On Oct. 6, at 6 a.m. EDT, Canadian rapper, Drake, released his 8th Studio Album, For All the Dogs, and was met with a tremendous amount of support, uncommon for the “8th greatest rapper of all time”, according to iHeart Radio.
A day after its release, For All the Dogs became the seventh biggest album debut in Spotify history, just behind Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (TV). A few days later, the album hit 514 million streams and Drake tied with “King of Pop” Michael Jackson as the male soloist with the most No. 1 hits in Hot 100 history, with 13 hits each. Praise for his new album did not stop there, however. Whether it be the New York Times asking readers if the album was really meant for dogs, diving into research about dog behavior by experts or the Billboard summarizing Drake’s responses to backlash against his album, Drake broke the news media as well as music charts. By the third week of his new release, on Oct 21, Drake jumped from No. 8 to No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart and predominated for 38 weeks.
There is no doubt that Drake’s so-called “lyrical genius” was behind these recognitions, but a surprise element present in the album served to make it even more important for Drake and his fans. Before his release on Oct. 6, Drake surprised fans with a music video of his 17th track on the album, “8am in Charlotte”, which featured his six-year-old son, Adonis Graham. Serving as a launching pad for Adonis’s music career, the album featured the young rapper once again in its fifth track, “Daylight”, which gave fans a sneak peek of Adonis’s upcoming release.
Surely enough, on Oct. 15, For All the Dogs was accompanied by My Man Freestyle, Adonis’s debut release. While not receiving the same recognition as his father’s album, it served as buildup for his rising music career.
Today, a month after his release, Drake is No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 with his seventh track on the album, featuring Yeat, “IDGAF”, with streams still on the rise.
