Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR’s collab album will supposedly arrive sometime this fall, or at least, that’s what fans think based on previous teases. However, now that hype continues to build in pretty grand and confident ways, as the 6ix God recently proclaimed that the upcoming full-length will be a “classic.” Here’s the specific quote, via an Instagram comment on PND’s recent IG post that features a picture of him with the caption “Loading…”: “LOADED IN MY PHONE CLA$$$IC.” It’s unclear whether or not Drizzy referenced a specific track, a general phrase, or the entire album. Nevertheless, OVO fans can’t wait to hear what they cooked up.
Elsewhere, though, die-hards are keeping their eyes peeled and staying on their toes as the Kendrick Lamar battle’s discourse continues to evolve. For example, J. Cole recently threw his hat back into the ring by addressing the battle and his exit from it in the new song “Port Antonio.” In it, he dismissed rumors that he switched sides on Drake and seems to accuse both beef opponents of clout chasing for people’s approval. It obviously resulted in a lot of debate and discussion online.
On the other hand, Drake doesn’t just promote his own music, but he also shouts out others on the rise. “The Drake thing was crazy, man,” KSI told Official Charts of how the Toronto superstar cosigned his new song with Trippie Redd. “For him to even put the song on his Reel, that’s huge. I just couldn’t believe it, I was like, ‘What the hell?’ To be honest, I didn’t actually know. I had several people message me. Like, ‘Bro, Drake’s used your song!’ I’d just woken up like, ‘Yo, what?’ Then I saw it, and I was like ‘Mad!’ I messaged him saying ‘Big up, thank you for using it,’ and he was like, ‘Yo, I had to, it gets the people going!’ That’s sick, he’s legit. I appreciate it.”
Meanwhile, PARTYNEXTDOOR gave some interesting details on the Drake collab album back in August. He suggested that there would be 15 new tracks, and that all of them rank as his favorite collabs that they’ve ever done. There’s a lot of promise behind this release, but also plenty of potential for them to exceed expectations.
Drake is really hard to follow these days. Not in terms of location, or exposure. The rapper is still out and about, making public appearances. Rather, it’s difficult to gauge what his plan for the future is. Drake had fans clowning him for ranting about fake friends during a Toronto show. “You’re going to come to a point in life where people you thought were friends,” he claimed. “People you thought were close to you switch up.” It wasn’t a the best look. But then, at the same event, Drake told attendees that his album with OVO veteran PARTYNEXTDOOR was still in the works.
“Shoutout to my brother PX,” Drake told the crowd amidst his rant. “Album dropping soon.” It was a very encouraging sign, since the rapper hadn’t spoken on the album since he announced it. Drake came out to show love to PARTYNEXTDOOR during a Toronto show in August. He praised PND for his musicality, and then confirmed that their long-anticipated joint album was finally coming to fruition. “Once Summer over with,” Drizzy explained. “Do what you need to do, I know all you girls are outside and when it gets a little chilly… a PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake album will be right there for you…”
Drake may have been quiet on the promo front recently, but there have been hints at the album is coming together behind the scenes. For one, the 6 God claimed that it will release during the fall, and it’s fall, so we are well within our rights to expect it soon. For another, PARTYNEXTDOOR claimed that they already have a tracklist locked, and revealed how long the album will be. “The one we doing right now, all 15 we doing right now,” he told a reporter. There’s also a snippet of an unreleased Drake and PARTY song that was previewed at a recent DJ set. Footage from the set has circulated on social media.
Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR have been collaborators for over a decade. The fact that Drake has decided to work with the R&B singer on a full album, on the heels of complaining about backstabbers in the industry, speaks to how close his bond with PND really is. The two men last worked together on the song “Members Only” from Drake’s last album, For All the Dogs. If that song is any indicator of what we get to hear on the collab album, we’re in for a treat.
