Drake has been at the top of the game since 2009. There really hasn’t been a year where he wasn’t considered for the MVP. The 6 God continues to work and deliver great music on a yearly basis. It seems like he doesn’t get tired!
The Canadian artist has released a lot of music since 2006. And he’s still going! But, what are his best solo projects? Let’s take a look at all of his work over the years!
13. Honestly, Nevermind
Drake took a turn for his seventh studio album. Honestly, Nevermind is a dance album, with one hip hop song, “Jimmy Cooks” featuring 21 Savage. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. You’re bound to hear one of these tracks in the club.
12. More Life
In what was considered a “playlist”, Drake delivered More Life in 2017. Around this time, Champagne Papi was digging into his Caribbean roots. Since Canada has a big Caribbean background, Drake wanted to show it off.
With songs like “No Long Talk”, “Blem”, and “KMT” you hear the Carribean vibes. Hits like “Passionfruit” and “Fake Love” are songs Drake fans will always want to hear. He ends this “playlist” with “Do Not Disturb”, where he is just rapping with no chorus. The type of Drake we enjoy.
11. Dark Lane Demo Tapes
In what was a bunch of “throwaways” for Drizzy Drake, made for a solid mixtape. He makes some firsts on here by collaborating with rappers Playboi Carti on “Pain 1993” and Fivio Foreign & Sosa Geek on “Demons”. It looks like Drake appreciates the drill movement as he makes songs like “Demons” and “War”.
At this point, it was 2020 and the whole world was in a lockdown with COVID-19 on the rise. Champagne Papi gave us something to dance to with “Toosie Slide” as he starts another dance craze similar to “In My Feelings”. He also shows us that his beef with Chris Brown really may be behind him as they make another song after “No Guidance” with “Not You Too”.
In the “When To Say When” video, Drake raps over Jay-Z’s “Song Cry” while being in the middle of Marcy projects. Home to Jay-Z, I wonder if he had to check in with Hov before doing this.
10. Room for Improvement
Besides being on Degrassi, this is our introduction to Drake. Room for Improvement showed us that Drake has potential, but no one knew his career would blossom into this! At this time, DJ Smallz’s Southern Smoke brand was very popular, hosting a series of mixtapes . DJ Smallz linked with Drake for his debut mixtape with the Southern Smoke stamp all over it.
In the 21-track mixtape, the Canadian rapper gives us different flows with witty punchlines. At a time where skits were popular on mixtapes, Drake places them perfectly throughout the tape. One thing about Drake is that since day one his aim was to put Toronto on the map (for Hip Hop) and that’s exactly what he did.
But, it seems as if he was already popular stemming from the voice mail skits. In one skit, he even has Kid from Kid ‘N’ Play leave him a voicemail. The 6 God also receives features from Trey Songz as this is the first time they link up. Drizzy has come a long way, but Room for Improvement is where it started.
9. If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
Drake dropped If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late out of nowhere. There was no word of it and then the next morning, it was on iTunes. We learn more things about the October baby in this sudden drop.
Drake introduces PARTYNEXTDOOR on two songs, “Preach” and “Wednesday Night Interlude”. Also, this is the first time we hear Travis Scott and Drake on a track together with “Company”. Champagne Papi sheds light on his beef with Tyga on “6 God” and discusses then Toronto Raptors Guard Lou Williams’ polygamous relationship on “6 Man”. There are a lot of interesting topics on this tape!
The cover of this mixtape has the title handwritten with the number six and prayer hands underneath it. This marks the beginning of the “6 God”, as he gives himself a new nickname. From this point on, Toronto is known as the 6 worldwide as its area codes are 416 and 647. You can thank this project for that as it has many references to the 6 including song titles, “6 God”, “Star67”, “6 Man”, “You & The 6”, and “6PM In New York”.
As I mentioned before, Drake is known for records like “The Calm” and “The Ride”, but fans also love him for his timestamp records. “6PM in New York” comes after “9AM in Dallas” and “5PM in Toronto”, both of which are not on any of his projects.
8. Comeback Season
Drake gained more popularity with his second mixtape, Comeback Season. The mixtape is home to his breakout hit, “Replacement Girl” featuring Songz. At this time, Drake was still playing Jimmy on Degrassi, therefore the music video to “Replacement Girl” would run after an episode of Degrassi at times.
