Drake’s ‘Views’ Goes 4x Platinum [PEEP]

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Drake’s ‘Views’ album sold over 1-million units in the first week, and it continues to reach milestones by earning a 4x platinum certification by RIAA.

It only took the album a month to reach gold and platinum certifications following its May 6th public release. On August 3rd it was announced ‘Views’ had sold over 3-million copies even though it is his worst body of work according to critics.

It’s apparent that the opinion of critics doesn’t always matter when the public’s perception says otherwise.

This year the RIAA began measuring streams in their certification program and it breaks down like this: 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video song streams = 10 track sales = 1 album sale. As we know ‘Views’ had 20 songs which may have helped.

The album was released through Republic Records, Cash Money Records, and YMCMB Records. It is Drizzy’s second album to go 4x platinum following his sophomore album ‘Take Care’ was also awarded with the certification.

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It’s been an impeccable year for The 6 God as he was recently named Spotify’s “most streamed artist of 2016.” In September Apple Music awarded him with a plaque for being one of the few artists to reach over a billion streams.

‘Views’ has also made Rolling Stones’ “Top 50 Albums of 2016” and is one of six (ironically) albums to be on the Top 5 (“Top 5, Top 5, Top 5”) on the Billboard 200 for over 25 weeks.

If you think Drizzy is done reaching pinnacles and working this year think again. He will be releasing his ‘More Life’ project later this month.

@IAMBNYCE

Rolling Stone’s 50 Best Albums of 2016 Includes Béyonce, Kanye West, Drake, Chance The Rapper & More [PEEP]

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Béyonce, Kanye West, Chance The Rapper, Frank Ocean, and Young Thug all finished in the top 10 of Rolling Stone’s 50 Best Albums of 2016.

Queen Béy lead the way with her highly-acclaimed ‘LEMONADE’ topping the list. The platinum-selling album’s placement came to no surprise to some, after its worldwide popularity and countless awards and accolades.

“Beyoncé shut everyone else down this year with a soul-on-fire masterpiece, testifying about love, rage and betrayal that felt all too true in the America of 2016,” wrote the magazine. “The queen not only made the album of the year (and make no mistake, David Bowie would have been the first to say so), she delivered a confessional, genre-devouring suite that feels larger than life yet still heartbreakingly intimate, because it doubles as her portrait of a nation in flames.”

Chance The Rapper, Frank Ocean, and Young Thug all followed Béyonce in the top 10 for their albums ‘Coloring Book’, ‘Blonde’, and ‘Jefferey’, respectively. Both Chance and Franky Ocean have received high praise for the continuous success of their projects while being indepedent.

Drake’s ‘Views’ finished 42nd after ‘If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late’ placed third last year, behind Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ and Adele’s ’25’.

Other hip-hop notables include: Danny Brown’s ‘Atrocity Exhibition’ (19th), Rihanna’s ‘ANTI’ (25th), A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘We Got it From Here…Thank You 4 Your Service’ (30th), Alicia Keys’ ‘HERE’ (32nd), Maxwell’s ‘blackSUMMERS’night’ (40th), and Future’s ‘Evol’ (43rd).

What do you think about the list? Tell us in the comments or his us on Twitter @LALeakers.

SEE THE FULL LIST HERE

@IAMBNYCE

Drake Breaks American Music Awards Nominations Records With 13

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Drake has been having a monster year with the success of his record-breaking No. 1 album ‘Views From The 6’, his “Summer Sixteen Tour” with Future being arguably one of the best this year, and other pinnacles he’s reached.

Today Drizzy broke the record for most American Music Awards nominations with a staggering 13, beating Michael Jackson’s 11 in 1984.

The 6 God has been nominated in previous AMAs, but has never been the recipient of one. It’s safe to say his chances are all the way up with 13 nominations.

Other notable nominees are Adele and Justin Bieber who have 5 a piece, while Beyonce and the Chainsmokers follow respectively with 4 each.

See all Drake’s nominations below.