At a PartyNextDoor concert in Toronto this past August, Drake popped up as a surprise guest. Along with performing “Finesse,” Drake teased a collaborative album with PND, saying, “On behalf of me and Party, we’ve been working on something for y’all. So, you get the summer over with, do what you need to do. I know all you girls are outside, and when it gets a little chilly, PartyNextDoor and Drake album will be right there for you.”
We haven’t heard much more about the project since then, but now Drake has hinted that things are still on track.
A September 30 Instagram post from Rap Direct says, “Reminder that Drake & PARTYNEXTDOOR have an album coming this Fall. You hyped for it?” Drake liked the post, seemingly indicating the fall release window is still the target.
Aside from this, we haven’t heard much about the project since August. Later that month, though, PartyNextDoor did talk about it a little bit. In an interview, he was asked what his favorite Drake collaboration is and he said, “The one we doing right now. All 15 we doing right now.” So, it looks like the project will have 15 songs.
The album will be Drake’s third collaborative project, following his and Future’s 2015 mixtape What A Time To Be Alive and his and 21 Savage’s album Her Loss from 2022.
Drake has had an interesting 2024. It’s been an incredibly notable year, thanks to the Kendrick Lamar battle, but also because the rapper’s stranglehold over pop culture seems to be slipping. He’s dropped multiple songs, but not all of them have hit. In fact, he just dropped a video for “Wah Gwan Delilah,” one of the strangest releases of his career. Drake fans are waiting for him to rebound with a full project, and we may be getting one pretty soon.
The Instagram account Rap Direct posted a photo of Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR on September 30. The account reminded fans that a collab album between the two OVO artists is slated for release at some point this year. It was suggested that the fall would be the most likely window of time, but it’s been a long time since Drake or PND have commented on the album. That said, Drake stumbled upon the Rap Direct post. The 6 God liked the post, effectively confirming to fans everywhere that we will be getting the joint album in the fall.
Drake announced his plans for a PARTYNEXTDOOR collab in August. The rapper was coming off the K. Dot battle, and eager to get back to making quality music for the fans. He came out during a PND show and proceeded to blow the minds of OVO fans everywhere. “Once Summer over with,” Drizzy stated. “Do what you need to do, I know all you girls are outside and when it gets a little chilly… a PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake album will be right there for you…”
PARTYNEXTDOOR confirmed the existence of the album a week after Drake’s announcement. He was asked which song from the album was his favorite, and avoided giving a direct answer. He did, however, reveal how many songs will be on the final tracklist. “The one we doing right now, all 15 we doing right now,” he asserted. PARTYNEXTDOOR dropped his last studio album, PARTYNEXTDOOR 4, in April of this year. Drake was a huge fan, as evidenced by the promo he gave it on Instagram. “Played this 100000 times before release,” he wrote on his Story. “Wish they logged my streams.” Drizzy, meanwhile, dropped his last album, For All the Dogs, in 2023.
When Creative Director Adrian Martinez started out in the music industry, he had no idea where he’d be today. Doing what he describes as “bits and pieces of the creative process” and capturing content for artists via video and photography was his first glimpse into a future he hadn’t necessarily planned for. “I was doing like a ton of video editing. I got into graphic design,” he tells UPROXX. “I started working on cover art from there. I got into music video direction after a couple of years of being around artists and networking.” Those connections he made combined with a comfort behind the camera – not to mention the symbiotic relationship he was able to easily build between himself and musicians – “snowballed into other opportunities” and he was able to put on live shows for artists.
Fast-forward to now, Martinez has worked with the likes of Rauw Alejandro, Peso Pluma, Bad Bunny, 6lack, and more to bring their creative ideas to life. From 3D animation to branding merch design and experience production, his creative house, STURDY, has become a one-stop shop for musicians who want start to finish creative handling of their campaigns.
Ahead of receiving the Spotlight Award for excellence in creative direction at the upcoming UPROXX event for the Sound + Vision Awards, we spoke to Martinez about how his creative intuition and love for music pushed him into a self-made career and what he’s most excited to create next.
Is there an early project you worked on that cemented your desire to be a creative director?
