Early thoughts on Drake's new album, the insanity of the NFL draft, a new "texting in public" app, and more in today's newsletter.

In the April 29 newsletter, Sam Schube offers early context for the new Drake album, Robert Mays diagnoses the madness in the NFL draft’s first round, Kate Knibbs punks a new app, and Jonathan Tjarks ponders what may be KD and Russ’s last stand. OVO Sound Drop Style: Four Extremely Early Thoughts on Drake’s New Album By Sam Schube The release of Drake’s Views has been a long time coming. It was first announced way back in 2014 (under the title Views From the 6), centuries in the era of the shock album release. Anticipation has only swelled since then, as we've been left to judge his two amuse-bouche mixtapes against the gaping negative space that Views carved into our imaginations. But now it’s here, and we have some thoughts: 1. Music is now an attention economy. The album as a medium can flourish in 2016 — it just has to be big enough to make people crowd around a digital hearth to listen to it. Think Kanye West, who rented out Madison Square Garden to debut The Life of Pablo, or Beyoncé, who took over HBO for Lemonade. Drake did the same with Views last night (or at least tried to), and it feels like the next logical step after a period of exhausting surprise releases. Let the audience know it’s coming, but make ’em fork over cash — exclusive streaming deals ain’t cheap. Better yet, make them fork over something even more costly: time. 2. But our attention is fractured and fleeting. Ye and Bey had spectacles to fall back on. Maybe Drake thought he did, too, but an interview with Zane Lowe isn’t quite a postapocalyptic fashion show or a painstakingly crafted film. And when the album hit iTunes just before Drake hit the air for the already-delayed discussion, listeners had to choose between the two. The lesson: The live drop isn’t a science yet. (Though it’s not exactly a surprise that something Beyoncé made look simple is, in fact, exceedingly difficult.) 3. Which means that the album itself has to work twice as hard to hold your attention. And Views certainly has its moments — plush-carpet opener “Keep the Family Close” makes it clear that Drake’s ultimate destiny is to tour with Teddy Pendergrass’s backing band, and the dancehall tints on “One Dance” and Rihanna-featuring “Too Good” prove that Tropical Drake is a real force here to stay. But this is a long record, and the Live-and-Exclusive™ debut doesn’t do it many favors. 4. So maybe Drake just isn’t an album artist anymore? He drops singles and B-sides, memes and emoji, bits of slang, and sketches of tunes. It’s all fragmentary, but a Drake album doesn’t have to cohere in the same way we might expect another artist’s big release to. Mostly we need, like, three excellent jams and a fistful of meme-able bars. On that count, Drake delivers. (Looking at they first-week numbers like, “What are thoooose?”) But this is his Toronto album, and he’s been begging us for years to assign it major emotional weight. And maybe Views is that grand. But the all-at-once live-stream listening session? That’s not the way to find out. So I’m going to settle into a cushy chair, pour some whiskey into my Grammy, and listen to Views five more times. Hell, make it six. Getty Images The 2016 NFL Draft Has Already Lost Its Mind By Robert Mays Remember when we knew that quarterbacks would go 1-2 and what figured to follow would be a boring parade of offensive and defensive linemen? Yeah, about that … Laremy Tunsil … Um … Uh … What? “Hacked social media account,” “a gas mask,” and “potential blackmail” all sound like plot points in something directed by Michael Mann. Yet here we are: After a video of the Ole Miss product taking a bong hit from beneath a leather gas mask surfaced on Twitter, Roger Goodell called 12 other names before getting to the guy who was considered the no. 1 pick as of three weeks ago. We’ll hear plenty more about this in the coming days, but there’s no way the Dolphins, who already have left tackle Branden Albert and took Ja’Wuan James in the first round two years ago, came into the night expecting to walk away with Tunsil. A Pair of Buckeyes Go 3 and 4 I can’t remember any pre-draft chatter linking Joey Bosa to San Diego. The Chargers kept their plans quiet. And while many thought that DeForest Buckner would be their versatile front-four weapon of choice, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Michael Gehlken, that’s the role they see for Bosa. As for Ezekiel Elliott going to Dallas, we probably should have seen that coming. Sure, spending on offensive linemen should mean the Cowboys don’t have to spend on a running back, but for at least a couple more days, I’m just going to imagine what Elliott can do behind that group of monsters. Denver Rolls the Dice on Paxton Lynch The man tasked with succeeding Peyton Manning comes from the University of Memphis, and he looks like he just got done fighting Captain America. The book on Lynch is that he needs a lot of work to develop into an NFL starter, but if John Elway was willing to deal a third-rounder to move up five spots for him, the Fourth Musketeer should quickly become a better option than Mark Sanchez. The Cardinals Do It Again Three years ago, Arizona stole the most talented player in the draft with the 69th pick because of some off-the-field transgressions. Since then, Tyrann Mathieu has turned into a superstar and apparently no one has learned anything. Robert Nkemdiche was the no. 1 high school recruit in the country, and his best tape from Ole Miss is borderline inhuman. A fall from a window and some other eccentricities may have just taken one of this draft’s few potential superstars and dropped him into Arizona’s lap at the end of the first round. The entire league is going to regret this. Myles Jack Is Still Available. Really. Looks like there isn't a team that's not frightened by the words "microfracture surgery." On tape, UCLA’s