Courtesy of NY Daily News.

Drake‰’s If You‰’re Reading This It‰’s Too Late was released the night before Valentine‰’s Day (so Drake) this past month without any prior announcement or fanfare and within 3 days sold 495,000 copies. All 17 songs off the project plus four other Drake-featuring songs made the Billboard top 50.

These numbers are particularly insane given that the project itself was reportedly released mainly to fulfill Drake‰’s album requirements for Cash Money Records. The notorious label is currently in a legal battle with Drake‰’s own mentor Lil Wayne over Wayne‰’s claims that his own album Carter V is being purposefully delayed, and that Cash Money has not payed its artists their royalties for several years.

So Drake wants out, and with this fourth project Drake will be able to release his real, highly anticipated fourth studio album Views from the 6 without issue or concerns about where the profits are going. In fact If You‰’re Reading This It‰’s Too Late is probably just a collection of songs that didn‰’t make the cut for Views from the 6; Drake himself said that he viewed the project more as a mixtape although, although this didn‰’t stop him from giving it a 13$ price on iTunes. But people are still buying it, a lot of people. Even with all this drama and the ulterior motives behind the project, Drake is setting Billboard records, so one has to ask: why?

I think there are several components to understanding how Drake could do such huge numbers on his basically-a-mixtape album. The first and most obvious answer is simply because he is Drake. Drake arguably has the largest and broadest fan base of any rapper out right now. And though he has been hopping on hit songs left and right recently (“Tuesday‰” and “Only‰” to name a few) he hadn‰’t released a project since 2013’s Nothing Was the Same and fans were certainly eager to get their hands on his newest release.

Also, the release of If You‰’re Reading This It‰’s Too Late as a surprise album couldn‰’t have worked any better as a marketing strategy. When you have name recognition like a Drake or a BeyoncÌ© all you need to do is put the material out and social media hype will do the rest. Indeed social media lit up when it found out Drake had dropped, and if you didn‰’t know his album was out and you didn‰’t get your hands on it, it seemed you were missing out.

Star power aside, part of the reason why Drake‰’s project did so well is because it‰’s good. In classic Drake fashion, the production quality is super high and the track list is fun and cohesive. Drake delivers solid verses and fun hooks that make it hard to stop singing “running through the six with my woes‰” all the time. Songs like “Energy‰Û, “You & the 6‰” and “6PM in New York‰” are standouts.

I am personally not the biggest Drake fan. If You‰’re Reading This It‰’s Too Late was well produced and had fun songs but sonically it seemed very similar to Nothing Was the Same and, with a few exceptions, Drake still comes across as trying too hard and a little bit whiny. Drake is at his best when he is effortless, just rhyming, no gimmicks or facades or lackluster singing, and while this project had hints of an effortless Drake it wasn‰’t fully there. Hopefully Views from the 6 will be the project he lets loose and just raps. I can‰’t even imagine the numbers he would do then.