DRIZZY’S 2016 AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS NOMINATIONS

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Adele
Beyoncé
Justin Bieber
Drake
Selena Gomez
Ariana Grande
Rihanna
Twenty One Pilots
Carrie Underwood
The Weeknd

COLLABORATION OF THE YEAR
The Chainsmokers feat. Daya – “Don’t Let Me Down”
Drake feat. Wizkid & Kyla – “One Dance”
Fifth Harmony feat. Ty Dolla $Ign – “Work From Home”
Rihanna feat. Drake – “Work”
Meghan Trainor feat. John Legend – “Like I’m Gonna Lose You”

VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Justin Bieber – “Sorry”
Desiigner – “Panda”
Rihanna feat. Drake – “Work”

FAVORITE MALE ARTIST – POP/ROCK
Justin Bieber
Drake
The Weeknd

FAVORITE ALBUM – POP/ROCK
Adele – 25
Justin Bieber – Purpose
Drake – Views

FAVORITE SONG- POP/ROCK
Adele – “Hello”
Justin Bieber – “Love Yourself”
Drake feat. Wizkid & Kyla – “One Dance”

FAVORITE ARTIST – RAP/HIP-HOP
Drake
Fetty Wap
Future

FAVORITE ALBUM – RAP/HIP-HOP
Drake – Views
Drake & Future- What A Time To Be Alive
Fetty Wap – Fetty Wap

FAVORITE SONG – RAP/HIP-HOP
Desiigner – “Panda”
Drake – “Hotline Bling”
Fetty Wap – “679”

FAVORITE SONG – SOUL/R&B
Drake feat. Wizkid & Kyla – “One Dance”
Rihanna feat. Drake – “Work”
Bryson Tiller – “Don’t”

Congrats, Drake!

@IAMBNYCE

Watch Drake’s Short Film “Please Forgive Me” [VIDEO]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUQ7-yUfHYo

Drake delivers his short film, “Please Forgive Me” directed by Anthony Mandler and scored by Noah “40” Shebib.

In the opening scene “Weston Road Flows” plays, as Drake is shown laying in bed kissing Belgian model and actress Fanny Neguesha, who plays his love interest throughout the film.

The short film was first teased by Drake last month, with not many details shared on it. In the video you see Drizzy and his right hand man, Popcann, engage in various mobbish situations similar to the “Find Your Love” video also produced by Mandler.

Essentially the short film is somewhat of an extended music video with songs off his ‘VIEWS’ album. The songs featured in the film are: “Weston Road Flows,” “Hype,” “Views,” “9,” “One Dance,” “Controlla,” and “Summer’s Over Interlude.”

@IamBNyce

 

Drake – “Childs Play” [VIDEO]

Drake drops a 12-minute cinematic video for “Childs Play” co-directed by himself and Spiff TV.

The video opens with Drizzy literally going to Cheesecake Factory with his video girlfriend Tyra Banks. The two are celebrating their anniversary but the event goes sour when he leaves his phone on the table, and Tyra reads a revealing text resulting in cheesecake being smothered on his face and red wine poured over him.

Drizzy shoots the second scene at Houston’s famous strip club V-Live, where he makes it rain with his OVO and Rap-A-Lot family. The V-Live ladies bust it down on the strip pole and “bounce that shit like whoa.”

It seems the 6 God is going back to his acting days as he has announced he will be premiering his short film ‘Please Forgive Me’ on September 30th. Stay tuned.

@IamBNyce

Drake Discusses Rihanna And Gets Pranked On Ellen (Video)

Fresh off SNL, Drake continued to make his television rounds when he visited ‘The Ellen Show’ yesterday.

In the video above the “Hotline Bling” rapper discussed his SNL appearance, his relationship with Rihanna and had the shit scared out of him by a man who was ironically wearing Drizzy’s infamous “Hotline Bling” outfit.

In the video below Drake plays a friendly game of “Never Have I Ever” with Jared Leto and Ellen. Watch below to see what the 6 God has never done.

@IamBNyce

The L.A. Leakers Podcast – “Views” (Podcast)

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“Views” has now been out for a few weeks, the album is still getting mixed reviews and we’re still mixed on it here at L.A. Leakers studios. We also compared the album track for track to Kanye’s latest offering to see how they compare. What are your thoughts on the album? Let us know! @LALeakers @AbigaleAthena

L.A. Leakers Rewind: May 1st – May 7th

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VIEWS GOES PLATINUM IN A WEEK

In its first week Drake’s ‘Views’ went certified platinum and with the kind of units it’s moved so far, the album figures to go multiplatinum soon.

According to Drizzy’s label, Republic Records, ‘Views’ sold over a million units and was streamed over 250-million times on Apple Music in ironically, 6ix days.

The success of this album has Drake sitting on a pedestal in the hip-hop game, with numbers that only big Pop stars like Taylor Swift and Adele are able to conquer.

Mainstream songs on the album “One Dance,” “Hotline Bling,” and “Controlla” really helped propel sales and streams for the album.

