Drake Surprise releases new album, Honestly, Nevermind

For his latest album, Drake kept his fans waiting for nearly a year. For his latest one, the wait was about six hours.

“Honestly, Nevermind,” Drake’s seventh proper studio LP, launched to streaming services at midnight on Friday, having officially launched announce Just hours ago on Drake’s social media accounts. With 14 tracks, it’s a relatively short collection for a star rapper. (“Certified Lover Boy”, which came out last September, and has 21 songs.)

Producers of the new album include long-time collaborators such as Noah Shebib (known as 40), Oliver Al-Khatib (also one of Drake’s directors), and Noel Cadastre, as well as Black Coffee, a South African DJ who has appeared on the Underground and has in recent years worked with stars such as David Guetta and Usher.

In a note accompanying the album on Apple Music, Drake said the song “Honestly, Nevermind” was intended for Virgil Ablohthe influential fashion designer who had a long association with Kanye West, died last year at the age of 41 of cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare form of cancer.

Fans have been expecting something new from Drake since at least March, when he was Spread Picture of himself in a recording studio. On the contrary, he was the “adopted lovable boy” cocky Around for nearly a year. Drake’s announcement of “Honestly, Nevermind” came just hours after Beyoncé – the undisputed champ of surprise album releases – released her own statement, uncharacteristically providing a six-week ultimatum for her next release,”Renaissancewhich will be her first solo album since ‘Lemonade’ in 2016.

“Honestly, Nevermind” comes with the rapper taking more control of his career. Last month, Universal Music Group announced that it had signed a wide-ranging deal with Drake covering recordings, music publishing, and other businesses such as visual merchandise and projects. Terms have not been disclosed, but their value has been disclosed estimated Hundreds of millions of dollars.

Drake dominates the broadcast market. Although Spotify listed him as the 8th most popular artist around the world – Puerto Rican star bad bunny She is the top – her catalog, with songs like “One Dance”, “God’s Plan” and “Hotline Bling,” It represents some of the most popular music in the format. according to Analytics By Billboard, last year’s Drake catalog outperformed all music released before 1980.

For years, Drake released music through a complex contract structure that gave ownership of his work to other Universal subsidiaries. Since “Certified Lover Boy,” his albums have come with a copyright notice stating that the recordings are owned by his company, Very Own in October, and licensed to Universal, which releases them through their Republic label. This arrangement usually gives greater control – and a greater share of income – to the artist, and is also used in major works such as Adele, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.