“Come with a classic, they come around years later and say it’s a sleeper.”
As Drake already hinted at in his #2 Billboard single “Wants and Needs” earlier this year, the attitudes surrounding his fourth studio album Views continue to shift in his favor. Upon its release in 2016, the album was trashed by critics like Joe Budden, and many reviews of the now six-times platinum album deemed it to be Drake’s first “miss,” a lengthy and uninspired collection of hits, or somewhere in between.
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Now, on the five-year anniversary of Views, the Hip-Hop community appears to embrace the album much more. The behemoth of an album boasted 20 tracks, including massive hit singles like “One Dance,” “Hotline Bling,” “Too Good,” and “Controlla.” However, Views houses a slew of gems that weren’t worn out due to endless radio play at the peak of Drake’s era of pop culture dominance, including “FIre & Desire,” “U With Me?,” and “Redemption.”
The latter album cut was a five-and-a-half-minute record that found Drake at one of his most vulnerable points during the Views era, a time period that consisted of him obliterating Meek Mill in a one-sided beef and staking his claim as rap’s new invincible figurehead. Still, the incredibly self-conscious lyrical content on “Redemption” brought Drake back to earth, and the song’s nod to his classic and influential Take Care output made it all the more compelling.
Quotable Lyrics
Sell my secrets and get top dollar
Sell my secrets for a Range Rover
Opportunity and temptation
They would sell my secrets for a tropical vacation
Sell my secrets back to me if I was payin’
Who’s gonna save me when I need savin’?
Since Take Care, I’ve been caretakin’
But second chances, that ain’t how you livin’
Redemption on your mind, I’ll never be forgiven