South” on “The Off-Season,” among several others.
Maneesh El-Khatib (co-produced “Champagne Poetry” and “7am on Bridle Path”)Ī relative of OVO Sound co-founder Olver El-Khatib, Maneesh has worked on a series of other major projects before jumping on “Certified Lover Boy.” Before this he tallied production credits for Snoh Aelegra’s song “Lost You” off her album “Temporary Highs in the Violet Skies,” and for J. Unsurprisingly, Drake’s longtime collaborator and commandant Noah “40” Shebib has his production fingerprints across nearly the entirety of “Certified Lover Boy.” Named Variety‘s Hitmakers Producer of the Year in 2018, 40 is one of the three founding members of OVO Sound and has either co-produced or engineered every Drake album thus far, with responsibility for hits like “Marvin’s Room,” “Work” and “0 To 100,” among others. Noah “40” Shebib (produced “The Remorse” and co-produced “Champagne Poetry,” “In the Bible” featuring Lil Durk and Giveon, “N 2 Deep” featuring Future, “Yebba’s Heartbreak” featuring Yebba, “Race My Mind,” “Fountains” featuring Tems, “Get Along Better” featuring Ty Dolla Sign, and “Fucking Fans”)
Win.Here’s a full rundown of the 48 producers who helped make it possible: This year he proved that no matter what he’s always just one video, nostalgia trip, dance challenge, or velvet polo away from making us forget everything but the music. As the year comes to an end, Drake leaves it looking surprisingly human and flawed but there’s no way Drake lost 2018. Just like Drake and Meek, the harsh words will be a part of their legacies, but the magnitude of those exchanges will diminish. A year from now Drake and Pusha could very well make amends. But if Drake’s reconciliation with Meek Mill teaches us anything, it’s that it’s easy to get caught up in the momentary drama of rap beef. The rivalry was so lopsided that it caused Drake to make decisions that weren’t calculated as much as they were desperate. But his beef with Pusha-T left Drake looking like a chump at times. When 2018 began, Drake seemed untouchable as the year went on, the numbers supported that: four number one records, a chart-topping album, and landmark music videos all helped him remain one of the year’s most relevant artists. Kanye may be in the right here asking for a simple apology, but his rambling tweets aren’t making him seem like it. But really all Kanye wanted was for Drake to hit him up so they could air things out. Drake’s pettiness included: sending Kris Jenner messages to “check” on the fam, badgering Ye with purple emojis, and buying up the front two rows at Pusha shows.
Late in the year Kanye got fed up at Drake’s pettiness and took to Twitter, hot at Drake. After the video dropped public sentiment swelled in favor of Drizzy and 2018 was shaping up to be the year Drake could do no wrong. Like usual, it was another calculated and well-thought-out plan from the 6 God. On IG he would call the music video “The most important thing I have ever done in my career.” The endlessly parodied clip tugged at heartstrings: kids dancing, families kissing the OVO ring, and a son overcome by the Torontonian overlord’s generosity crying in his mother’s arms. Soon after, it became apparent that Drake was using this as part of his video for “God’s Plan.” The video featured Drake maneuvering through the streets of Miami giving away nearly 1,000,000 dollars in cash. The videos went viral, as Drake had reinvented himself as an oily-bearded, Nike sweatsuit-rocking Oprah Winfrey. Drake was back like he never left.Įarly in the year, videos of Drake handing out Pat Sajak style oversized checks at high schools and colleges, and dropping a stack at the grocery store for Miami shoppers began to surface online. “God’s Plan” was the one, and it literally became an overnight sensation. For his opening salvo, Drake released two new tracks and we got the “real-rap-tough-guy” Drake of “ Diplomatic Immunity” and the anointed mama’s boy Drake of “God’s Plan.” Foreshadowing the A-side/B-side structure of Scorpion, the songs gave us two sides of Drizzy and allowed fans to choose which one they gravitated to more. Then, in January, Drake made his “long-awaited” return with a project that took its name from a phrase he coined back in his OVO blog era- Scary Hours-code for the wee hours of the night when Drake dropped new music and captured the attention of night owls on social media. I was used to a steady stream of Drake content flooding the market. For me, the 10-month wait between the releases of March 2017’s More Life and Scary Hours in January felt like the 14-year break old heads suffered through waiting for the follow-up to D’Angelo’s Voodoo.