most likely gonna be garbage doe
AH **** LET GET IT!!
[h1]Drake Drops Surprise Album 'If You're Reading This It's Too Late'[/h1]
If you were waiting for some new rap music to sink your teeth into, wait no longer. Drake has shocked the world by releasing a brand new, complete album, with little to no warning. Fans were excited enough with a new short filmJungle (also released yesterday, and complete with some previously-unheard music), but a new record was not on anybody’s minds.
If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late is the fourth full length album from the Canadian rapper, and it’s actually also a mixtape…sort of. While he never announced it himself, a friend of the hip-hop star let slip a month or so ago that he was planning on releasing a mixtape at some point in early 2015. This was exciting to fans, but certainly not anything out of the ordinary. Plenty of rappers release mixtapes in between albums as a way to both keep their skills honed, as well as keep their fans satisfied. A mixtape is usually not as polished as a fully mastered, mixed album, and it typically doesn’t receive the same kind of promotion.
Mixtapes are usually free downloads, and that’s what the world expected. Instead, Drake uploaded If You’re Reading This onto iTunes, assigning it a $13 price tag. By doing so, he classified the project as an album, not a mixtape, and that distinction is actually rather important.
Several months ago, Drake announced the title of his then-upcoming fourth album, Views From The 6. The minute he did so, it instantly became one of themost anticipated albums of 2015, though no additional details were available. It isn’t yet clear if last night’s album drop is the same piece of work under a new name, or if the rapper truly intends on releasing a second full length record at some point in 2015. Drake’s camp is so far staying mum, which is only fueling the fire and creating more excitement.
If You’re Reading This marks the rapper’s fourth album for label Cash Money, and that might have been a big reason why he and his team decided to sell the title instead of give it away for free. Lil Wayne, the rapper’s mentor and close friend, is currently suing the label for not releasing his own new album, and it looks like he’s preparing the leave the company he’s been with for so many years. If he does so, it’s expected that those artists Wayne found and whose careers he helped foster with the Cash Money team—including Drake and Nicki Minaj—will vacate the label with him as soon as possible.
Since artists typically sign deals in blocks of albums—two, three, ten albums at a time—this new release gets Drake one step closer to having the freedom to leave Cash Money, should he want to.
Dropping a surprise album without a bit of notice seems to be the new normal. While some artists don’t want to copy Beyoncé, others see it as a way to move product, as plenty of people who might otherwise opt to wait will rush to get a copy. Owning a surprise album from one of the biggest stars in music plays into many people’s fear of missing out: they don’t want to be the only ones who don’t know exactly what’s going on.
No word yet from industry experts about how many copies Drake can expect to sell, but the album will likely perform fairly well on the Billboard charts next week, as his past three albums have all gone to number one.
