It feels like it was well over a year ago when Drake left us with the following words at the 2016 American Music Awards: “More Life is coming soon and more chune for your head top, so watch how you speak on my name, ya’know?” But that was only four months ago.
Drake sets March 18 release for ‘More Life’
Between formally announcing the album, er… playlist, and revealing its release date of March 18, the road to Drizzy’s More Life has taken a mere five months — his shortest gap between releases since the seven month span between the 2015 releases of If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late and What a Time to Be Alive. But despite being his fastest project release ever, the five months leading up to More Life has spawned plenty of notable details regarding the project that has been shrouded in mystery. So while we wait for the March 18th edition of OVO Sound Radio to hear it in full, here are all the details and moments that have taken place since More Life was first announced.
October 23, 2016
In honor of his 30th birthday, the rapper hosted a special edition of OVO Sound Radio on Beats 1 and announced plans for a new project called More Life, set for December. Unlike mixtapes and albums that he’s released in the past, Drizzy referred to this project as a “playlist.” While describing the release, he announced, “I’m off mixtapes. I want to do a playlist. I want to give you a collection of songs that become the soundtrack to your life, so this is More Life: the Playlist.” Later on in the episode, Drake played gift-giver and premiered a string of new records, including the More Life cuts “Sneakin” ft. 21 Savage, “Fake Love,” and “Two Birds, One Stone.”
November 1, 2016
After liner notes for “Two Birds, One Stone” listed Kanye West as a credited composer on Drizzy’s “Two Birds, One Stone,” one of the four records the OVO star premiered on OVO Sound radio for his 30th birthday, Noah “40” Shebib, producer of the record, provided an update on how it came together. “Me and Kanye produced the track, I made it from some drums he had given me,” he shared. “Not quite the elaborate story the world is looking for.”
November 14, 2016
As the first music video for More Life, Drake tags in 21 Savage for the lo-fi, grainy visual to “Sneakin.”
November 20, 2016
After accepting his Favorite Hip-Hop/Rap Artist award at the American Music Awards, Drizzy sends out a special announcement: “More Life is coming soon and more tune for your head top, so watch how you speak on my name, a’know?”
December 10, 2016
Despite the originally announced December release, OVO announces that More Life has been pushed back to the top of 2017.
December 14, 2016
Bryson Tiller hops on Twitter to tease a potential collaboration with Drake.
January 11, 2017
In an interview with Billboard, Nineteen85, one half of dvsn, offered some hints about More Life. “More Life is interesting because that is [Drake] right on the peak of his biggest project yet [with Views], doing his biggest tour and still having so many good ideas that he just wants to put out without making it a big ordeal,” he said. “That’s why he’s trying to call it a playlist because he has a bunch of people in a space, hanging out,” he continued. “He’s so aware of what everybody else is doing musically that he likes to introduce new music and new artists to the rest of the world.”
January 28, 2017
During a rare interview on Kentucky basketball coach John Caliper’s “Coach Cal” podcast, Drake shared a short update on the album, describing its release as something designed “to keep people excited, give them new music, let them know I’m still hungry… I’m doing it to be remembered as a forward thinker.”
January 28, 2017
Drake kicks off his Boy Meets World tour in Amsterdam and teases a brand new track from the upcoming playlist, More Life, featuring UK rapper Giggs. A clip of the new song hits online. During the show, Drizzy also suggested that the “playlist” would arrive by the time he arrived back to the city.
“I want to thank y’all for a beautiful first show. Thank you very much. I really do appreciate you,” he said. “And you know what the good news is? I know we got three more shows in Amsterdam right? But the best part about that is if you coming back to any more shows, More Life is going to be out, we can just do some whole new shit.”
February 6, 2017
Oliver El-Khatib debuts a new collaboration between Drake and Whizkid titled “Hush Up the Silence” on Episode 27 of OVO Sound Radio. Later, he gave an update on More Life, promising that “everything’s moving along nicely.”
February 19, 2017
In an in-depth interview with DJ Semtex, Drake gives a clear update on the new project. “The style in which it is being put together is based on the concept of OVO Sound Radio. It’s almost like a radio show,” he shared. “I basically asked myself, What if I did it like OVO Sound Radio but every song was a new Drake song? It’s more like an evolution of a mixtape. After Views, I was inspired and I wanted to keep the music going and get people inspired.”
March 3, 2017
A mysterious post surfaces online that claims to be from Drake. The post, which is written in Swedish, is translated into “If you’re reading/translating this, it’s too late,” with “More Life, March 4, 2017” written as a signature. Noah “40” Shebib later shuts down the rumors and revealed that Drake is still working on the project.
March 11, 2017
As we have it, March 4th: “More tune for your head top.”