The surprise collaboration between October’s very own, Drake, and Freebandz founder, Future Hendricks, dropped “What a Time to be Alive” on Sunday night under Cash Money Records recording label. “What a time to be Alive,” the LP, was produced by Metro Boomin and mixed by Gadget & Noah “40” Shebib. The album has 11 songs and no features.
Drake announced the collaboration on Instagram by posting a picture of the diamond-encrusted album cover, a stock image purchased via Shuttershock, as well as a picture mashing-up the OVO Sound logo and Future’s Freebandz emblem, an obvious artistic illustration of the combination of the two talents and musical styles.
Drake and Future seemed to be quite the unlikely pair for a whole project together, but the results couldn’t have been any more epic. Most people received a taste of the two together on Dirty Sprite 2 in Future’s hit song “Where Ya At,” featuring Drake.
The two are practically polar opposites. Future’s hazy-codeine based rap style to Drake’s clearly worded, poetic and often-egotistical rap style doesn’t seem like a match made in heaven upon first glance, but we were mistaken.
The duo had their best match up when they seemed to swap personalities and impersonate each other’s style in “Diamonds Dancing” and “Scholarships” on “What a Time.” They met in the middle generally sticking to the topic of showcasing how far they’ve come and how they’ve enjoyed their new-found wealth.
The dynamic duo mimic a yin and yang balance and, in turn, the collaboration was praised by #Futurehive on Twitter and Drake fans worldwide.
Drake owes a big thanks to Meek Mill for some of the hype surrounding his already popular name after the explosive tweets Mill directed at Drake.
Meek Mill tweeted: “Stop comparing drake to me too…. He don’t write his own raps! That’s why he ain’t tweet my album because we found out!”.
Mill’s bold remarks suggesting that Drake used a ghostwriter for his lyrics caused Drake to react with not a tweet, but multiple singles dissing Meek Mill in response. The series of events that took place between the two rappers only brought more hype to Drizzy’s name.
Drake’s new singles and songs on “What a Time” make it clear that Drake did not use a ghostwriter. Mill hoped this allegation would lead to Mr. OVO’s downfall, but Drake assures it only made him stronger.
Meanwhile, Future is quite sensational, as of late, after the success of his third album “Dirty Sprite 2 (DS2),” which was released on iTunes July 17. DS2 was No. 1 album on Billboard’s 200 charts. Future’s album sold 147,000 copies, doubling the 53,000 copies he sold of his sophomore album “Honest.” What a Time’s predicted album sales show early estimates of an outstanding 500,000 units.
In regards to Future’s obsession with lean, codeine and actavis cough syrup he clearly paints the purple-dipped sky that Future is aiming for and in the process of taking over. If Future continues to make power moves with big names like: Drake, Kanye and Lil Wayne, this surely will not be the last time Future sees No.1 on Billboards Top 200 chart.
