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Drake · S7 E5
The Playlist
'More Life' is not an album, it's a 'playlist.' Drake blurs the line between project and content
March 2017. Drake drops 22 tracks and refuses to call them an album, because what do you call a record that sounds like it was made in five countries at once?
Skepta, Shutdown (2015). This is the UK grime scene Drake fell in love with. When Drake wore Skepta's Boy Better Know chain on stage, he wasn't just showing love, he was declaring allegiance to a sound that would reshape his music. "Shutdown" brought grime to a global audience, and Drake was watching from across the Atlantic, already planning what came next.
Shutdown, Skepta (2015)
"Shutdown" is Skepta at his most commanding: a stripped-back grime instrumental with nothing but sub-bass, clipped snares, and his voice filling every corner. The production refuses to compromise for an international audience, keeping the BPM, the flow patterns, and the London slang exactly as grime intended. Listen for how the beat breaks down to almost nothing during the hook, letting the energy of Skepta's delivery do all the work. This is the sound Drake heard and thought: I want to live inside this.
Drake's London Phase
Between 2015 and 2017, Drake was in London constantly. He showed up at Section Boyz shows, linked with Giggs, wore the BBK chain, and started folding UK slang into his music and interviews. More Life is the product of those years: "KMT" features Giggs, "Skepta Interlude" hands the mic to the grime MC entirely, and "No Long Talk" borrows the clipped, aggressive energy of UK rap before most American listeners had even heard the term.
“I finally have taken a deep breath, exhaled, let all that pressure go, and now I just want to make music that I'll want to live with forever.”
— Drake, Cal Cast podcast with John Calipari, January 2017
TAP TO REVEAL: How many countries did Drake record More Life in?
Finsbury Park, London
Home of the Wireless Festival, which Drake headlined in July 2015. It was here that the Drake/Skepta alliance went public, with Drake wearing the BBK chain on stage and introducing grime to his massive international audience.
Do Not Disturb, Drake (2017)
The closing track on More Life and one of Drake's best. "Do Not Disturb" is six minutes of quiet reckoning: Drake alone at the end of a 22-track world tour of genres, stripping everything back to just his voice and 40's minimal production. He talks about stepping away, about the people who fell off along the way, about what it costs to keep building at this scale. If More Life is Drake as global curator, "Do Not Disturb" is the moment he closes the door and sits with himself.
Do Not Disturb, Drake (2017)
Read the lyrics while you listen. "I haven't had a break in a long time, my last one was in oh-nine." Drake calculating the toll of eight years of nonstop output, and wondering if the machine he built can survive without him.
More Life: The Numbers
Which South African DJ collaborated with Drake and Jorja Smith on More Life's "Get It Together"?
More Life has everything, but one track rises above the rest as Drake's most effortless pop moment. Next: 'Passionfruit,' and the London producer who built the most infectious four chords of 2017.
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