Legend” or anything from his collaboration with Future on “What A Time To Be Alive” (besides “30 for 30 freestyle”).

I still don’t exactly feel as hyped as most people for Views, mainly because it was expected to come out in September, then there were a bunch of rumours that it would drop during November/December. Hopefully before April, Drake drops one or two more tracks that go back to that “Take Care” sound or something completely experimental. There will of course be at least one or two braggadocios tracks, but I hope Drake touches more of his R&B side.