Jack is a perfect linebacker for the modern NFL, and we just went 31 picks without hearing his name. I have a feeling that some team is going to be very happy after tomorrow. And if it’s the Packers, I meant it when I said I’d leave the planet. Talkshow Something to Talk About By Kate Knibbs I spent two days in a flu fugue earlier this year. When I recovered, something called Peach was having a moment. Context clues told me that Peach was an app involving emoji, but the cultural window in which I would have wanted to know anything more had opened and closed within the lifespan of a common flu. But this week, in prime physical health, I downloaded Talkshow, the latest social app to trigger the tech-press hype machine. Within an hour, I got a bad-behavior warning email from the founder, so while I still don’t totally know what Talkshow is, I have some advice on how not to use it. Talkshow’s tagline is “texting in public.” Its inspiration and target audience is people who like to take screenshots of their texts and post those screenshots on Twitter. So far, most of its prominent users are media types, and, inexplicably, the actor B.J. Novak. My friends aren’t on Talkshow, and I haven’t found any of the “featured” conversations particularly interesting, so I have little use for it as a social tool. Nonetheless, I decided to see if I could use the chatting app alone. So I pretended to be previously mentioned celebrity user B.J. Novak. I figured he wouldn’t mind a harmless prank, as he got his start on the television show Punk’d. After all, he had been morally fine with tricking Hilary Duff into thinking he was carjacking her. (Also, he was morally fine appearing in a Punk’d episode in which Ashton Kutcher casually admits he is “waiting” for Hilary Duff’s 18th birthday.) Knowing in my heart that B.J. approved, I changed my profile picture to a screenshot of his face. I changed my name and handle to “BJ Novak.” And then I started a “chat” called “Secrets of The Office.” Then I made up some secrets about The Office. Around a hundred people tuned in — a modest crowd — but the responses were overwhelmingly positive. “This is good,” @Puertoruvian said. “I’m totally here for this,” @Geo said. I was a hit! Alas, as soon as my career as a platform-specific B.J. Novak impersonator began, it ended. I received an email from Talkshow founder Michael Sippey in a disconcertingly short amount of time after starting my chatroom. I know what you’re thinking, and no, it wasn’t an offer for paid compensation for bringing comedy to his app. Instead, Sippey explained that impersonation is not allowed on Talkshow, and that I’d have to add something like “fake” or “not” in my username to indicate that I wasn’t actually B.J. Novak. I obliged, but lost my will to continue pretending to be B.J. Novak once it was clear I was not B.J. Novak. So, what is Talkshow? It’s not quite Twitter, but maybe it’s the new Peach. No one really knows what it is yet, I guess, but now I know what it is not: a place for satirical B.J. Novak content. Getty Images If This Is the Twilight of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Expect Fireworks By Jonathan Tjarks There are a million reasons why the Thunder will likely lose to the Spurs. San Antonio, by any statistical measure, is one of the greatest teams of all time. Known primarily for their offensive mastery in recent years, this season’s Spurs have forged one of the best defenses in at least a decade. It will be an overwhelming challenge for the Thunder, but they have a chance in this series, like they have a chance against any opponent. It’s simple math: Two is more than one. The Thunder have dealt with peaks and valleys over the past eight years, but for their opponents, one question has remained constant: Do we have someone who can guard Westbrook and Durant? The Spurs are one of the very few that do. But even then, Kawhi Leonard can’t guard both players at the same time. Cloning science hasn’t caught up with the modern NBA. Even in their adaptive defensive scheme, the Spurs don’t have the horses to stymie Westbrook in the pick-and-roll. They are going to have to send extra men to stop him, which will generate open opportunities for the Thunder, as Westbrook looks for the pass about as often as he looks for his own shot these days. Simply creating windows for the offense is more than half the battle against the Spurs’ suffocating defense. Much has been made of the Thunder’s predictable attack all season, but OKC’s low moments obscured the fact that they had the second-best offense in the league. Their unimaginative scheme wouldn’t have been much of an issue if they’d been able to commit to their defense for more than a single quarter at a time. The Thunder were a middling 12th in defensive rating this season, and that’s going to have to dramatically improve for them to have any chance of pulling the upset. Can Serge Ibaka handle LaMarcus Aldridge one-on-one? Can Steven Adams wear out Tim Duncan on the glass? Can Enes Kanter play big minutes without getting exposed defensively? Can Dion Waiters? This is the series in which Durant and Westbrook must show their worth as leaders. Your best players have to set the tone for the defense and hold everyone else accountable, but you can’t do that if Westbrook is going to consistently gamble for steals and hang his teammates out to dry. The most dynamic duo in the NBA will have to trust in their teammates, but more than anything, they’ll have to trust in their ability to play entire games from here on out. Anything less than 42 minutes from each of Durant and Westbrook leaves the Thunder too vulnerable against the deepest Spurs team ever. Billy Donovan has to make this gambit. Durant is a free agent at the end of the season. Westbrook’s homicidally aggressive style might not last into his 30s. There’s no tomorrow for Oklahoma City. If this is their last stand, Durant and Westbrook have to exhaust everything in their artillery.