More Life

Lore & Background

The concept for More Life originated from Drake's desire to create a "soundtrack to your life." Following an ankle injury on the Summer Sixteen Tour that pushed the release from December 2016 to March 2017, Drake described the project as a collection of songs rather than a traditional album. The title borrows from Jamaican slang popularized by dancehall artist Vybz Kartel, whom Drake cites as a major inspiration for his own dancehall-inflected sound. The artwork features a 1970s photo of Drake's father, Dennis Graham, surrounded by a black border with the subtitle "A Playlist By October Firm." The final track, "Do Not Disturb," references Club Palazzo in Woodbridge, Ontario, a now-defunct nightclub significant to Drake's history.

In Their Own Story

Promotion began on October 23, 2016, when "Fake Love," "Sneakin'" featuring 21 Savage, and "Two Birds, One Stone" premiered during Drake's thirtieth birthday edition of OVO Sound Radio. On March 11, 2017, Drake announced the release date via Instagram commercials before the full project debuted on the 39th episode of OVO Sound Radio at 6:30 pm EST. The mixtape broke streaming records immediately upon release, achieving 61.3 million streams on Spotify and 89.9 million on Apple Music in a single day. It earned 505,000 album-equivalent units in just five and a half days, securing Drake's seventh consecutive number one album. By the end of 2017, More Life had accumulated over two million album-equivalent units in the US.

Reader's Guide

The mixtape features production from 40, Frank Dukes, Boi-1da, Murda Beatz, T-Minus, Nineteen85, and Kanye West. Five singles were supported: "Fake Love" (peaked at number eight), "Passionfruit" (number eight), "Free Smoke" (number 18), "Portland" featuring Quavo and Travis Scott (number nine), and "Glow" featuring Kanye West (number 54). Critics gave the project a Metacritic score of 79 based on 25 reviews. Reviews praised its breadth of styles, with Rob Sheffield calling it Drake's "finest longform collection in years," while Clayton Purdom noted that as a collection of atomized songs, it stands among his best releases despite lacking a traditional album structure.

Did You Know?

• The title 'More Life' is a Jamaican slang phrase popularized by dancehall artist Vybz Kartel.
• The cover art features a photo of Drake's father, Dennis Graham, taken in the 1970s.
• The final track 'Do Not Disturb' references Club Palazzo, a defunct nightclub in Woodbridge, Ontario.
• More Life broke Apple Music records with 89.9 million streams on its release day, beating Spotify's record by nearly 30 million.
• Despite being marketed as a playlist, it was named one of the best albums of 2017 by several publications.