“Let's be honest - he got last summer,” West told GQ in 2014. But over the past decade, West has been forced to repeatedly admit that Drake has outshone him. Kanye happens to you he finds a way to sneak in above the fold of whatever news outlet you’re reading. He’s made a career of extracting attention, often without the permission of the audience. West is gifted at directing all available eyeballs to him, and, from time to time, his work, too. If this is upsetting to Drake’s detractors, imagine how infuriating it must be for Kanye West. The list of records he has broken is wild, but let’s perhaps zero in on one: In January 2021, Drake became the first artist to pass 50 billion streams on Spotify.

Earlier this year, he was given Billboard’s Artist of the Decade award, and you could hardly think of another name on the short list. When people called him soft, he sang softer (“You gettin’ bodied by a singin’ nigga!” he taunted Meek Mill). He memed himself before his enemies memed him. Even when he faced attacks that would be fatal to another rapper’s career - over the corniness, or the Canadianness, or the identity-hopping - he’s managed to turn all of those into positions of strength. But since his third mixtape, 2009’s So Far Gone, Drake has not missed. I mean, where the fuck should I really even start? Perhaps with a thought experiment: Has any rapper been as popular as Drake for as long as Drake? Has any rapper had such a total and complete grip on the charts the way Drake has, for as long as he has? If you’re generous, Jay-Z’s 2000–2006 run might compare.

Drake own it sample