DRAKE: BREAKING RECORDS AND GETTING PERSONAL

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Aubrey Drake Graham’s enter­tain­ment career star­ted with being an act­or on Degrassi: The Next Gen­er­a­tion. He was a part of the series until 2007 when he decided to focus all his atten­tion on being a sing­er. What the future would have been if he con­tin­ued on the path of being an act­or, no one can know. But, the fact that his music has res­on­ated with listen­ers across the globe and con­tin­ues to impress with each new album has made him one of the most recog­nised and admired musi­cians in the industry.

Billboard

The release of Drake’s fifth stu­dio album, Scor­pi­on, has been astound­ing. This two-disc set, with a total of 25 songs, com­prises of Rap songs on one disc and R&B and Soul on the oth­er. Fans and crit­ics have already been hard at work pick­ing out their per­son­al favour­ites, and there are some stand out per­form­ances in the form of Sum­mer Games, Emo­tion­less, I’m Upset, and of course his pre­vi­ously released hits God’s Plan and Nice For What. When it comes to record-break­ing, Drake broke The Beatles record for hav­ing the max­im­um singles in the Bill­board Top 10 list by list­ing sev­en of his songs from the album Scor­pi­on sim­ul­tan­eously. He also has the most tracks on the Hot 100, 27 in total, break­ing his own pre­vi­ous record. All the 25 songs of Scor­pi­on have a place in the Hot 100 list at present.

Streaming

Stream­ing has become the latest trend when it comes to watch­ing films or listen­ing to music. In tune with the new gen­er­a­tion, it is only apt that the industry keeps track of stream­ing records just as they have done for digit­al down­loads or CD sales at one time. Drake’s Scor­pi­on broke all pre­vi­ous records with over 1 bil­lion streams in a week. But, his accol­ades don’t just end there as he also man­aged to sur­pass his own record of max­im­um one-day streams on Apple Music. The pre­vi­ous record stood at 89.9 mil­lion streams, but with Scor­pi­on, he has almost doubled it at 170 mil­lion streams.

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Opening up

As is the case with any double album release, there are going to be songs that are loved, while oth­ers that don’t strike the right chord. For an artist, an album remains a per­son­al labour of love. In Scor­pi­on, Drake opens up about his private life and admits to hav­ing a son in the song Emo­tion­less. One of the reas­ons why Drake con­tin­ues to rules the charts is because his lyr­ics often show a side of his life that not many are aware of. Take God’s Plan which has such a uni­ver­sal appeal to it and works on the theme of being gen­er­ous and shar­ing the wealth. On a more indi­vidu­al note, the video of I’m upset sees Drake regroup with the cast of the TV show Degrassi, a sign that no mat­ter his fame, he is still groun­ded in his past.

Standout performances

Even with con­tinu­ing suc­cess and record-break­ing, Drake’s music is nev­er con­sidered genre defin­ing or path-break­ing. Still, fans can relate to it, and they love the hon­esty with which he sings. It is the standout per­form­ances, like the release of his EP Scary Hours earli­er this year, which high­light his tal­ent as a rap­per, sing­er, and song­writer and makes him a bank­able musi­cian. Scor­pi­on is a sure sign of Drake’s geni­us, and with his best work still in the wings, his fans have some­thing to look out for in the future.

 

 

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

About Rishma Dhaliwal

Rishma Dhaliwal
Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless. Currently working in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media knowledge to I am Hip Hop and other projects by No Bounds.