Drake is hip-hop’s man of the year. He's climbed his way to the top and he's going to stay there. It’s time the world takes notice.
Let’s backtrack to the beginning of the year. In February, when Drake dropped his fourth album "If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late" with no warning, no traditional promotions and not even a clue prior to. He decided, on the day of, to release it via Twitter. For an artist of his stature, that is genius (just ask Beyoncé). Social media exploded with joy and excitement as we were awarded another project from Drake, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
The genius marketing approach also pushed all 17 songs from "IYRTITL" onto the Billboard charts. That is impossible for a hip-hop artist do that — unless you’re Drake.
The perfect timing continued to flourish as he headlined for one of the most popular arts and music festivals: Coachella. The highlight that sparked news all over the world is the famous (or infamous) kiss on stage to Drake from singer Madonna. That’s right, 57-year-old Madonna made out with 28-year-old Drake. If you haven’t seen the video already, I can tell you it’s not the most pleasant thing to watch.
Besides lip-locking with an elderly singer and having the hottest album of 2015 at the time, Drake maintained his relevance with a couple of features on songs and remixes of songs of various artists. One artist in particular he’s teamed up with — rapper Meek Mill — questioned the integrity of Drake’s rapping ability publicly (via Twitter), and he couldn’t have picked a worse time to do so.
The “diss” came a short time after Meek Mill released his second studio album, "Dreams Worth More Than Money," in June. Meek went on a Twitter rant calling out a few celebrities, the most famous one being Drake, when he claimed the rapper shouldn’t be compared to him because he doesn’t “write his own raps,” accusing him of “ghostwriting.” Being accused of having a ghostwriter is like hiring someone to write those 10-page research papers in English class. It was a pretty big deal.
It was all downhill for Meek Mill after that.
Stop comparing drake to me too.... He don't write his own raps! That's why he ain't tweet my album because we found out!
— Meek Mill (@MeekMill) July 22, 2015
As soon as word got around to Drake, he did what any rapper would do if he or she got called out for having a ghostwriter: He gave us a song! But he didn’t just give us a song. He gave us a (half subliminal) diss track in response to the Twitter rant by Meek Mill. But it wasn’t what he did that was so clever; it was how he did it. Drake strategically released his record “Charged Up” via his exclusive global radio station (“OVO Sound Radio”) through Apple Music. The calm demeanor Drake expressed in the song along with the song as a whole slightly ceded expectations for spoiled fans, but that was the plan all along.
Days go by, four to be exact, and no rebuttal from Meek Mill. That’s when Drake did the unthinkable: another diss track. This was a different approach; he aimed to make a hit single while dissing Meek for not responding to his first diss — and he did just that. His second single within a week, “Back to Back”, is still sitting high on the Billboard charts.
Drake’s hometown of Toronto, in the heat of this rap “beef” between Meek Mill and him, hosted his OVO Fest summer concert (again, perfect timing). Viral clips are shown all over the internet of reasons why Meek is losing this battle he initiated. If you haven’t noticed by now, I am briefly narrating the beginning of an end to the rap career of Meek Mill. While doing that, I’m illustrating what happens when someone picks a fight that they weren’t prepared for.
While Meek Mill continues to fade to black, Drake can’t stop giving the fans new music. Several songs were released by Drake within a short period of time, becoming a legend right before our eyes.
He continues to set records and break them with his newest project, "What A Time To Be Alive," which he works with rapper Future in. The name alone speaks to what kind of year Drake is having. All the great hip-hop projects that came out this year have been overshadowed by Drake and his dominance unfortunately (for those rappers). To top it all off, he’s on the cover of Fader magazine’s 100th issue. We still have three more months left in the year 2015, what could he possibly do next?
If he decides to go hide in another country for the rest of the year he’d still be on top of the hip-hop food chain for his distinguished work. That is why Drake is the man of the year for 2015.
Related Links:
Drake drops a surprise mixtape, 'Fifty Shades of Grey' dominates the box office and more
Reach the columnist at adonisdees24@yahoo.com or follow @Don_D24 on Twitter.
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