‘Views’ is officially the most successful urban album of the year thus far. The album tops sales of Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’, Kanye West’s ‘The Life of Pablo’ and Rihanna’s ‘Anti’.

Drizzy will go on to host Saturday Night Live on May 14th. The second time the rapper will do so.

Watch these hilarious skits from the last time he hosted:

FORBES HIP-HOP FIVE LIST

Forbes released their annual “Forbes Five: Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists” list with some familiar names and a new one.

Diddy topped the list with an estimated net worth of $750-million for his stakes in Ciroc vodka, Revolt TV network, Aquahydrate alkaline water and SeanJohn clothing.

Dr. Dre came in at No. 2 with $710-millon much of which came with the sale of his Beats by Dre headphones brand to Apple. Last year’s N.W.A. biopic also reeled in a nice amount of revenue. In addition he also has stocks in Apple and a plethora of real estate in Southern California.

Jay-Z cruised in at No. 3 with $610-millon for his TIDAL streaming service that has over 3-million subscribers and also a slew of other business ventures including D’usse and Ace of Spades champagne.

At No. 4 was Bryan “Birdman” Williams with $110-million for the success of multiplatinum selling artists: Lil Wayne, Drake and Nicki Minaj. Put some “respeck” on that.

The final and newest member of the list at No. 5 is OVO head-honcho, Drake with $60-million. The music sales definitely helped, but Drizzy owes most of it to touring and partnerships with Jordan, Apple and Sprite.

The combination of the moguls totaled over $2-billion combined.

50 Cent’s recent bankruptcy struggles kept him off the list this year.

See the full breakdown HERE.

KANYE GOING ON ‘TLOP’ TOUR

Kanye West already has one of the most successful albums of the year with ‘The Life Of Pablo,’ and he is looking to follow the success with a tour.

He teased ‘The Life Of Pablo’ tour on Steve Harvey’s show Tuesday saying he could be hitting the road in September.

“My tour game is unprecedented,” he bragged to Harvey. “So we’re going to go out in September I believe, and we’re just working on some of the ideas right now.”

I’m excited to see the kind of creativity he will exude for the tour, from the merch to the stage design.

The tour is only in the planning stages, so there are no dates out or opening acts on the bill as of now. Although, it is safe to assume he will probably take his artist Desiigner on tour with him after the success “Panda” has had.

FRENCH MONTANA SIGNS TO EPIC RECORDS

Epic Records has been busy adding to their roster lately with the recent signings of DJ Khaled, Rick Ross and Puff Daddy. The label announced this week that French Montana was the newest signee.

The partnership of Puffy’s Bad Boy Records with Epic had a lot of influence in the signing of Montana, being he is also signed to Bad Boy. Take that, take that, take that.

It’s been three year’s since Montana dropped a studio album, in the meantime he’s been supplying the streets with anthems like, “All The Way Up,” and mixtapes.

His next album will have the Epic Records stamp on it.

SPACE JAM 2 TO STARR LeBRON JAMES?

Several sources have confirmed that Space Jam 2 will be starring LeBron James, but according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst “no deal is in place,” although a deal is expected to be done soon.

The director of Fast & Furious, Justin Lin, was announced Monday as the director for the upcoming sequel.

Space Jam came out in 1996 and raked in $230.4-million worldwide and starred Michael Jordan in a box office monster that has since became a classic.

LBJ looks to be MJ’s successor in the series. Let’s see if James can come close to the success Jordan brought to the film, because he hasn’t been able to match it on the court.

@IamBNyce

Rihanna Brings Out Drake In LA For ‘Anti’ Tour Stop (Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntjyFMN2ZLQ

Rihanna took her ‘Anti’ world tour to The Forum in LA last night and gave the fans a pleasant surprise when she brought Drake out. The duo performed “Work,” before Drizzy performed “One Dance” and “Jumpman.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZWEENfxWpE

@IamBNyce

 

Justin Credible Album Spotlight: Drake – ‘Views’

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The past couple of years Drake has shown the world that he is truly the king of making hits and rarely missing. His first three studio albums have earned him RIAA multiplatinum certifications, and his newest, ‘VIEWS’ figures to be no different with over half a million copies sold on its first day.

There has been a lot of chatter on Twitter over the album not being his strongest body of work and after listening to the album the first time I kind of agree. However, this album has a lot deep meaning and personal situations, hence its title, ‘VIEWS’. After listening to the album non-stop the past couple days I can see the vision.

