Drake committed to Views From the 6 world-building early on, across multiple platforms. His perpetually forthcoming fourth studio album has become more of an ongoing perspective than a prospective project, expanding into brand propaganda for the OVO boss’s alternate Toronto in its extended lifespan.
VIEWS was first announced in August 2014,an era that now seems so distant in the context of Drake news. There was a “retail mixtape,” an Apple Music deal, ghostwriting allegations, several diss songs, a second “retail mixtape” with Future, “Hotline Bling” mania, Adele mania derailing “Hotline Bling” mania and keeping Drake from his first No. 1 song, and finally, Drake getting a No. 1 as Rihanna’s lapdog.
It’s been hard to keep track of every tease, every track, every tweet that’s happened between then and now, especially since it has evolved from an album rollout into a full-fledged belief system of Drake-isms. And so, this is a comprehensive VIEWS timeline, documenting all of the little moments that led us to the album’s release later this week. (Note: We originally published this timeline in March and have since updated it to reflect all changes, up to the April 28th release of VIEWS, the album formerly known as Views From the 6.)
2014
06-01-14: Drake hints that his new album will arrive the following spring on new songs “0 to 100 / The Catch Up”: “We already have Spring 2015 poppin’ / PND droppin’ … not to mention, me droppin’.”
07-15-14:Billboard reveals Drake’s fourth studio album will be called Views From the 6. “The 6” is apparently a nickname for Toronto, coined by rapper Jimmy Johnson.
08-06-14: Drake explains the album title after some confusion surrounding Rihanna at OVO Fest.
08-24-14: A track titled “Views From the 6” leaks, with lyrics seemingly about Rihanna.
10-25-14: Drake releases three new songs, “How Bout Now,”“Heat of the Moment,” and “6 God,”which — one would have assumed at the time — were linked to Views. However, two of the songs, “How Bout Now” and “6 God,” end up on If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. The third, “Heat of the Moment,” is still unaccounted for.
2015
01-27-15: Canadian rapper and OVO affiliate P. Reign claims he’s heard a Drake mixtape.
02-12-15: Drake postpones all things Views From the 6 in favor of an online surprise release for said mixtape, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. The mixtape continues Drake’s ongoing Toronto rebrand with songs like “6 God,” “6 Man,” and “You & the 6,” plus the “Know Yourself” tagline, “I was running through the 6 with my woes.” All serve as free Views advertising.
04-16-15: In a profile for the (now defunct) fashion blog Four Pins, Drake reveals that he only has two songs finished for Views that he likes: “a collaboration with Beyoncé that he recorded a while ago” and “a song that he expects to inspire a paradigm shift.”
05-21-15: A song with Beyoncé, “Can I,” (perhaps the one teased above) leaks online.
07-25-15: Drake releases “Charged Up” on his OVO Sound Radio show in response to Meek Mill’s ghostwriting allegations. The show also premieres “Hotline Bling,” then tagged “Cha Cha” Remix.
7-29-15: Drake follows with “Back to Back,” his second diss in five days, which acknowledges the beef as a digression from Views, closing: “I just took a break from Views, now it’s back to that.”
09-20-15: OVO Sound Radio premieres Drake’s collaboration with Future, What A Time to Be Alive.
09-24-15: In hisFADERcover story, Drake says that longtime producer Noah “40” Shebib has been as hands-on with Views as he was for projects like So Far Gone and Take Care: “We’ve grown a lot over the years. He used to be the guy who would track me in hotel rooms at 4 am. And now he is not that guy – I have another guy who does that ... If I want to make the album I want to make, I have to go find him. I have to go sit with him, and we have to really put in effort.” They decamped to — but of course — the 6, where the sounds of the city were said in this piece to have inspired them.
09-25-15: In a complementary profile of OVO co-founders Oliver El-Khatib and Noah “40” Shebib, El-Khatib tells FADER that Views will be a return to their formula: “We’re just really getting back to basics and not giving ourselves any sense of deadline. Just letting it happen naturally. That’s how we’ve always done it. When it’s done, it’s done. If we love it, we love it.”