I got an opportunity, which was at the end of 2016, to work with PARTYNEXTDOOR on his second tour. He let me do the creative behind it, let me design it. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was just going to figure it out and had good people working around me on all the other departments of the show. From there, I found out that I enjoyed working on the design side of the show more than capturing it. As a creative director, I’m able to speak to all these different people that work across different mediums and take in different parts of what a campaign is these days — which is everything from cover art to marketing ad mats, tour posters, the music videos, all the way through to the stage design and lighting direction.
When you say you enjoyed the design side more than the capture side, what was it about that experience with PARTYNEXTDOOR that led you to that realization?
On a very basic level, I felt that when I was taking photos, I didn’t enjoy how he was lit. I didn’t enjoy how the lighting was captured. It always felt a little messy and uncurated and it felt like the lights were just there to be there. I felt like he should be standing here at this part of the show or he should interact this way and the lighting should be hitting him from the back so that he has a good rim light. That PARTY show I’m talking about was much more a trial than a success, but it made me open my eyes to what was possible and where I wanted to go.
Do you always work on every aspect of a campaign and all the different facets you mentioned, from tour posters to set designs?
My goal is to be able to do the campaign and its live side. I feel like that’s where the needle really gets threaded in the best way and where I have found the most success. People always do want to piece it together and I understand there are other creatives involved before I get in the mix, there are always other people helping execute things and I think it’s important to be open to the collaborative process. But I try to either keep it to the whole campaign or the whole live show, and if that’s separate, that’s cool. But ideally, like I said, it’s kind of like the more global approach.
You mentioned PARTYNEXTDOOR felt like a trial. What was you first success?
Four or five months later I got an opportunity to work on another OVO SOUND artist’s show. It was Majid Jordan playing at Coachella. That was April of 2017. I felt that through that process I got to know the artists very well. I had a sense of confidence and comfort in being able to ask questions and try to assert my point of view much more than just subsiding to what they wanted.
Also, in between the PARTY tour and the Coachella show I had met a couple of guys that ended up being a co-founder of this company I run called STURDY, and they were really focused on the visual side of the shows. They were doing 3D and 2D animation and I was with them almost every single day. I was soaking up so much. I learned things like a pixel map which is what you use to map content onto screens properly. I picked up new software and started messing with After Effects and seeing what I could do with 3D software. I didn’t realize that it was the very beginning of what we’re doing now. When I look back it’s still one of the shows that stands out to me because it felt like although we were young kids having fun, we were also really into the process. We were very dedicated.
Tell me more about Sturdy, how did it come together?
We got to work on a lot of shows really quickly after that, and we started getting opportunities to do visuals and get involved in the creative side of artists’ careers. Things were kind of moving for us pretty rapidly in the summer of 2017. We got to work on Kendrick Lamar’s tour. It was a three-day turnaround on some visuals but we were super stoked and it was awesome to be able to work with Dave [Friley] and Kendrick on that. It gave us a little bit more validation within the industry. And also, I needed more confidence to keep pushing and keep going.
By summer of 2018, we got to work on Drake’s tour visuals and we’re seeing stuff happen at a really high level and felt like we were actually starting to compete with bigger companies and being looked at by bigger clients. We realized that if we were just a bunch of ragtag freelancers, it was just never gonna turn into something real. We also knew we really enjoyed working together and that our team dynamic paired with finding a name that we felt we could stand behind made us want to make it official. By the fall of 2018, we had made STURDY an official thing.
LVRN/Interscope
The position of Creative Director can be opaque in some cases, especially when you’re doing so many jobs and wearing so many hats. How do you describe your work to people?
I always say a creative director is not just the person who says this is how we’re going to do it. You’re actually directing creatives. That is what you’re doing. So that means you have a bunch of people that you need to be able to speak to in a way they’ll understand. That translates to the way that they look at the execution, the buttons that they press on their side, and the way they process concepts. And then you have to do that in a bunch of different ways with all these different people. Same with a live show. You have the guys who do visuals, and then you have the guys who are in charge of rigging and that are in charge of making sure that the building can withstand the weight of the screens that are hanging or the lights or whatever. And then you have the lighting designer and you have to make sure that they’re doing things in a way so that the really cool designs and renders that you have in 3D are realistic in real life and the list goes on.
