BOOM! WITH
THE VIEWS

Michelle Santosuosso

Drake premiered his fourth studio album, the insanely anticipated Views, with a special episode of OVO Sound Radio that aired Thursday night on Apple Music's Beats 1. The exclusive hang was billed as a "global listening party" for the fans. The episode kicked off 45 minutes later than originally scheduled, giving everyone plenty of time to queue up their smartphones.

The new album will be an Apple Music streaming and iTunes sales exclusive for one week before going wide.

Within minutes of going live, the album shot to #1 sales at iTunes. Priced at $13.99, it's bundled as an album only except for single "One Dance" and previous hot seller (and "bonus track") "Hotline Bling."

The debut of the record was preceded by an in-depth hour-long conversation with Zane Lowe, from Toronto. This is significant because Drake offers little access and has been notoriously tight-lipped about his life, outside of the fire biographical bars he drops in his songs.

The rumored $19m Drake partnership with Apple Music was spearheaded by Head of Content Larry Jackson, who manages the OVO relationship overall and worked with Drake managers Future the Prince and Oliver El-Khatib on the rollout of the Views album on the service.

The superstar had unveiled the full, 20-song track listing on social media on Wednesday (4/27), but earlier Thursday joked when revealing the many features on Views, using the fan-created meme-generator to announce participation from Rihanna, Future, the late Pimp C, Jamaican dancehall king Popcaan, and OVO Sound's breakout singers DVSN and PartyNextDoor, along with the previously announced Wizkid, who appears on the Top 10 single "One Dance." He also thanked executive producer Noah "40" Shebib in a heartfelt post.

But the intimate conversation with Lowe focused on his experiences and influences making the record. "The album is based around the change of the season in our city," Drake explained. "It starts around in wintertime, with 'Keep the Family Close.' Winter to summer and back to winter again. It's just to show you the two extreme moods that we have. We love our summers, but we also make our winters work... You start to value your days a lot more when most people won't go outside type of thing... It creates a different person. I thought it was important to make the album here during the winter."

And don't forget the 6 God already has summer on lock, with the seventh annual OVO Fest in his hometown going down 7/29 to 8/1, and, of course, the Summer Sixteen Tour with Future that's set to kick off 7/20 in Austin. The tour is being Presented by Apple Music, the first time they've backed a musical act on the road.

Covering ALL bases, Drake also posted up full album credits a few hours before the broadcast.