“Hype” is a track from Drake’s new album that will appeal to listeners who enjoyed the flow and style of his previous singles “Back to Back” and “Summer Sixteen.” In “Hype” Drake is confident, talking himself up, and claiming that “Views already a classic.” This song would be a brilliant song if it weren’t so ironic because in no way whatsoever is “Views,” Drake’s newest studio album, already a classic. In fact, it is Drake’s worst album by far and one of the biggest disappointments of this year.

There was so much excitement surrounding Drake as his new album was set to be released. We’ve been blessed with an array of brilliant rap albums over the past few years from the likes of A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper, Rae Sremmurd, and Kanye West just to name a few, but sadly, Drake’s new album doesn’t qualify as another addition to the list of albums in this flourishing genre of music. Despite all the hype surrounding this album and all the excitement Drake places around his talents as a rapper, this album is slow moving, whiney, and ultimately boring to listen to. The biggest problem is that the album runs way too long and too many of the songs sound the same, causing the listener to nod off in between tracks. It took me multiple attempts to try and listen to this album without falling asleep after a couple of songs because it was so boring to me. I was able to stay awake during the entire run time of “The Revenant” but couldn’t for “Views.” That’s saying something. A couple of the songs here and there are fine, but when a song like “One Dance” is the most exciting track on your album you know you’ve created something exceptionally dull.

The other main issue with this album is the content. A majority of the songs on this album are related to some form of love-life/trust issue struggle that Drake has gone/currently is going through, or is just comprised of general self-loathing and self-pitying on his part in a desperate attempt to get the listener to feel bad for him. While I’m sure Drake goes through some difficult relationship related situations in his life, it is only possible to pity the rich and famous so much. Sometimes it’s intriguing to hear about a musician's struggles and to understand the inner workings of their mind, but there’s a way to do that in which you don’t sound like an emotional teenage girl who just got dumped by her boyfriend of one month whom she just loved so, so much and just knew was the one she was meant to be. One of my favorite bands, The War on Drugs, is able to discuss struggles in their lives in a way that doesn’t annoy the listener, but actually, lets us relate to them and find similarities in our own lives. Even Kanye West, on his song “FML,” acknowledges the pressures and struggles of staying faithful while being famous, but he doesn’t ask for our pity while expressing these themes. Yes, you may have problems Drake, but some of us have the same, if not worse, problems and we don’t have millions of dollars and beautiful women surrounding us to help us forget about these issues.

I think it’s fair to say that I expected more than this from Drake, especially considering how much anticipation he built up before releasing this album, and I think Drake should expect more from himself as well. Drake owes it to his fans and the music community to be better than this. His “mixtapes,” that he made in between working on songs for this album, “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” and “What a Time to be Alive,” are far betting than “Views” has turned out to be. If Drake wants to remain the relevant rap artist that he has become, he needs to produce higher quality albums than this latest work and start rapping more instead of singing. “Views” is a sad tribute to a hometown when compared to J Cole’s “Forest Hills Drive,” and is a dull excuse for music when compared to Chance the Rapper’s “Coloring Book.” During “Tuscan Leather,” a song from a previous album titled “Nothing Was the Same,” Drake claims that “he could go an hour on this beat,” and at that point in time, during that album, I wanted him to. If he were to use that line on a song from “Views,” I would’ve begged him for mercy not to. You can do better, Drake; go back to the drawing board and give us something with the quality that we know you are capable of producing.