The Eight Phases of Drake’s Career Definitively Ranked
Article by Madalyn Foley
“Lemme put something in your life”- Champagne Papi
After the 6 God dropped by the 305 to spread some OVO love, we at WVUM took the time to reflect on his career so far. The 31-year-old rapper was kind enough to spend over one hundred thousand dollars on worthy causes while filming his music video for new song “God’s Plan” in Miami. This giving spree included a fifty-thousand-dollar scholarship to University of Miami junior Destiny James for her to put towards her tuition here at UM.
Having been active in music since 2007, there is a lot of musical material to sort through for Drake so without further ado- here are Drake’s career phases as ranked by us.
8. “The Jimmy” Papi (2001-2007)
“Don’t be all up in my fries, dawg!”
Best known for: Playing the loveable Jimmy Brooks on the Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation, releasing first mixtape Room for Improvement (found on his MySpace page), and releasing subsequent success Comeback Season.
7. “Started from the Bottom” Papi (2013-2014)
“Cake cake cake cake cake cake”
Best known for: Releasing Nothing Was the Same which spawned successful songs like “Started from the Bottom”, “Hold on We’re Going Home”, “All Me”, “Tuscan Leather”, “Pound Cake”, “From Time” ft. Jhene Aiko, and featuring on popular tracks like “Versace Remix” with group Migos, and “No New Friends” with collaborator DJ Khaled.
6. “More Life” Papi (2017)
“More life, more everything”
Best known for: A short, but media-frenzied relationship with Miami Royalty Jennifer Lopez (who’s currently dating Miami Royalty Alex Rodriguez), rolling out the innovative and Caribbean-inspired (*fake accent*) playlist More Life containing songs like “Passionfruit”, “Free Smoke”, “Fake Love”, and “Gyalchester.”
5. “6 God” Papi (2015)
“I like my girls BBW”
Best Known for: “Trigger fingers turned to Twitter fingers”, the EPIC Drake-Meek Mill online feud that sparked diss tracks “Charged Up” and “Back to Back” which were released within a four-day period, collaborations with rap star Nicki Minaj which spawned smash hits like “Only” ft. Lil Wayne and “Truffle Butter” also ft. Lil Wayne, “Jumpman”, and featuring on “Blessings” with rapper Big Sean.
4. “Thank Me Later” Papi (2011)
“Drinking every night because we drink to my accomplishments”
Best known for: Being Drake’s first officially released album and pretty close to perfection, includes hits like “Over”, “Find Your Love”, “Miss Me”, “Fancy”, “Headlines”, and “Make Me Proud”, also a hit with DJ Khaled “I’m On One.”
3. “Young Money” Papi (2008-2010)
“Race for your love, Shake n Bake Ricky Bobby”
Best known for: the cinematic MASTERPIECE that is the “Bedrock” music video, the release of mixtape So Far Gone which featured hits “Best I Ever Had” and “Houstatlantavegas”; the classic collab with Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Eminem on “Forever” for the movie More than a Game; featuring on “Say Something” w/ Timbaland; “What’s My Name” w/ Rihanna; “Right Above It” w/ Lil Wayne; and “Moment 4 Life” w/ Nicki Minaj.
2. “Summer Sixteen aka Rihanna Pt. 2” Papi (2016)
“Got so many chains they call me Chaining Tatum”
Best known for: Getting curved by Rihanna onstage in front of millions of people, releasing the album Views which inspired the infamous -Drake sitting on the CN Tower in Toronto meme-, hits from Views like “Summer Sixteen”, “One Dance”, “Pop Style”, “Controlla”, “Hotline Bling”, and a separate single “Come and See Me” w/ PartyNextDoor.
1. “Take Care aka Rihanna Pt. 1” Papi (2012)
“All my exes live in Texas like I’m George Strait”
Best known for: Popularizing the term “YOLO”, singing bangers like “Take Care”, “HYFR”, “Crew Love” w/ the Weeknd, “Marvin’s Room”, “Look What You’ve Done”, “The Motto”, and explosive hits with superstars like Kendrick Lamar “Poetic Justice”, 2 Chainz “No Lie”, A$AP Rocky “F**kin Problems.”