Tunes from the 6: The essential Drake playlist

Drake came on the radar in 2007 when he released his single, “Replacement Girl”—a collaboration with Trey Songz. "Replacement Girl" was a smash hit from his mixtape Comeback Season, and signifies a moment in time when listeners had to download mixtapes from blogs. 

Although it wasn’t released as a single, “Show Me a Good Time” was a standout track on Drake’s debut album. He worked with collaborators Kanye West, Jeff Bhasker, and No ID, which was quite a feat for an artist on the rise. 

By the time Drake released his sophomore album Take Care, he became more well known in the music world. However, with newfound success, comes more people ready to hate. He stresses that on his single “Headlines” in which he says, “I might be too strung out on compliments / Overdosed on confidence / Started not to give a f*** and stopped fearing the consequence."

The collaboration between Drake and J. Cole is an interesting one because they rose up in the industry around the same time and always supported each other’s music. If you look hard enough, there’s a video of them going to Best Buy to buy each other’s CDs. They trade verses on the loosie track “Jodeci Freestyle” as somewhat of an ode to the R&B group. 

Rihanna and Drake had already collaborated together on RiRi’s 2010 track, “What’s My Name?” The two decided to team up again on Drake’s 2012 song, “Take Care.” The track is all about the two realizing that people get hurt in past relationships, but Rihanna’s hook wants her lover to know that she’ll always take care of him.

In 2009, Drake released his mixtape, So Far Gone, and in typical Drake fashion, the music discusses relationships, fame, and ego. The mixtape’s first single was the Boi-1da produced track, “Best I Ever Had” in which he stresses that other girls think he sings about them, but there’s only one woman in particular that he really wants to spend forever with. “Best I Ever Had” earned Drake two Grammy nominations, a feat that rarely occurred from the mixtape blog era.

If you’re the type of fan who enjoys Drake when he’s all the way charged up, then “Worst Behavior” should be at the top of your playlist. People may not have always been there for him in the beginning, but he’s talking a big game about how hot he is now and is choosing to stunt.

Early in his career, Drake collaborated quite a bit with Trey Songz. One of their most popular tracks is the 2009 hit, “Successful” in which the two stress how they want fame and fortune. They were told success is, “The money, the cars, the clothes, the hoes,” and they really want to achieve a certain status level. 

Drake is prone to telling stories about past lovers, his single “Hotline Bling” has the rapper reflecting on how an old flame would hit him up for a nightcap. On the hook, he says, “You used to call me on my cell phone / Late night when you need my love.”

Drake is known for making it known that he can rap and sing. It was evident on his second single from Thank Me Later that he wanted to display more of his vocals. He worked with Kanye West and No ID on “Find Your Love,” a track in which Drake tells how he doesn’t always have the best luck with love.

Although Drake was known in the TV world as an actor on Degrassi before his music days, because of that, some people felt he wasn’t like other rappers who struggled before gaining success. Drake fights back at the critics on his single “Started from the Bottom,” in which he raps about how people will make a narrative about one’s life without really knowing what they went through.

In 2018, Drake released his fifth album Scorpion, a double album that had hip-hop tracks on one side and R&B on the other. The album’s first single “God’s Plan” gained a lot of praise for the music video, as Drake was given a million-dollar video budget and is seen giving the money away in charitable acts.

Drake and Future have collaborated several times throughout their careers and in 2015 they released a joint mixtape, What A Time To Be Alive. They dropped the single “Jumpman” which was a top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

After the success of his So Far Gone mixtape, Drake was in a bidding war but ultimately signed a record deal with Lil Wayne’s Young Money label. In 2010, he released his debut album Thank Me Later with the lead single as the Boi-1da produced track, “Over.” 

There’s no way Drake could release a dancehall-inspired album without adding one of his favorite collaborators Rihanna to a track. They teamed up on their fourth collaboration “Too Good,” a song that has the two knowing what they bring to a relationship, but feeling like they get taken for granted at times. 

“Fancy” was the final single released from Drake’s debut album, Thank Me Later. 40 and Swizz Beatz produced the track, in which Drake uses the song to praise the qualities he likes in women. The song earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

2 Chainz and Big Sean were already making names for themselves in the industry, and people typically love a hip-hop all-star collaboration. They joined Drake on his single, “All Me” in which all three boast about their lives and dealing with haters.