What are you excited to create next?
Without getting super specific, I’ve just got some really exciting tours coming out this next year that are with artists that I love, that I listen to, that I’m fan of. It’s always fun to be able to work with an artist whose music you are a fan of, and you then become part of that picture and help build that world. It’s a privilege for sure.
A lot of people are thirsty for more Drake beef this year, whether they’re the most ardent of OVO Stans or the biggest Drizzy haters this side of Compton. But many of his fans also know to be wary of narratives and speculation that people are hating on him or that he’s hating on others, and a fanbase that relates to this caution all too well is the army of Barbz that is analyzing Nicki Minaj’s latest livestream. Moreover, she seemed to refer to “ugly boy 1” and “ugly boy 1” for working with “ugly girls,” and many on both sides took this to mean that she was angry at the 6ix God and his OVO partner PARTYNEXTDOOR for working with Latto and Ice Spice respectively.
“Yo, Nicki is f***ing petty, bro,” DJ Akademiks said of the alleged Nicki Minaj, Drake, and PARTYNEXTDOOR situation. “I can’t believe that Nicki really treats the music industry like it’s high school. People are making money, man, people are making millions of dollars. You’re making millions of dollars. People are gonna collab with who they want. None of the beef that y’all have is that serious because, otherwise, you’d be pulling up on these b***hes.”
But again, for many Drake and Nicki Minaj fans alike, this narrative from Ak and others doesn’t make too much sense. For one, a lot of Barbz are claiming that Nicki had prefaced this by saying that they were going to make up a fake story to prove how quick the media is to grab headlines… Which is a really weird way of going about it, but it seems to have worked if true. On the other hand, the Young Money partners were doing great right amid the Kendrick battle, it seems like she played their collabs after her rant during this livestream, and there aren’t really any valid or surefire indicators of who she’s talking about in her rant other than recent context informing fans’ interpretations.
As such, there might be at least some friction with these collaborations, but we doubt that there’s actually any beef to report on here. A similar conclusion applies to the alleged beef between Drake and Lil Wayne, with Weezy sending some interesting signals as of late. But just like with this Nicki Minaj situation, we doubt that Ak and others are accurate in fully believing it. Nevertheless, only time will tell, so we’ll see what continues to happen with Young Money in the public eye…
Ice Spice performed at Terminal 5 in her hometown of New York City on August 7, the first of a two-night home stand at the venue during her Y2K! Tour. Producer Cash Cobain opened for her. However, he was not the only guest on the night. Fellow New Yorkers Sheff G & Sleepy Hallow, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and Fivio Foreign also performed, turning the night into a celebration of the new New York. Additionally, R&B star PartyNextDoor made an appearance at the show. He sang a medley of his most popular songs, including “Break From Toronto.”
After the show, PartyNextDoor posted a picture of him and Ice Spice together backstage on Instagram. “Get it while it’s hot,” the caption reads. This led to fans speculating that the two of them have music on the way. The thought of the two of them collaborating led to an overwhelmingly negative reaction from PND fans. “Should’ve been Summer Walker instead,” reads the most liked comment on the post. “ABSOLUTELY NOT. She gon’ get party to start talking bout farts,” said a second user. “Coulda did a collab with ANYBODY else,” said a third Instagram user.
During a guest set at a PartyNextDoor show in Toronto earlier this month, Drake announced that the two of them were releasing a joint album towards the end of 2024. “When it gets a little chilly, PartyNextDoor and Drake album will be waiting right there for you,” he told the crowd to a raucous reception. Because of Drake’s prior announcement and the OVO signee performing at her concert, additional speculation arose about if Ice Spice is appearing on their album. Drake co-signed Ice earlier into her career, so it is possible.
