Drake: Views (2LP, import) [YOUNG MONEY]

Why you'll love it

Views spent 13 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and moved more than a million units in its first week. "One Dance" topped the Hot 100 and "Hotline Bling" is here as a bonus. Rihanna, Future, Pimp C, Wizkid and PartyNextDoor all show up.

This edition

• 2LP set, 20 tracks including "Hotline Bling"
• Import pressing (cat# B002523601)

About the album

Aubrey Drake Graham was not only at the top of the hip-hop heap, but arguably the biggest pop star on the planet when Views rolled into ... view ... in April of 2016.

Originally rumoured to be titled Views From The 6 in homage to the rapper's hometown of Toronto (hence the image of what would, in real life, have to be a 20-foot-tall Drake perched atop the CN Tower on the album cover) Views is a big, generous star turn with an 81-minute running time. It contains a couple of Drake's finest singles ever in the sneaky little earworm that is "Hotline Bling" and the Afro-tinged banger "One Dance," while the thing as a whole plays out in very "Toronto" fashion thanks to a multicultural sonic palette that takes in everything from Jamaican dancehall to Dirty South trap, above and beyond simply revelling in the hazy signature "416" sound popularized by Drake and his longtime production partners Noah "40" Shebib and Boi-1da. Factor in guest appearances from Rihanna, Pimp C, Future and OVO Sound protégés DVSN and PartyNextDoor and Views is a confident victory lap for a pop star fully aware that he's having his moment in the sun.

Also at Kops: more Drake on vinyl · browse CDN Hip Hop

Tracklist

Listen

On Young Money / Cash Money / Republic (cat# B002523601), first out in 2016.