From the Boy, to "The Man": Drake Now vs. Drake Then

Have you ever randomly thought about the turning point in Drake’s career? Well, I have. Drake’s career comes in sections. The first part of his career was a wide-eyed, hopeful, young Drake, coming into his own. This was a Drake who was just happy to be here. There was a turning point in his career that introduced us to the version of Drake that we see today. In 2013, with the release of 5PM in Toronto, a new bravado-filled Drake, was born. This was a Drake who asserted his dominance! A Drake that was aware of his position in the rap world and was not afraid to let every one know.

Drake Has Arrived

This sense of dominance was something that carried over to his third studio album later that year: "Nothing Was The Same". On this album, we saw a Drake we’ve never seen before. A Drake who was fully sure of himself. A Drake who knew he was on top of the game. We saw him turn from “The Boy” into "The Man". Drake began saying things like, “I don’t know why they been lyin’, but your sh*t is not that inspiring” on ‘The Language’. He had no regard for how it made his peers feel. At that point, there was no one who felt brave enough to challenge Drake. You could sense that Drake had arrived.

A lot of artists’ third album is where they take the big step in their career. Kanye did it with "Graduation", and Kendrick did it with "DAMN". The third album is where we see artists more comfortable in their career footing. They take more creative risks unapologetically because they no longer worry about trying to “repeat”. The artist has already proven their consistency. Although these days, I would argue that Drake is more paranoid than he is confident, the big bravado remains.

It is crazy to see how far Drake has come. He has taken multiple steps in his career since Nothing Was The Same, and frankly, he doesn’t look like he’s slowing down.