“Too busy face-screwin’ on waste movements”: Prior to the 6, one of T.O.’s nicknames was the Screwface Capital, so christened due to the crabs-in-the-bucket mentality among local artists. “Drinkin’ Hypnotiq with Glenn Lewis”: Lewis, a Toronto singer, scored a major hit with 2001’s “Don’t You Forget It.” “Been flowin’ since Vince Carter was on some through-the-legs-and-hoop shit”: Search up the 2000 NBA dunk contest on YouTube and look for the guy in purple. The Raps were fined $25,000 because he broke tampering rules. “Shout out to KD, we relate, we get the same attention”: When Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin “KD” Durrant showed up at OVO Fest in 2014, ambassador Drake said he should join the Raptors as a free agent. “Creepin’ like Chilli without the tender, love and care”: A big TLC junkie, Drake brought the ’90s R&B group out during the 2013 OVO Fest at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre. “You was ridin’ TTC metro, I had the place boomin’”: A shout-out to the Red Rocket melded with a thinly veiled nod to Metro Boomin, who was the executive producer of Drake and Future’s mixtape, What a Time to Be Alive. Drake gets nostalgic for his childhood friend Renny, an early producer.
“Weston Road flows, I did this shit for my nigga Renny”: A throwback to Aubrey’s younger days, growing up on the sketchier west side of town. “Roy outta here like NASA”: Brampton’s Roy Woods, a 20-year-old OVO newbie, is building his buzz. “6 cold like Alaska”: Drake uses a chilly locale that Americans are familiar with in order to properly convey the bitterness of a Toronto winter. And Drizzy made a cameo onstage with Rihanna just two weeks ago. RiRi) filmed a steamy video for the latter’s single “Work” at legendary Jamaican joint The Real Jerk. “You cannot be right here next to me / Don’t you see RiRi right next to me?”: Among other collaborations, Drake and Rihanna (a.k.a. Fun note: The running time of “9” is 4:16. (Yes, we know there’s a 4 in both, too.) Drake flips the city he’d die for on its ass end with this lyric. “I turn the 6 upside down, it’s a 9 now”: The 6 is Drake-speak for Toronto (duh), due to the common numeral in the city’s area codes, 416 and 647. “Kennedy Road taught me not to trust people like you”: The Scarborough roadway, which also got a shout-out on Drake’s 2015 hit “Energy,” is where some of his OVO crew members reside. We listened to Views from the 6to give you track-by-track footnotes on the 20-song opus’ references to our city. For all intents and purposes, the Drake of Views is the same one we got on If You’re Reading This and What a Time, but if his previous proper album ( Nothing Was the Same) foretold anything, it’s that the man peering down from CN Tower sees things differently than the rest of us.Drake climbed to the top of the CN Tower Friday, surveyed our fine metropolis free of EdgeWalk tethers and dropped a musical masterpiece on the world. He isn’t too much for the world, though, ruminating on his position as one of music’s biggest names-and those who’d rather he wasn’t-on songs like “Still Here,” “Hype,” and “Grammys.” Maybe the the most affecting acknowledgment to this end is the fact that “Hotline Bling,” a strong contender for 2015 song of the summer, was such an afterthought by the time Views was released that it appears here as a bonus track. There are references here to specific people (“Redemption”), places (“Weston Road Flows”), and experiences (“Views”), along with nods to the influence of the city’s Caribbean population on “With You,” “Controlla,” and “Too Good” (which just happens to feature Rihanna).
“I made a decision last night that I would die for it,” Drake raps on “9.” “Just to show the city what it takes to be alive for it.” Drake’s presence eclipsed Toronto just about as soon as So Far Gone dropped, but the city-and what it thinks of him-was never far from his mind. Views, which followed two wildly successful projects in 2015 that he’d branded as mixtapes- If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late and the Future collab What a Time to Be Alive-would confirm him as both, his penchant for immaculate songwriting still fully intact and the pressures of existing as the most popular voice in rap, as well as his hometown’s most successful export, weighing heavy on his mind. He looks less like the superhero he’d made himself into over the course of a roughly six-year rise as singer-songwriter extraordinaire and more like a troubled monarch. On the cover of his fourth studio album Views, Drake looks down from atop Toronto’s CN Tower, paying homage to the city’s notoriously frigid winter temperatures in a heavyweight shearling coat and high-cut boots.