In my opinion I feel ‘VIEWS’ gets off to a slow start, with the first song on the album, “Keep the Family Close,” which I think doesn’t carry the momentum coming off songs like “Summer Sixteen” and “Back to Back.” The song placement could have been tweaked a bit to give it a little bit more of a spark off the bat. The lack of press Drizzy did on this album left us to dissect the song order with our own judgement.

To me “9” would have been a better way to lead into the album. The heavy drums and production on “9” clearly display 40’s brilliant production skills. “9,” also goes right into showing love and gratitude for his city of Toronto, stating he would die for it.

By the time you get to the fifth song off the album, “Hype,” you start feeling the vibes and Drake is clearly in full form.

“Hype,” let’s everyone know he’s done with the bullshit and possess a similar flow to that of “Summer Sixteen,” with quick jabs at Meek Mill. He also references Rihanna, compares himself to Michael Jackson and shouts out his original label, Young Money with the line: “’09 they was biddin’ on me, but I’m Young Money got it written on me.”

My top 6ix songs off ‘VIEWS’ are as follow: “Weston Road Flows”, “9”, “Views”, “Feel No Ways”, “Still Here” and “Too Good.”

I didn’t include “Pop Style”, “One Dance” and “Controlla” because those are indisputable hits, and if you don’t think so refer to the numbers —they never lie.

With “One Dance” and “Controlla, Drizzy showed his evolution as an artist. Those two songs can be classified as Dancehall genre with the irie, fun island vibes. This is what I love about Drake as an artist, he isn’t afraid to try new things.

Don’t let the playful songs get it twisted. On “Still Here,” Drizzy proclaims his title of MVP and shows he’s not the one to be played with. He also lashes at foes while bragging about women, his excess of funds and his intentions to remain on top of the game. The song also further preaches family unity, one of the themes of the album.

This album was a little heavier on features, many from Drake’s OVO Sound imprint. The biggest feature on the album was Rihanna on the song “Too Good.”

“Too Good”, has a similar feel to their most previous collaboration on “Work”. All of their collabs dating back to “What’s My Name,” focus on a relationship, maybe the current state of their accordance. The chemistry is clear on all the songs they do together, it’s very organic and sparkly. Drake touched on that chemistry during his exclusive interview with Zane Lowe.

“Too Good” came to fruition after we did ‘Work.’ I was like, I think I have one that would follow this one up really nicely. She got in the studio and just bodied it,” He told Zane Lowe. “It was like a flawless victory when she sent it back …We have a genuine energy between us.”

On “Faithful” Drake goes back to his early roots of showing love to the Southern sound by putting Pimp C’s posthumous verse off the “Tom Ford” Remix. The song has a sensitive side to it and shows Drake’s fondness for a girl who’s to busy pursuing her dreams to engage in a full-on relationship.

There’s a lot of hits on the album, it’s hard to pick my favorite one. For the sake of the article I will say “Weston Road Flows” is definitely a classic. The Mary J. Blige sample fits perfectly. “Weston Road Flows” is just that signature Drake throwback that works as a journal entry as he reflects on his come-up days in a natural gloomy, pensive manner. You can hear the enjoyment in his voice throughout the song.

‘VIEWS’ is another masterpiece and will probably go certified multiplatinum. The kind of numbers it is expected to do are comparable to Pop stars like Taylor Swift. Not much has changed in the quality or sound of Drake’s music. He still talks about relatable topics like relationships, he still has very quotable punchlines that will flood your timeline and he still has that same charisma and energy.

His star-power continues to trump those of your favorites. The release of his album saw many host listening parties and treat it very much like a holiday, something only a handful of artists can achieve.

The one thing that did leave me in awe was the release date for the album. Drizzy is notorious for releasing music when nobody expects it. I thought he would spontaneously put out ‘VIEWS’ at 3 a.m. on a Wednesday night or something. Maybe the Apple deal complicated that.

If you haven’t heard ‘VIEWS’ yet, get it NOW on iTunes!

Zane Lowe Interviews Drake (Video)

On the eve of Drizzy dropping ‘Views’, he sat down with Zane Lowe for an hour long converstation in Drizzy’s hometown of Toronto. During their convo Drizzy talks about He speaks on the creating process with producer “40”, relationship with Nicki Minaj, chemistry with Rihanna, Birdman and Lil Wayne feud, Tory Lanez, the idea of a project with Kanye West, the “Pop Style” feature confusion, success of “Hotline Bling”, the Weeknd and much more.