Here’s a new Drake album – except not really. The OVO Sound rapper has delivered ‘Care Package’, a compilation of stray songs and unreleased tracks from over the course of his career.
Drizzy announced the release and its tracklist late on Instagram on Thursday (August 1), revealing that it would arrive Friday (August 2) on “all platforms”. “Some of our most important moments together available in one place,” he wrote. See the post below:
Hardcore Drizzy fans will not be unfamiliar with this tracklist of deep cuts, which till today have been available mostly as MP3 downloads, unofficial YouTube videos and unauthorised SoundCloud uploads. The Jai Paul-sampling opener ‘Dreams Money Can Buy’ and ‘Club Paradise’ were released via the OVO Sound website in 2011 ahead of the release of ‘Take Care’.
‘Girls Love Beyoncé’, ‘5am in Toronto’ and ‘Jodeci Freestyle’ were released in 2013. The last track became the subject of blowback from autism advocates at the time over one of J. Cole‘s bars: “I’m artistic, you n****s is autistic, retarded.” Both rappers later apologised and removed the line from the track. Stream the full project here:
‘Care Package’ shows Drake’s continuing interest in releasing more of his pre-streaming catalogue to digital platforms. Earlier this year, he officially released his third mixtape, ‘So Far Gone’, to streaming services on the project’s 10th anniversary. He notably thanked Kanye West when announcing the re-release of the mixtape, which features the Ye-sampling track ‘Say What’s Real’.