In this project, the OVO rapper created music that will forever be a staple in his catalog. Songs like “Closer To My Dreams” featuring Andreena Mill and “Man of the Year” featuring Lil Wayne still sound good 16 years later. This is the first time we hear Drake and Lil Wayne collaborate as he will soon go on to sign to the “Lollipop” rapper’s label, Young Money.
On this mixtape, Drizzy decides to jack for beats on a couple of tracks. He raps over Alicia Keys’ “Unbreakable” on “Going In For Life”, he freestyles over Ye’s song, “Barry Bonds” as well as over Trey Songz’s hit song “Missin’ You”. In just one year, the Toronto native took a huge leap!
7. Thank Me Later
Aubrey sure had a flashy debut studio album. On Thank Me Later, the new Young Money artist gets help from Alicia Keys, T.I., Swizz Beatz, The-Dream, Jeezy, Jay-Z, his label mate Nicki Minaj, and of course Lil Wayne. This is the first shortened project we hear from the “Best I Ever Had” rapper as his prior tapes all have over 20 tracks.
In 14 songs, Drake racks up more hits in his follow-up to his breakout mixtape. “Over”, “Find Your Love”, “Miss Me”, and “Fancy” were all top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Find Your Love” peaking at number five. These hits are still staples on his catalog along with “Light Up” featuring Jay-Z, “Shut It Down” featuring The-Dream, and “Up All Night” featuring Nicki.
Not too many artists can say they have had Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Swizz Beatz on their debut album. Though it was a success, Drake remains that this album was rushed, and he will always take his time on albums going forth.
6. Nothing Was The Same
After not dropping a solo project in 2012, the 6 God came back in 2013 with Nothing Was The Same. Not too many hits on this album, but still there are songs that are staples in his catalog. Songs like “Tuscan Leather”, “Wu-Tang Forever”, and “Connect” are still fan favorites.
Drake doesn’t get too much help from rappers on this one as the only rap features are Jay-Z on “Pound Cake/ Paris Morton Music 2” and 2 Chainz and Big Sean on “All Me”. Instead, he receives guest verses from R&B artists such as Jhene Aiko, Sampha, Detail, and Majid Jordan.
On “From Time” featuring Jhene Aiko he names many of the women he has been involved with. In this song, we are reminded that Drake has always been a lover boy. This is one of the reasons that makes Drake…Drake.
5. Certified Lover Boy
Although he just gave us Dark Lane Demo Tapes, Drake was back at it with CLB. As always, Drizzy shows his vulnerable side on many songs, especially on “Get Along Better” and “Race My Mind”. He continues to thrive on tracks with his friends Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Travis Scott, Young Thug, 21 Savage, and Rick Ross. After not having his mentor on his album in 6 years, he links back up with Lil Wayne for “You Only Live Twice”, the sequel to their 2011 hit, “The Motto”. Things have changed after ten years!
Just like he settled things with Chris Brown, it looks as if Drake and Kid Cudi are on decent terms as well. Cudi makes the album on “IMY2” making this their first official song together. And even though at times they take jabs at each other, it’s always good to see Jay-Z and Drizzy come together. “Love All” is their fourth collaboration as it is one of the highlights on the album.
Drake keeps the hits going with “Girls Want Girls”, “Fair Trade”, “Way 2 Sexy”, and “No Friends In The Industry”. He also adds to his timestamp records with “7AM on Bridle Path”. CLB is a very good album and the cover makes it even better.
4. Take Care
Most people say Take Care is Drake’s best album and you can’t blame them. The first line of the song lets you know how highly he thinks of himself. On the intro track, “Over My Dead Body, he raps, “I think I killed everybody in the game last year/Man, fuck it, I was on though”. The boy is only in his second year and starts off like that!
It feels like he reveals more of himself in every drop as Drake really starts to spill his feelings. Just like on songs such as “Find Your Love” and “CeCe’s Interlude”, you get “Lover boy Drake”. On his second studio album, Drizzy reveals “Heartbreak Drake”. On “Doing It Wrong”, “Marvin’s Room”, and “Good Ones Go Interlude”, the 6 God gets in his feelings. Most of the songs on Take Care are either hits or staples in Drake’s catalog. “Headlines”, “Take Care”, “Marvins Room”, and “The Motto” alone were big records.
