When Drake dropped More Life in 2017, he reshaped how listeners thought about the material arriving between full studio albums — a direction he'd been exploring since If You're Reading This It's Too Late arrived in 2015. Branded as a "playlist," the collection saw the Toronto star venturing into dancehall, trap, grime, house and techno. So what does that kind of genre-hopping signal for his next traditional LP? Writer Rae Witte reflects on Drake's year and predicts where The Boy is headed in 2018.
The year opened with Drake ringing in 2017 alongside Jennifer Lopez. Their very public romance — both in person and across social feeds — ultimately translated into little more than a sample, however. By spring, the clearest product of their fling was the spectral interpolation of J.Lo's debut single 'If You Had My Love' woven into 'Nothing Into Something', a cut from More Life. Drake positioned the project as "a body of work created to bridge the gap between major releases." Arriving in March through OVO Sound Radio on Beats 1, More Life was also where Drake announced he was finished with mixtapes: "I want to give you a collection of songs that become the soundtrack to your life." The gamble paid off. Every one of the 22 tracks landed on the Billboard Hot 100, securing the record for the most simultaneous entries by a solo artist in the chart's history — proof that the strategy delivered.
This between-albums framework is also what produced 2015's If You're Reading This It's Too Late and the joint project What A Time To Be Alive with Future, both arriving after VIEWS, then still known as Views From the 6, had been announced. And even though he hasn't released anything of that nature recently, recall that Drake used to leak near-album-quality loosies like 'Girls Love Beyoncé' and 'The Motion'. He's perpetually scattering hints about what's to come.
Following a Peverelist-sampling teaser in July and a fresh track debuted at a New Zealand stop of The Boy Meets World Tour in November, Drake hinted that new material was imminent. Revisiting 2017, several clues emerge about the possible focus of his next record.
Drake has been developing a continuation of Top Boy, slated for Netflix in 2018. The role reconnects him to his acting origins while reinforcing his long-running affinity for the UK. His inaugural Hot 100 chart-topper, 2016's 'One Dance', was rooted in UK funky and built around a sample of Crazy Cousinz's 'Do You Mind' remix. He then packed More Life with British talent — returning collaborators Skepta and Sampha, grime veteran Giggs, and rising force Jorja Smith, whose Preditah collaboration 'On My Mind' ranked among FACT's standout tracks of 2017.
More Life also ventured through dancehall, Afrobeats and trap, lifting from Detroit techno figure Moodymann on 'Passionfruit', while Durban house heavyweight Black Coffee's 'Superman' was reshaped into 'Get It Together'. Drake has long been a restless listener — his breakout So Far Gone toyed with Houston's chopped-and-screwed aesthetic while also borrowing from Swedish indie courtesy of Lykke Li and Peter Bjorn and John — but his recent output suggests he's once again letting curiosity steer his sonic choices.
As Drake wraps up his twenties at the peak of his career, he's clearly distanced himself from his heartbroken narrator phase. That earlier era leaned heavily on a feud with Meek Mill — a dispute now publicly buried — and found him cycling romantically between Rihanna and tennis legend Serena Williams. With J.Lo, RiRi, and arguably the greatest active female athlete all in rotation, Drake was pulling off the juggling act he'd been half-jokingly chasing since the days he and Nicki Minaj bantered about marriage. (Seriously, run a search for "Drake proposes to…" and you'll find an extensive catalogue of female celebrities.) Yet as the year wore on, Lopez coupled up with former Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, Rihanna evolved into a beauty-industry powerhouse while dating billionaire Hassan Jamee, and Williams welcomed her first daughter with fiancé and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, with the two tying the knot later in the year.
Welcome to your thirties, Aubrey.
A return to the melancholy of Take Care seems unlikely at this point. But with acting back on his plate and several of his high-profile romances settling into committed partnerships, deeper self-examination could be in the cards. It might arrive cloaked in the same gravelly tone that defined 2015's IYRTITL. Drake had returned to Miami's Art Basel for the first time since 2014, where an early bond formed with Skepta — someone he'd later thank on the project. Despite a scattering of releases since, IYRTITL remains among the strongest bodies of work in his catalogue. Trust — all of this could be pointing somewhere promising.
Rae Witte is a Brooklyn-based writer covering music, style, art, sex and dating. Find her on Twitter.
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