After waiting a year and nine months for Drake to release his highly anticipated album, Views (originally titled Views from the 6), it came as a huge disappointment. Preceding the release of Views, Drake released two “surprise drop albums”–What a Time to be Alive and If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. Although the albums were not of public knowledge, both were smashing hits, both becoming platinum records. Drake also released a couple “diss tracks” this year, as a result of his debacle with rapper, Meek Mill, and a single that would later be featured in Views— “Hotline Bling”, “Back to Back”, and “Charged Up”.

Personally, I am a huge fan of What a Time to be Alive, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, and Drake as an artist in general, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of Views. The reason for this being was because of the crazy amount of hype Drake surrounded the album with leading up to its release. Drake referenced Views or “the 6” in the majority of his songs preceding the release, which is why Drake fans were so excited for the release of the album the album, but sadly, it did not fulfill all our hopes and dreams. Now don’t get me wrong, Views is not an overall bad album. Views has many songs that the general public have grown to be very fond of, such as “Pop Style”, “One Dance”, and “Hotline Bling”, however, it did not nearly live up to the buildup that Drake created. In the past, Drake has been labeled a “soft rapper” due to his soft music and tendency to sing on his tracks, but Drake was beginning to stray away from the title due to his work on What a Time to be Alive, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, and of course his diss tracks, “Back to Back” and “Charged Up”, but some of the tracks on Views (“Feel No Ways”, “Redemption”) have caused Drake to take a step back in the direction he has worked so hard to stray away from.

In conclusion, if you enjoy generic, radio-style rap music, I personally feel that you would enjoy Views very much, however, if you’ve been waiting for this album to be released since summer of 2014, I think you’ll find that while the album is strong, it might not be everything you hoped for after the promotion and advertising surrounding it for the past two years.