Drake is a rapper known for his expansive rollouts. And yet, one of his most important releases came out of nowhere.
On February 12, 2015, Drake dropped his surprise mixtape aptly titled If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. The tape, which was released during the weekend of the NBA All-Star Game in New York that year, was an instant sensation.
At the time, it felt like you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing songs like “Energy,” “10 Bands,” and “Know Yourself.” The mixtape featured more aggression from Drake, with moody yet club-ready soundscapes and a meaner persona being presented. In many ways, it expanded on the “mob boss Drake” image we first glimpsed on Rick Ross’ classic posse cut “Stay Schemin’.” As a result, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late—or IYRTITL for short—became the perfect soundtrack for the outside world: an album made for dominating parties and functions.
At its core, IYRTITL—which was largely recorded in hotel rooms while on the road for Would You Like A Tour—was a love letter to Drake’s native Toronto. For those of us who had never been to the city, the album’s sounds gave us a vivid sense of what it felt like to be there during the cold months. Ten years later, it’s important to acknowledge the project’s impact, but also essential to note how IYRTITL marked the point when Drake’s paranoia intensified. In 2015, he was clearly the No. 1 figure in rap, fully aware of potential rivals who would be on his neck.
“Energy” now feels like a warning shot to himself about being at the top. And some of those fears would soon manifest. A couple of months after the album was released, Meek Mill called him out for using ghostwriters on IYRTITL. (The beef was largely sparked by Drake’s lack of support for Meek’s new album at the time.) Drake would, of course, extinguish the rapper with back-to-back response tracks, which remain his most triumphant moment in a rap beef. If you’re reading this, you probably know how his future beefs with Pusha-T and Kendrick Lamar played out.
IYRTITL was both a mid-career triumph and the beginning of a rocky path ahead. Looking back, there are some things folks may not remember that are essential to the album’s story as well as things that have been given new context as the project has aged. Here are 13 things you didn’t know about Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.
Drake never intended the project to be viewed as a proper album
When you listen now, one could argue If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late sounds like one of the more cohesive Drake albums, but it was never intended to be viewed as such. In a September 2015 cover story with The Fader, Drake was complimented by the interviewer who told him “the tape sounded as cohesive…as any ‘real’ album” that year. Drake thanked him, but disagreed. “By the standard I hold myself and [Noah ‘40’ Shebib], to, it’s a bit broken,” he said. “There’s corners cut, in the sense of fluidity and song transition, and just things that we spend weeks and months on that make our albums what they are.”
Though it was a mixtape, it counted as his fourth Cash Money album
As stated above, Drizzy labeled the album, artistically, as a mixtape. However, from a more technical label release standpoint, it was released as his fourth official album under Birdman’s Cash Money Records. This move was surrounded by much controversy and hypothesizing. At the time, Page Six reported that Drake was eyeing a split with Cash Money citing sources who claimed he released the mixtape as an album under the label so his next project (at the time called Views From The 6) would be his final album under Cash Money.
Earlier that year, Lil Wayne also sued Cash Money for $51 million claiming they withheld revenue from him, which included Drake royalties. Many people thought Drake was hinting at his own distaste with Cash Money on IYRTITL especially with lyrics like, “Envelopes coming in the mail/Hoping for a check again/Ain’t no telling” on “No Tellin.”
Drake’s team also uploaded IYRTITL to SoundCloud on the official OVO page for free at first before it was taken down minutes later. This, of course, indicates that the 6 God may have been trying to take money away from the label via streaming. It’s important to note that whatever tension there may have allegedly been must’ve been resolved because Drake released four more albums post IYRTITL under the Cash Money imprint.
The album was recorded and released as a response to Views-era songs leaking early
“That album was just kind of like, “[Some songs from] Views got leaked. What the fuck are we gonna do? Drop a tape? That was supposed to be Views, but it wasn’t, at the same time,” assistant engineer on IYRTITL Evan Stewart told Complex about the impetus for, and execution of, the mixtape. “It was completely different and organic compared to a lot of his other stuff, and it’s a lot harder. It was his first rap mixtape sort of thing with [only] two songs on it that are kind of sing-song. It was thrown together in three months—a last-minute decision.”
While the three months of it all was reported in the cover story by The Fader, the late 2014 leaks being the reason IYRTITL dropped, is new information. What especially goes against the common narrative, is that the leaks were actually supposed to be on the Views album. We can deduce that this includes songs like “How Bout Now” and “Heat of the Moment,” which would eventually land on Care Package, and “6 God” which would land on IYRTITL, due to the three-song drop to dissuade hackers Drake initiated in October 2014.