For Ice Spice, the Y2K! Tour started in the beginning of July, before her album of the same name even released. You can read our review of the album here. Ice Spice’s shows in New York City are sold out, marking a very successful homecoming for the artist. We’ll see if anything more comes from the photo of the two or if it was nothing more than that.
The upcoming collaborative full-length from PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake took many fans by surprise, but it’s also what plenty of them have been manifesting hopefully for years now. Never mind all the beef stories surrounding The Boy right now: this team-up is a long-anticipated OVO affair that marks yet another shift in his career, albeit a lateral one. Regardless, we now have some limited but nonetheless exciting new information about the project courtesy of Party himself. He recently spoke with Awaiz Punjani in a brief video published on Tuesday (August 6), and let fans know exactly how much new material they should expect.
“The one we doing right now, all 15 we doing right now,” PARTYNEXTDOOR responded to a question about what his favorite Drake collab is. As such, we know that there will apparently be 15 tracks on this joint album, which is very promising for various reasons. 15 is a hefty and satisfying number of cuts, but it’s also not overbearing enough to where fans would be concerned by questions of bloat, quality control, or lack of focus. Also, considering how much respect and love they have for each other, their chemistry would make any number of records electric either way.
“I know all you girls are outside and when it gets a little chilly, PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake album will be right there for you,” Aubrey Graham said during his surprise appearance at PND’s Toronto show on Friday (August 2). While neither artist has confirmed the release date for this team-up, Drizzy’s words indicate that it will be a fall or winter release, so there’s still a solid chance it would come out for the early winter of 2025. At this concert, the 6ix God also performed “Wah Gwan Delilah” for the first time.
But elsewhere, news of Drake’s collaboration with PARTYNEXTDOOR comes amid rumors that his other iconic partnerships are dwindling. For example, many fans believe that Lil Wayne is sending subtle hints that he’s not rocking with his Young Money heir anymore. Of course, that’s purely speculative, so unless either artist does something truly pointed and direct, we have no reason to assume that “The Motto” will age as poorly as cuts like “Lemon Pepper Freestyle” have. At least we definitely have this PND collab to look forward to.
For the first time in his career, Drake is the underdog. Okay, that’s a bit dramatic, but a comeback of sorts is certainly expected from the Toronto rap star. That, or proof of resilience — evidence that his defeat by Kendrick Lamar won’t be marked as a major turning point in his career. Admittedly, we’ve already seen this resilience from Drake.
His 2018 beef with Pusha T ended with a semi-low-blow knockout punch in the unveiling of Drake’s son Adonis, but in the end, Drake went on to put out his biggest hits and run the summer as he’s done many times this year. But this time, Kendrick Lamar beat Drake at the game he hoped to play, and now the Compton rapper owns the summer thanks to “Not Like Us.” That leaves the fall and winter months up for the taking, and in extremely smart fashion, Drake is gearing up to take them over.
Over the weekend, Drake announced that a joint album with PartyNextDoor will arrive this fall, and it’s the perfect next move for him in his career. “I know you girls are outside,” Drake quipped during a guest set at PND’s Sorry I’m Outside Tour stop in their hometown of Toronto. “When it gets a little chilly, a PartyNextDoor and Drake album will be right there for you.”
Mr. OVO himself has a long track record of big moments in the year’s colder months, though it wasn’t until last year’s For All The Dogs that he actually released an album in October. His breakout mixtape Comeback Season was released in September, as was arguably his best album Nothing Was the Same as well as What A Time To Be Alive and Certified Lover Boy. The Grammy-winning Take Care saw the light of day in November, as did Her Loss, while other highlights like So Far Gone and If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late debuted in February.
In addition to the argument that Drake’s best work arrives outside of the summer months, there’s also one for PartyNextDoor being one of — if not the — best collaborator Drake has consistently worked with in his career. Drake and PND have created over 20 songs together, including collaborations like “Recognize” and “Loyal,” songwriting contributions for each other’s songs, like PND’s “Not Nice” and Drake’s “Come Thru,” and work on other artists’ songs like Rihanna’s “Work” and Popcaan’s “Twist & Turn.”
