More Life to Champagne Papi!

After months and months of speculation as to whether Drake would release his album… FINALLY on March 18th his "playlist" entitled: More Life was ours! Following up from Views which encountered mixed reviews, the Toronto-bred rapper has comeback with a soundtrack for summer seventeen. Since hinting at the playlists release late last year, it's safe to say we've all been hawking and decoding Drake's Twitter and Instagram for any signs of release-related information. Although, he did divert our attention by giving us a little consolation prize called: The Boy Meets World Tour (which, ya girl attended last Monday). So now the playlists here, what did I think? Keep reading you'll get the story of how I feel about it soon enough.

I drunk text J-Lo, old number so it bounced back, states Drake in the opening track Free Smoke. Well, I guess we now know why the rumours of him and J-Lo were put to bed. Starting off with a beautiful intro from female vocalist Nai Palm, then 30 seconds in Drake drops a bass heavy, car-blasting worthy beat. This was personally, one of my favourite songs on the album. A solid beat, catchy lyrics and leads you onto… MORE TUNE FOR YOUR HEADTOP SO WATCH HOW YOU SPEAK ON HIS NAME YOU KNOW.

Then into the first of two Giggs featured tracks, No Long Talk. The Toronto-based rapper created hype and buzz about a track with UK rapper Giggs; when he first brought him out on the London leg of his tour to perform. Not only did we get a new track but we realised that Drake was one step closer to being ours (yes, I'm from the UK) forever. Drake takes the first verse with Giggs rapping for the rest. I think it's a great first feature as it already shows that the playlist will have different genres influencing certain songs i.e. Grime. And to all you Americans bashing Giggs on twitter you should feel ashamed of yourselves.

On that note, I do appreciate the risk of experimentation that Drake took because it led to some of the best tracks in the playlist. One of those songs being Get It Together this track features Black Coffee and Jorja Smith. With a beat that has a funky house feel to it, Drake takes a backseat approach on this track. Sonically, the mix between Jorja Smith and hints of Drake in the hook balances the whole track, so it doesn't feel like it's just vocals over a funky house beat; but an actual funky house track.

I'M BLEM FOR REAL, I MIGHT JUST SAY HOW I FEEL. Well, honestly I feel like this song was a complete vibe. Blem has a bashment kind of feel too it, but the West Indian influence is not as obvious as it is in a track like Controlla. We've all come to realise through several awkward captions and videos, that Drake considers himself somewhat of a West Indian adopted native. But as awkward as his Jamaican accent might be, we will tolerate it if we get banging tracks like this one. This song just makes me wanna get up, dance and skip all the way to summer.

HERMES LINK, ICE BLUE MINK *inserts Meryl Streep meme*. Gyalchester is the first of the small series of milly rock and skanking songs. Another bass heavy track where Drake raps about his fame, fortune and rise to the top. I know I said top five, but I’m top two And I’m not two and I got one Thought you had one, but it's not one, nigga, nah *DAB* (wow, Quentin Miller you really outdid yourself… nah I’m just playing). This track is probably one of the best songs that display Drake's rap side opposed to his vocal ability.

DON'T KNOW ME? YOU BETTER GET TO KNOW ME. If you didn't know or rate Skepta after this interlude I'm not sure that you ever will. To break up the constant stream of Drake the playlist features songs from two UK-bred artists; Skepta (Skepta Interlude) and Sampha (4422). I think it was a good idea to include these tracks because it ensured that we didn't get bored through the playlist constantly listening to Drake. Plus, the return of savage Skepta the one we met not so long ago in Nasty Freestyle was a pleasure to hear along with the angel-like vocals provided to us by Sampha. Not only were the tracks by UK artists but Skepta Interlude was also produced by North London producer; Nana Rogues (who also produced Passionfruit). To him I must give praise because he has produced some of the best tracks in the playlist.

Portland is up next featuring Quavo and Travis Scott. This is my favourite song in the playlist! I was caught off guard by the collaboration I must say, I wouldn't have expected Drake to collaborate with both on the same track. But boy oh boy did it work. The whole track for me was perfect, from the flute to Quavo's adlibs all the way to Travis' cool synthesised rap voice. It all just comes together to make the stand-out track in the playlist. NEVER LET THE NIGGA RIDE YOUR WAVE.

The playlist generally starts to slow down in pace after this. And I like how in a lot of the slower tracks I'm reminded of Take Care (a previous Drake album) i.e. Nothings into Somethings and Teenage Fever. Teenage Fever samples Jennifer Lopez - If You Had My Love (well at least Drake put J-Lo in the playlist somewhere) we mainly hear Drake sing in this track which I think is nice because we've heard him rap a lot in the playlist already. Both two tracks have slow beats that you would listen to if you were chilling with someone late at night or even on your own.

I really want to personally thank Kanye and Drake for creating my mantra for the year, Watch out for me I'm bound to GLOW. When this song first played on OVOSOUNDRADIO my heart stopped for a moment. I couldn't believe my ears…was this what I thought it was? Is this the old Kanye? We thank God (not that I don't think the new Kanye is still good… but that’s a topic for another post). Ye takes pilot for what some are calling 'his return' although I'm not sure how much of a 'return' can be distinguished from one track. Drake and Ye share a few verses with one another; in a call and response-sort of style. Also, did you clock the outro from Earth, Wind and Fire?

Overall, I think this playlist is a good body of work and 100% better than Views. Whether that be down to Drake getting Young Thug to speak English, or him resurrecting the old Kanye or including so many UK musicians in the playlist. If there was one slight improvement I would make; it would be to swap Fake Love out for Sneakin' or even Two Birds, One Stone.

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

#Drake #HipHop #Rap #MoreLife