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The time has come to drop Drake off his own album cover

In Aubrey “Drake” Graham’s home city of Toronto, there are only two seasons: Winter and Summer. “It’s a very unique place,” said the rapper in an interview with Zane Lowe on his Beats One radio show OVO Sound Radio. “You start to value your days a lot more, when seven months are spent in the icy cold.” Views, the “fourth” studio album from Drake, dropped on Apple Music and iTunes lat last Thursday night (after a blitzkrieg of two mixtapes in the past year alongside some summertime diss tracks and singles—but none of them official, of course). Views, as described…

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Sir Michael Rocks’ new video is an anime come to life

Japanese culture and hip-hop have a long relationship, from the genre’s mid-90s kung-fu obsession to Kanye’s mid-oughts evocation of Japanese pop art up through its current commingling in the very production of Drake’s ubiquitous “Hotline Bling.” The Chicago emcee Sir Michael Rocks has always been a nerd, but in his new video “In My Mode” he goes the full cosplay: it’s essentially a three-minute homage to modern shonen anime. The first half is a back-alley brawl, all close-ups of eyes and stylized violence, recalling Akame Ga Kill and Sword Art Online. The rematch takes place in an open field, and is…

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Drake gets super emo over Super Mario World’s "Star Road" beat

File this one under “nexus of things about which only Clay gives a shit”: Drake vomited out three dope tracks over the weekend, one of which (“Cha Cha”) is a slinky, seven-minute ode to a romance gone sour. Its backing track may sound familiar to Mario completists; it’s the stage-select music from Super Mario World‘s hidden Star Road levels. And I woke up wanting some soft rock to listen to! Both tracks are below.  Drake’s having a hell of a year. “0 to 100” came out middle of last year but it was still dominating rap radio throughout the winter,…