Even though Drake just came out with his mixtape, If You're Reading This It's Too Late this past February, we fans of his are always hungry, and we're already chomping at the bit for his next project. It's a full studio album called Views From The 6 , and I bet you're wondering what that title means. Obviously, we've speculated on it a bit — because how can you not? — but as the album's release date (presumably) approaches, it's becoming more and more clear what Drake was getting at with that name.
It turns out that it's a reference to Toronto, Canada, Drake's hometown. The two most popular area codes from that city are 416 and 647, which obviously both have the number six in them, and cover a wide swatch of area with an extremely varied blend of demographics and influences, just like Drake himself. Art imitating life! We did have a brief blip of panic that If You're Reading This It's Too Late might have replaced Views From The 6, given that so many tracks on the former album had references to the numeral in them, but Drake has since soothed our fears by speaking about his plans to release the album on Apple's new streaming service, "Connect," so we can all rest easy.
But even though we still don't have a release date for this promised album, at least our deeper understanding of the title gives us a general vibe for it. And, in the meantime, we can keep looking out for tweets like this that give us more details about the final album.
One thing that has been whispered around is that this new album will be in a completely different direction for Drake, which kind of makes sense with the title; it sounds introspective, like someone looking over not just his hometown, but over his entire career and discography. To that end, it's rumored that one of his releases will be with Beyoncé (oh please god let that be true), with whom he collaborated on her song "Mine," and that, across the board, his music will have an entirely different sound and be outside the box of what he's become comfortable with.
Maybe that's why he put out a mixtape first, with his typical vibe to it, so we wouldn't be able to complain when he got a little innovative on the album.
In a Four Pins Coachella profile on the rapper, the author, Ernest Baker, can't emphasize enough that we don't know what's coming, and that this is a career-defining moment for him, saying, "For Drake to avoid backlash, his next album must mark a departure from the sound that's brought him worldwide acclaim." He compares it to Michael Jackson veering toward hip-hop and jack swing with Dangerous, and Kanye West shocking the world with 808s & Heartbreak. The exact term Baker uses is a "a paradigm shift," insisting that "Drake is ready to deviate from his winning formula and get a little weird."
Without hearing the end result, I don't know if that's a promise or a threat. All I know is I can't wait to find out.
Image: giphy
