How Kanye jumpstarted Drake’s career

Drake has been a longtime Kanye fan. He rapped over the Barry Bonds beat on his 2nd mixtape, Comeback Season (2007.) He’d use another Kanye beat later on.

In 2008, Kanye drops his album 808s & Heartbreak. The record helped shift the course of hip hop to more emotional themes with a mix of singing and rapping. Being a Kanye fan, Drake was inspired by this shift and began making more emotional music.

Drake enjoyed the record so much he used a Kanye beat once again on “Say What’s Real” which featured the last half of the “Say You Will” beat. This comes off his 3rd mixtape, So Far Gone. Kanye’s help with the success of the mixtape doesn’t end here though.

Drake secured Kanye as the director for the “Best I Ever Had” music video. The video brought a lot of attention to the song because of how outrageous it was. The media boost coupled with the songs quality gave Drake the #2 spot on Billboard, pushing him into the limelight.

Following his rise in popularity, Drake secured a spot on the track “Forever” alongside Eminem, Lil Wayne, and Kanye West. Although not related to Kanye directly, being on a song with him and the other 2 titans definitely helped boost his popularity.

Drake was now ready to release his first album. The second single off his album Thank Me Later was “Find Your Love”, a track produced and co-written by Kanye and No I.D. Kanye was credited for creating the well known melody. The 808s style track peaked at #6 on the charts.

Drake was now extremely well known, thanks to the boosts Kanye gave him as well as utilizing the new style Ye helped pioneer. If someone says Kanye made Drake, it goes deeper than just taking inspiration from 808s & Heartbreak.

If you enjoyed the read, consider following me! I post Kanye content like this. My pinned tweet is about Kanye finishing his albums at the last minute if you want to check that out. RTs on either are appreciated!

Also, I meant to say “helped jumpstart” but forgot to edit it before I hit send tweet. Kanye wasn’t directly responsible for drakes success, this was to show that he did more than just influence his sound.