It’s hard to remember after two-and-a-half years of success, but Apple Music wasn’t always considered such a sure bet. When it launched back in June 2015, streaming was still an emerging faction of the industry and many were unsure about how the service would perform. Into this uncertainty stepped Drake, and in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Apple Music’s VP of Media Apps & Content Robert Kondrk gave the OVO boss a ton of credit for the service’s success. “Drake almost single-handedly helped us become culturally relevant from the day we launched,” he said.

Still riding high off the release of his basically-an-album mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, Drake dropped his fourth album VIEWS exclusively through Apple Music for its first week of release in April 2016. The album was credited with driving a bump in Apple Music subscriptions, and later became the first album to reach one billion streams on the platform. Drake also released his Please Forgive Me short film exclusively through Apple Music, where it will remain “in perpetuity.”

Even before the release of VIEWS, Drake’s OVO Sound Radio broadcasts on Beats 1 Radio drew huge audiences and social media chatter, too. Drake and his labelmates previewed unreleased material almost weekly, especially in its early days. He even streamed his 2017 playlist More Life on OVO Sound Radio earlier this year before its release.

Of course, Drake isn’t the only high-profile artist to give Apple Music an exclusive release. Chance The Rapper dropped his mixtape Coloring Book on the platform in 2016, too, as have artists like Travis Scott, Future, and DJ Khaled. Still, there are very few rappers working today with the following and clout that Drake brings, and clearly Apple Music is happy to have him on their side. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s article, Apple is even working with him on exclusive (and mysterious) film/TV content.

Check out The Hollywood Reporter’s full article here and read all the lyrics to Drake’s VIEWS on Genius now.