These leaks, however, not only shifted the trajectories of these songs, but also others that weren’t leaked. The sentimental “You and the 6,” which features a rapped monologue where Drake explains his mindset to his mother, was also originally supposed to be the Views opening track according to Stewart. Yet, it ultimately ended up on IYRTITL. What a different Views tone setter that would’ve been.
On the night the tape was released, Drake released an fascinating handwritten note of thank yous
Interestingly, after J. Cole rattled off a boundless list of thank yous as the outro to 2014 Forest Hills Drive just a few months before IYRTITL, Drake did his own version in the form of a long handwritten note. What’s significant about Drake’s as opposed to Cole’s is none of it seems to be a joke exactly, but the thank yous are incredibly expansive. Of course, he mentions his immediate team and affiliated teams for other artists. But he also goes left with it and includes the entirety of the Toronto Raptors roster, women who took him to see Theo Huxtable read poetry in Baltimore, thirsty women or “cyatties” of the world, his favorite East End shisha spot, and maybe most importantly himself.
Quentin Miller worked on the project at The Hazelton Hotel
A common practice for major artists is flying out writers and housing them while working on an album. Not only would Drake himself record tracks for IYRTITL at The Hazelton in Toronto, but he also set up Atlanta rapper Quentin Miller to record, according to Stewart. The engineer claims that Miller, in a three week period, recorded every single reference he did for IYRTITL in that hotel room. This includes the ones we’ve already heard like “10 Bands,” “Know Yourself,” and “Used To,” but also ones we haven’t like “No Tellin.”
“We were sitting in the telly so Quentin said, ‘She invited me to the telly, keep the blade with me,’ Stewart proclaims about the writing process. “Quentin was just like, ‘You mean, I can get room service right now.’ So we were ordering up room service and he was coming up with some bars about the telly. Telly is just like a hotel room. We call escorts ‘telly girls.’ A lot of the word play and stuff, Drake will take something and be like, “Ooh, that part is good, but could use this.” Then he just goes in with his cadence and just destroys it.”
Steward continues, “You listen to a reference track and then you listen to what Drake does, and usually nine times out of ten, it’s completely different. And if it’s not, that reference track is one that came back for a second round.” It’s important to note that Miller is officially credited as a writer on that track as well as all the others that have leaked references.
“Know Yourself” was inspired by Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow”
“I always used to be so envious, man, that Wiz Khalifa had that song ‘Black and Yellow,’ and it was just a song about Pittsburgh,” Drake said in his The Fader cover story. “Like, the world was singing a song about Pittsburgh! And I was just so baffled, as a songwriter, at how you stumbled upon a hit record about Pittsburgh. Like, your city must be elated! They must be so proud. And I told myself, over the duration of my career, I would definitely have a song that strictly belonged to Toronto but that the world embraced. So, ‘Know Yourself’ was a big thing off my checklist.”
The whole Toronto anthem part of “Know Yourself” took a bit of a left turn once Quentin Miller, who is from Zone 6 in Atlanta, was revealed as a writer on the track. Naturally, we had to ask Stewart about it, and he replied, “That’s the thing about double entendres. You never know, right? My response to that will be, no one in Toronto said ‘Woes’ before that.”
“Company” had some crazy last minute changes
“The final sessions are the core of what I remember,” Stewart said. “The last two, three weeks of it we just camped in the studio. Drake had a bed. He would leave, maybe every other day. I had a blow up mattress in Studio C and I think I got like 15 hours of sleep in two and a half weeks.”
Stewart described himself as Noah “40” Shebib’s right-hand man during this time. Some of their work together was a glorious whirlwind. In particular, the making of the Travis Scott-assisted “Company,” which had some last-minute changes, stands out as one of the more chaotic moments.
“Company” into “6 Man” has an interesting story from then,” Stewart recalled. “Which actually [ended with me] recording and engineering “6 Man.” According to Stewart, Travis Scott sent in his vocals for “Company” the day before the surprise release, over a brand new beat that was different from the one Drake recorded over. This sent 40 into a tizzy because he was already overworked from the last minute session. “He just got up and was like, “I don’t got time for this shit,” Stewart remembers about 40’s reaction. “I haven’t slept in three fucking days. I thought I had to do a vocal fucking mix. Now I gotta mix a whole new song.”