On “Look What You’ve Done”, Drake goes into his family life, discussing his mom, dad, and uncle. He even uses a voicemail at the end of his grandma speaking. Drake lets us in on his life building a connection increasing his likeness.
Drizzy won his first Grammy for this album in 2013 in the Best Rap Album category. The album is different from Thank Me Later as it is dark and low-tempo. Mostly produced by 40, Take Care captures the energy and mood of Toronto.
3. So Far Gone
Before Champagne Papi signed to Young Money and made it an EP, So Far Gone was a complete mixtape. It only took Drake two mixtapes to really get a buzz going as this third project, So Far Gone, took him into another light. With production help from big names such as Boi-1da, DJ Screw, Diplo, Just Blaze, and Ye, you can just hear the confidence as Drake raps and sings.
In three years, he has come a long way as he receives features from R&B greats like Lloyd and Omarion. On Room for Improvement and Comeback Season, Drake did not show off his singing abilities, but he made sure to do it on So Far Gone. The Toronto rapper’s voice sounds good on “Sooner than Later” and “Brand New”.
He also starts to reveal his Houston roots in this project as well with the songs “Houstatlantavegas”, “November 18th”, and “Uptown” featuring Houston legend Bun B. Drake really starts to lock in with Wayne as they have four songs together with “Successful”, “Ignant Shit”, “Unstoppable”, and “Uptown”. Two of his biggest hits are on this mixtape, “Successful” featuring Trey Songz and Wayne, and “Best I Ever Had”.
He continues to jack for beats on songs like “Ignant Shit” and “Say What’s Real”, over Jay-Z and Ye’s songs respectively. Drake is known for records where he just raps without a chorus. He started that here with “The Calm”.
2. Scorpion
We have to admit that Drake is one of the hardest working rappers in the industry. It’s been like this for some years now. There’s no doubt that after Thank Me Later dropped, he has really taken his time with all of his projects. And it looks like Drake should admit that he enjoys dropping lengthy albums. In a 25-track effort, Drizzy makes a double album with Scorpion.
The 6 God handles the duties by himself for the most part. Jay-Z, Ty Dolla $ign, and Static Major are three of four features on here. Drake also dropped a surprise, legendary guest feature for his album as the King of Pop showed up on “Don’t Matter To Me” . Yes, Drake was able to secure a Michael Jackson verse!
On this album, Drake starts a dance challenge with “In My Feelings” and creates a historic line in “God’s Plan”. Everyone loves the line: “I only love my bed and my momma/I’m sorry”. We also learn more about his son on the song, “March 14”, after his rival Pusha T let the secret out in his diss song, “The Story of Adidon”. This was a good way to end a great album.
1. Views
Just like Take Care, Views is truly a Toronto project. The 6 God has been trying to put his city on since he came in and he did it. Now, not to say that Toronto wasn’t a popular destination before Drake, but he does deserve some credit for bigging up the Canadian city.
Home to arguably his biggest hits in “One Dance”, “Controlla”, and “Hotline Bling”, Drizzy and the OVO team put a great project together. Starting with the album cover, you know this project is for Toronto. On the cover, Drake is sitting atop of the CN Tower looking down at the city. He’s up there with the clouds as it looks dark and gloomy in the background signifying the tempo in the City at that time.
Drake has always been good at telling his story and painting the pictures in our heads so we can visualize what he is rapping about. On songs like “9”, “Weston Road Flows”, and “Views”, you can almost see the City when the “Grammy“ rapper spits. It seems like Toronto might be the place to be when it gets cold out based on the cover as well as “Summers Over Interlude”. The mood of the album reminds me of Take Care as you hear “LoverBoy Drake” on songs like “With You” and “Too Good”. All while giving us “Heartbreak Drake” with “U With Me?” and “Feel No Ways”
Drake doesn’t get too much help on this album, but gives us a treat with a surprise feature from Pimp C on “Faithful”. The 6 God is reminding us of his Houston ties.
Views has to be Drake’s best project! It’s Toronto. It’s for Toronto. Drake is Toronto.
Let us know your favorite Drake project in the comments!