10-03-15: “Can I,” featuring Beyoncé, is released in full with some minor changes. No word on placement.
10-11-15: According to Spin, during his headlining set at Austin City Limits, Drake announces that he intends to “spend the rest of 2015 in the studio finishing the recording of his even longer-awaited upcoming LP Views From the 6.”
11-04-15: A “the 6 is watching” billboard goes up in Toronto.
11-11-15: An unauthorized trailer for Views makes the rounds on Twitter, fueling rumors that the album may now be released in January.
11-19-15: Drake teases an unreleased song on Vine, which may be a preview of Views.
11-23-15: In an interview with Vulture, Timbaland implies he might be on the album:
Are you on Drake’s Views From the 6?
I could be.
That sounds like a yes to me?
I don’t know, who knows. [Laughs.] Ask him, he might tell you.
This would at the very least suggest he’s recently recorded music with Drake.
12-09-15: Drake posts a photo of himself in the studio with PARTYNEXTDOOR, which could produce music on the album. (It could also merely be a shot of the session that spawned the recently released PARTYNEXTDOOR song “Come and See Me.”)
12-31-15: Drake announces that Views From the 6 will be out “very soon” at a New Year’s Eve party in Miami, further feeding speculation that it will drop in January.
2016
01-06-16: Drake plays ping pong during a “studio break.”
01-08-16: Noah “40” Shebib vaguely teases the existence of Views.
01-11-16: Drake posts another photo of himself in the studio.
01-14-16: In an interview with Noisey, producer Boi-1da remained tight-lipped about the project saying, “I’m definitely looking forward to everybody hearing Views From the 6. Can't really say anything about it but just be on the lookout.”
01-21-16: Drake posts another photo of himself in the studio with Noah “40” Shebib.
01-30-16: Drake premieres the single “Summer Sixteen” on his Beats 1 OVO Sound Radio Show, and Views From the 6 officially gets an April release date.
02-04-16: In an interview with Cypress Hill’s B-Real, Noah “40” Shebib talks about the importance of recording in both Toronto and Los Angeles for Views: “We’re getting very, very close, and the time will come when Drake is ready to pull the trigger. The thing is, with us, is a balance of finding that space to make such a project that’s based around our city and also coming out to the west coast to sort of escape some of the harsh winter and find a good creative space. It has to be a balance of both those locations for what it’s supposed to be, for the type of album we’re making.”
02-09-16: Another billboard teasingViews goes up in Toronto.
02-10-16: Drake makes a mini-trailer of the billboard soundtracked by “R.I.C.O.,” the Meek Mill song that started the fracas between the two rappers.
02-11-16: Even moreViews billboards go up.
02-18-16: In an interview with the New York Times, Noah “40” Shebib opened up about the release before a session, discussing their process: “I just make 50 ideas in one day. As soon as one of those ideas gets his attention, we start heading that way.” Shebib also suggests Drake was looking to release a more straightforward rap album post-Nothing Was the Same (“He wanted to do what all of the other rappers get to do”), before finally setting expectations: “It’s going to be what everybody expects and wants from Drake and from us. A lot of introspection, very vivid. He’s discovering new flows, new cadences, new patterns.”
That same day, Kanye West tweets that he Drake and Future will be releasing new music together soon.
02-24-16: Drake claims he’s signed to JME and Skepta’s Boy Better Know label. There’s no indication whether the signing is official or if either of the English grime emcees will end up on Views, but if Drake is signed, it might suggest some kind of working relationship, and it could produce album collaborations, as in the reverse case with OVO’s PARTYNEXTDOOR and Majid Jordan.
03-02-16: Drake indicates Views is in the final stages, with an Instagram of 40 buying OVO tent supplies, and another of a cart filled with hard drives, both captioned “Home Stretch.”
