On June 17, 2022, Drake surprised everyone with the release of HONESTLY, NEVERMIND. His seventh studio album was released at midnight, just hours after he announced it on Instagram. Within an hour of its release, the album broke the record for most first-day streams of a dance album on Apple Music, according to a press release.
New album caused criticism
With HONESTLY, NEVERMIND, Drake undertook a drastic change in style that heated tempers. The successor to last year’s album CERTIFIED LOVER BOY impresses with its house and dance sound. As a result, were themselves Fans and colleagues disagree in their assessment of the quality of the album. Questlove called the project a “gift”, J. Cole called it “phenomenal” – many fans saw it differently and expressed their displeasure on social media. Due to the mixed reviews, Drizzy finally commented himself:
“It’s all good if you haven’t figured it out yet,” he said. “Everything is good. That’s what we do. That’s what we do, we wait for you to catch up. But we’re in here, we’ve already caught up. On to the next one.”
Just another record
Drake has repeatedly broken records with his music in the past. With his previous album CERTIFIED LOVER BOY, the Toronto rapper hit the same record across genres in 2021. He replaced the previous leader – also an album by Drizzy – SCORPION from 2018. Drake also holds the Apple Music record for top-grossing song by first-day stream worldwide with “Girls Want Girls,” which featured Lil Baby.
Still cuts HONESTLY, NEVERMIND below average compared to other Drake albums. It is expected to hit number 1 on the Billboard charts and start the first week with 210,000 to 230,000 units sold. However, Drake previously sold 613,000 albums with CERTIFIED LOVER BOY and 732,000 with SCORPION in the same period.