The boy did it again.
Drake sold 500,000+ copies of his newest release in the first week and landed at number one on the Billboard charts. It also broke a few Spotify records. That is an incredible achievement for a mixtape of throwaway tracks, probably left over from the Nothing Was The Same run.
No surprises there, Drake is the biggest rapper in the world right now and has a cross-market appeal that few hip-hop personalities have achieved in the music industry. Not only that but he makes incredible music.
Drake is well on his way to becoming a hiphop great. It’s hard for him to miss, even when it’s not his own track he shines on the hook and usually steals the show for any guest verse he appears on. Aubrey creates new sounds and builds and expands on already existing ones (Migos flow).
There is only one thing preventing Drake from snatching the throne from Kanye and Jay-Z. He is yet to create that cohesive legendary album, which is something Kendrick Lamar has over on him.
Both Take Care and Nothing Was The Same were great albums but from a project point of view it was not a ‘classic’ as the hiphop world describes it. It had a lot of standout tracks yet lacked the cohesion and full sound of a MBDTF or GKMC.
In my eyes a legendary album plays like a movie, you are enthralled from beginning to end, not skipping tracks or yearning for a certain song. And just like a movie a great album paces, builds suspense and leaves you with something to think about the next day. Of course you will have favorite parts of a movie but at the end of the day you always prefer to watch the whole thing.
Drake understands this and is working on perfecting his craft to deliver such an album. He is his own critic and dished out his unhappiness with the quality of his first album Thank Me Later. Judging by what I’ve heard so far this past year, Views From The 6 might catapult Drake to that legendary status he so eagerly craves.
The makings of a great story
The greatest albums, movies and novels all share one thing in common: a phenomenal story. Whether it’s the mindset of a person going through something at a particular point in their lives or whether they are telling the story about someone else, the greatest works of art often contain the best stories.
Similarly, the most successful companies and the most innovative products also possess a common thread of a great story line.
Kevin Systrom had the initial idea for Instagram during his junior year abroad in Florence. He was taking a photography class and his professor urged him to swap out his professional DSLR for a Holga, a cheap camera first made popular in China.
Although initially skeptical he grew to love the low-fi, retro-fit images that the Holga produced and he later utilized that initial fascination as the genesis for Instagram filters. That whole process spanned about five years but it adds to the story of a very innovative product.
Time is on your side
What’s your story? How will we talk about your product or company in the future? Where does it come from and what is the inspiration?
These are all questions that must be answered if you hope to achieve success running a startup.
The good thing is that time is on your side. In the tech world right now we have a certain ageism factor that over-pressures us to achieve success at a young age. Those “Top 30 Under 30" articles only make us feel even more anxious that we haven’t achieved the success of others that are much younger.
On the other hand, a legendary story does not happen overnight. Forget the tech blogs. A great story takes time, careful consideration and strength.
Your story is still being written today. Analyze it. Hone it. Perfect it. And make sure it’s concrete when it’s your time to tell it. And most important of all, keep grinding.