(For context: Majid Jordan told Hot 97 about living in-studio when working with on Drake’s last album, saying: “We got back to Toronto and they were just starting the beginnings of Nothing Was the Same, in 2013. They basically put us in a studio, and it was like a studio camp, there were tents in there. Make beats. Stay in the dungeon. You can not leave. You can not tell anybody you’re working on the project. I slept in a tent in the studio.” It would appear 40 is preparing the Views collaborators for a similar live-in grind.)
03-16-16: An Instagram of the “VIEWS” billboard confirms the most recent Views From the 6 release date, with a caption that simply reads “APRIL.”
03-16-16: Drake teases his Virginia Black Whiskey with the leading tagline, "After that legendary moment, what else is there to do but celebrate with class."
03-20-16: Drake performs at the OVO Sound label showcase at SXSW. He announces plans for a tour after the album's release, adding, "Views From the 6 coming in I don't know how many weeks, so I hope y'all enjoy that shit."
03-29-16: The 6 God teams with Barf Troop's Babeo Baggins to cover Jackson Browne/Nico's "These Days." However confounding, it will not be on Views From the 6.
04-05-16: Drake releases two new songs: "Pop Style" (featuring Kanye West and Jay Z as "The Throne") and "One Dance" (featuring Wizkid and Kyla).
04-06-16: The Filip Pagowski-designed "Summer Sixteen" single art is projected onto the side of London's Royal Opera House, prompting questions about Views' album artwork. Turns out the projections are just a reminder that the album is coming at the end of April.
04-09-16: Drake announces on OVO Sound Radio that Views From the 6 comes out April 29 as an Apple Music exclusive. He also premieres an unreleased version of "Pop Style" without the Throne that includes a new Drake verse. Later that night, he releases the album trailer.
4/29/16 #VIEWSpic.twitter.com/kHa2rerRyV
— Drizzy (@Drake) April 10, 2016
04-10-16: It's revealed that Suicideyear's "Over" was used for the trailer without his knowledge. He still says it's "raw."
04-14-16: Drake performs his new song "One Dance" live for the first time while on stage with Rihanna.
04-18-16: Drake holds the firstViews pop-up shop in Manhattan. He then had ones in Miami, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, and, of course, Toronto.
04-22-16: Drake's bi-weekly Beats 1 program OVO Sound Radio gets mysteriously postponed, fueling speculation he's premiering Views on the show.
04-24-16: The Viewsalbum art is finally revealed.
To the city I love and the people in it...Thank you for everything #VIEWSpic.twitter.com/HEXHNwrWwd
— Drizzy (@Drake) April 25, 2016
04-25-16: In a flurry of activity, Drake announces both the OVO Fest lineup and a tour with Future. It's also announced that OVO Sound Radio has been rescheduled for Thursday, April 28. Zane Lowe will interview Drake on the program. It is highly likely he will debut the album.
04-25-16: The Views album art features Drake atop Toronto's CN Tower. Proportionally, it would make his legs incredibly long with how far they come off the 1,800-foot building. The folks behind the CN Tower ensured that the art is Photoshopped because Drake not, like, 11 feet tall.
04-26-16: "One Dance" becomes Drake's first No. 1 song in his native Canada.
04-27-16: Drake finally reveals theViews From the 6 tracklist. There are no confirmed features, but it includes "One Dance," "Pop Style" (which may have Kanye West and Jay Z on it), and the leaked song "Controlla" (possibly with Popcaan). Of his 2015 singles, only "Hotline Bling" made the final cut as a bonus track. Noticeably absent is "Summer Sixteen," the song Drake played six times on OVO Sound Radio back in January to announce Views' April arrival. It's also the title of his upcoming tour with Future.
04-28-16: It's confirmed that Drake's album is no longer Views From the 6, but simply VIEWS. The production credits are also revealed. The album features work from Kanye West, Noah "40" Shebib, Boi-1da, Nineteen85, and more. Drake also uses his own meme generator to tease the album guests, including Future, Rihanna, dvsn, and Pimp C.
04-28-16: The exclusive Zane Lowe interview gets pushed back to 10:45, with the livestream of the album to follow. By 11 p.m., however, VIEWS drops on iTunes.