In 2011, Drake released his sophomore album Take Care with the 40-produced track “Marvins Room” as the lead single. On the track, Drake tells the story of a drunken night where he’s in his feelings and drunk dials an ex-flame that has moved on. The lyric that always comes to mind is, “I’m just saying you could do better / Tell me have you heard that lately.”

Throughout Drake’s career, he’s become this cultural phenomenon for giving people certain lingo and captions that fans can use in their everyday life. He did just that on his hyphy-inspired single, “The Motto.” If you ever wondered where the term YOLO (you only live once) came from, you can thank Drake for that.

Although Drake mostly sticks to rap songs on his albums, he’s good for feeding fans with a song that’s filled with him solely singing. He does just that on his single “Hold On, We’re Going Home.” The breezy production along with Majid Jordan adding another layer of vocals to complement Drizzy’s tone makes for a great song about being impressed with a lover and seeing their potential.

Whenever Drake makes a song that caters to his female fan base, it’s sure to be a hit. So it was only right when he teamed up with his Young Money labelmate Nicki Minaj on his single, “Make Me Proud.” Not only is he praising women for their beauty and intellect, but he truly wants them to know that he’s proud of them for going after what they want in life.

Drake’s longtime collaborator 40, alongside Boi-1da produced his single, “Miss Me.” While the song is mostly Drizzy rapping, he chooses to sing on the hook about his career causing him to be away from his loved ones. However, once he comes back home, he hopes that he's been missed.

Drake is never afraid to get a little braggadocious in his rhymes and his lines are always deemed as proper captions for fans to use. In his single “Pop Style” he says, “Turn my birthday into a lifestyle.” He knows that people watch his every move, but he’s still going to move how he wants.

Drake’s single “Nice for What” was already a standout among fans due to the New Orleans bounce inspiration and sampling Lauryn Hill’s song, “Ex-Factor.” The song was all about women empowerment so Drake decided to highlight a number of powerful women in the music video including Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross, Rashida Jones, and Misty Copeland.

Keeping up with his dancehall theme on his album Views, Drake released his third single, “Controlla.” The island vibe production marries Drake’s lyrics perfectly as he sings about his commitment to a lover.

Drake’s single “In My Feelings” gained a lot of traction when comedian Shiggy started the #InMyFeelingsChallenge on social media. That in turn helped the song become popular, so much that Drake included Shiggy in the music video.

Since Drake started his career when the music blog era broke records, there has been a number of songs that leaked or were only uploaded to sites like SoundCloud or DatPiff as unofficial releases. In 2019, Drake released his compilation Care Package that featured several of his “loosie” records. One of the tape’s standouts is “The Motion” where Drake stresses about being used by people.

On the Tay Keith-produced single “Nonstop,” Drake talks a big game about being a huge star and what he does behind the scenes in the industry. The song peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

On Drake’s albums, he usually doesn’t feed fans with freestyles, however, one freestyle that stands out is “5 AM in Toronto.” Drake is well aware that his wins and success can sometimes cause unnecessary beef with other folks in the industry, but he stresses that he’s not about PR stunts and is really about making music.

Drake is good for keeping fans enticed with music until he decides to drop an album, he did just that when he dropped his 2015 mixtape, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. One of the tape’s standouts is the charge-up single “Energy.” On the track, he raps about dealing with haters who are always trying to bring him down, but he stays resilient.

Since Drake is one of the biggest artists in the world, he realizes the pitfalls that come with success. On his single “Fake Love,” he realizes that there are some people who only show love to him because he’s rich and famous. On the hook he says, “I’ve been down so long it look up to me / They look up to me / I got fake people showing fake love to me / Straight up to my face.”

Drake’s latest mixtape is Dark Lane Demo Tapes. One of the tape’s standouts is the Giveon-assisted “Chicago Freestyle” in which Drake talks about mistakes he’s made in past relationships.

When Drake dropped his 2017 mixtape More Life, he continued to explore his love for dancehall. It was evident on the tape’s second single “Passionfruit” in which Drake uses the island vibe production to sing about the ups and downs of being in a long-distance relationship.

Drake teamed up with Travis Scott and Quavo on the Murda Beatz-produced track, “Portland.” The three rappers trade verses about their successful careers and carving lanes that others seek to duplicate.

When Drake released his fourth album Views in 2016, it was evident how he wanted to change the direction of his sound with inspiration from dancehall and reggae. His first single to showcase those genres was the catchy track, “One Dance.” The tropical jam was perfect for parties and Billboard named it the 2016 Song of the Summer.