Drake's talents aren't as high as he'd expect you to believe, so preposterously assuming 20 tracks split between braggadocio and relational hardships won't have filler is a foolish assertion to make. Many tracks are composed of multiple segments, distracting interludes, and schizophrenic production, which makes picking your favorite moments a game of cat and mouse. These 81 minutes are brimming with content, so much so that the seams weaving it together begin to burst. What can't be discounted is the clear pouring of effort that went into Views. Looking at the bigger picture the intention is there, but faint, with 'Hotline Bling's' shoe-in as a "bonus" completely ruining the album's grand finale by blatantly profiting off the song's popularity in regards to streaming sales. This decision is made even more aberrant when considering the intended thematic progression that of Toronto's winter becoming summer, then back again, as revealed on OVO Sound Radio the night Views dropped. And a handful of songs, 'One Dance' and 'Controlla' to name a few, take Drake's dancehall influences and dilute them to something a bar or two below 'Hotline Bling.' Many fans were right in assuming Views would be two-toned when 'One Dance' and 'Pop Style' dropped simultaneously, sporting inverse colors and styles of each other, but rather than distance the ideas all are mixed together like alphabet soup. 'Grammys' is a clear outtake from those sessions, dropping it onto that LP would result in neutrality since the differences are so slim. The bulk of the 20 songs here ride off the coattails of 'Hotline Bling' and What A Time To Be Alive, Drake's collab with Future. 'Tuscan Leather' alone outshines much of these tracks handily. Nothing Was The Same, Drake's 2013 release which featured bangers in 'Started From The Bottom' and 'Worst Behavior,' had more inventiveness than Views. None of this, apart from those last two appearing irregularly, is true. In the lead-up to the album, Drake spoke on the qualities of Views, how the music came naturally, lacked forced Pop appeal, and was guided off of stories from Toronto and his place in Hip-Hop. The horse's mouth wasted no time dispelling notions of this, gloating on 'Hype' that " Views already a classic." Cutting to the chase, Views is anything but. Beyonce was a fool to believe her self-titled "probably won't make no money," as she riffed on 'Haunted.' Artistically speaking Drake holds no candle to the likes of Bey and Ye, with one of the biggest grips in music communities arising from the fact that, being Hip-Hop's most popular artist, he's failed to release a clear classic. If one of those artists above failed to provide a spark of ingenuity in the lead-up to an album they'd likely do just fine, sales and critically speaking. Apart from the cover which traveled by word of mouth, Views is unadorned with panache, leaving the music to be scrutinized on its own merits refined but wildly bloated. Now that the release of Views is upon us, Drake's fourth LP lacked a surprising amount of flair. Hell, his notorious 'Hotline Bling' video, currently encroaching one billion views, was made with snapchat, vine, and memes in mind, one of the first to do so. Art forms have merged, meaning sole reliance on music can be seen as outdated.
2016 has been the year of guerilla marketing reinvention, with a microscopic view of Internet-savvy consumers and what makes them tick. Initially seen as a failure, Tidal has risen significantly thanks to those names Beyonce, Rihanna, Kanye, and their commercial proprietary. All, besides Bowie's final opus, debuted exclusively on Tidal, the streaming service spearheaded by Jay-Z and a hodgepodge of A-listers. Lemonade debuted in primetime on HBO, Anti was accompanied by a mysterious website and app, Life Of Pablo was, well, a gorgeous calamity, and, hard as it is to admit, Blackstar was a wonderfully timed swan song. In 2016, music's mainstream artisans have been fearless in the way they've handled releases.