Stewart tried to assist, but they ended up just sending it to recording engineer Noel “Gadget” Cadastre to finesse a new mix, combining the two sections. In the midst of all this hoopla, though, Drake got an idea for a new song, which would eventually become “6 Man.” “[Initially], the beat for that was an entirely different beat Boi-1da made. But none of the mixes sent back and forth [initially sounded] good at all. So 40 was like, “I got this one beat. Let me try something,” Stewart said. “He throws it on, and it’s by Daxz, (who would also eventually produce “Back to Back.”) All of us were just like, ‘Oh, what? This song’s good now.’ Then 40 chopped it up and made it nice and said, ‘I think I just changed this kid’s life.’”
The two PARTYNEXTDOOR songs, “Preach” and “Wednesday Night Interlude,” were supposed to be just one track
Stewart revealed to Complex that tracks nine and 10, both featuring PARTYNEXTDOOR, were submitted as one song. However, for some reason, the people at Apple Music decided to split them into two. That’s all the explanation that was given. How did they come up with the two titles? Who knows? It could be that Drake was going for a sort of “Cameras/Good Ones Go” part two type of thing and the Apple team didn’t know how to process it.
The “666” sound introduced on the tape was recorded by a Toronto rapper
“So… the 66666 thing, that’s not a sample.” Stewart said about the iconic sound that’s all over multiple Drake records and is constantly dropped on OVO Sound Radio. “Jelleestone, he was like the biggest rapper to make it from Toronto back in the ‘90s, we got him to do it because he’s got a really big, deep voice. I drove to go pick him up and brought him in. He went, ‘123456789—it’s the 10 crack commandments.’ So I recorded that. I guess I’m on a lot of different records because of that too.”
IYRTITL also the beginning of Drake’s West Indian Toronto slang making its way to the music
“Ting, touching road, talkin’ boasy and gwanin’ wassy” were just some of the West Indian phrases Drake inserted into IYRTITL. It was the first time he’d ever spoken in the accent on wax. “We use [that lingo] every day,” he said in his The Fader cover story in 2015. “But it just took me some time to build up the confidence to figure out how to incorporate it into songs. And I’m really happy that I did. I think it’s important for the city to feel like they have a real presence out there.”
Some have critiqued his patois over the years, and it was part of Kendrick Lamar’s vicious diss on “Euphoria” (“ain’t no accent you can sell me.”) Perhaps Drake’s sudden affiliation with Popcaan and his unruly crew around that time also contributed to the introduction of the lingo. But one thing’s for sure, IYRTITL was just a beginning spark for something he’d double down on even further, especially on upcoming projects like Views and More Life.
DJ Drama was originally supposed to host the tape. Drake eventually would blame him for the situation with Meek Mill
At the time of release, an associate of the mixtape site Datpiff revealed to HipHopDX that IYRTITL was originally supposed to be hosted by mixtape legend DJ Drama. However, allegedly, Cash Money pulled the plug on the collaboration opting for a more retail focused route.
This back and forth is especially interesting given the amount of blame Drake spewed at Drama about his beef with Meek Mill during an interview with DJ Semtex in 2017. Drake essentially said that Drama ignited the beef due to grudges held from the time the DJ managed Quentin Miller.
Having writers work with Drake was a core part of the process for OVO at the time
“So the whole ‘ghostwriting’ thing… One thing about it all is they kind of take a different approach to rap music,” Stewart, who still calls Drake “The Boy,” explained about the OVO team’s process during IYRTITL and in general. “It’s not your typical, just sit there and bars, bars, bars. It’s a pop music approach when it comes to making rap music. Like, they’re looking for the best songs, the best lyrics, the best beats, and they’re trying to make the best song they possibly can with what they get. That’s their outlook on it. And it works for them, because they beat Michael [Jackson] and Quincy [Jones] now, right?”
While this may not be the biggest reveal in the world, it is quite intriguing hearing someone from the inside outline the process so clearly. Towards the end of our conversation, Stewart played what he described as unreleased OB O’Brien tracks that Miller helped with, in addition to an unreleased Miller song that Steward claims was written for Drake. “They tryna JFK me, man that shit is crazy” is one of the lyrics on the track that’s titled “Hazelton.”
This song would have fit right in with the mixtape aesthetic and allegedly there are others like it that have never been released, and probably never will be. After playing “Hazelton,” Stewart said, “You can tell that he was writing as The Boy there.”
View news Source: https://www.complex.com/music/a/m-hellerbach/drake-if-youre-reading-this-its-too-late-facts