Drake — music’s versatile superstar — and PND — a modern-day R&B wizard with an unmatched pen — are the perfect combination for a collaborative album. Fans often request joint albums from artists after two or three decent collaborations, all for the finished product to fall flat and underwhelming when it comes to fruition. Drake and PND, have already proven to be a match made in heaven that will only be solidified with this upcoming release.
With all this being said, what makes Drake and PND’s upcoming joint album the perfect move for Drake? Well, for the first time in a long time, Drake can be the cohesive tunnel-visioned artist he hasn’t been in nearly a decade. The beauty of albums like Take Care, Nothing Was the Same, Views, and If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late is they each exist in one individual world. You read their titles and can feel the texture and atmosphere they exist in, whereas with other projects, it’s a bit more scattered and all over the place.
PND thrives at this cohesion, as his most recent album PartyNextDoor 4 proves. He also subscribes to a simpler and more focused approach to his projects, which Drake can also benefit from. Furthermore, Drake and PND’s joint album marks the return of a beloved duo after both reached heights fans previously thought they could only dream of. It makes use of nostalgia, thanks to a decade-long catalog of collaborations, and fulfills a longtime request. For once, Drake is actually listening to us.
Drake will never take a break from music, he’s told us that plenty of times over the last few years. So fans who have begged him to step out of the spotlight will just have to suck it up and deal with the ever-present rap star. There is a compromise here, though. In the aftermath of the infamous rap beef, Drake is seemingly stepping out of the character that played the role of Kendrick’s fuming and disgruntled opponent, and replacing him, is one who wants to prove that good music can erase the bad times, or blur them at least. Drake’s recent release of “100 gigs” of unreleased material included plenty of evidence to show how calculated he is as a musician.
Announcing a joint album with a longtime friend and beloved collaborator is another example of that, and it’s one that could benefit everyone involved, from Drake and PND themselves to waiting fans, as well — if they deliver and meet the expectations laid before them.
Drake really took fans on a trip down memory lane on Tuesday. The rapper dropped off 100 GB’s of old music, rehearsal footage, and documentary footage dating back a decade. It was an unexpected surprise that will likely generate some goodwill for Drizzy in the days to come. The most exciting piece of the drop though, was the implication that the rapper might be going on tour before the year is up. One of the pics on the 100 GB’s drop was of merchandise boxes with the text “Euro 2024” on them. The text above is a nod to Kendrick Lamar’s diss song, “Not Like Us.”
Drake is keenly aware of the importance of a narrative. The rapper built his career on crafting a persona, and now that Kendrick Lamar has effectively beaten him, a rebrand is necessary. The fact that the Euro tour (that may or may not being happening) is branded “No One Likes Us” is Drake attempting to wrestle back the narrative. This isn’t the first time the rapper has made reference to the K. Dot single. He posted a video of a Drake impersonator and quoted the lyrics: “Sometimes you gotta pop out.” Another piece of evidence to support the Euro tour theory is that Drake has a lot of new music in the works.
The rapper is reportedly working around the clock on new music. He’s got an album’s worth of songs with Conductor Williams, according to Ebro In the Morning. He also confirmed that he has a joint album with PARTYNEXTDOOR in the works. Drizzy announced the long-anticipated collab during a PND show, and assured fans that they will get to hear it before the end of the year. “Do what you need to do. I know all you girls are outside and when it gets a little chilly,” he told the fans. “A PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake album will be right there for you…”
PARTYNEXTDOOR bolstered the joint album hype when he revealed that there will be 15 tracks on the final version. The fact that Drake is so eager to get out new music aligns with the desire to go out on tour. The rapper famously assured fans that he will never go long without putting on shows for them. Plus, he’s got a rebrand in mind, and a rollout that with some intentionality behind it. We don’t know what Drake has in store, but we’re excited to find out.
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