It’s so perfectly attuned to the pulse of time that it’s almost offputting, and certainly it risks the blase. PARTYNEXTDOOR’s “Not Nice” is punctuated by a lengthy vocal sample of dancehall icon Vybz Kartel, and features the Toronto singer firing off Jamaican slang at random intervals. If Drake says it’s cool, that tends to mean something, so with PARTYNEXTDOOR being one of Drake’s formative major cosigns, there was already a built-in fanbase at least checking him out. What is the source of PARTYNEXTDOOR’s shelf-life, and musical identity? It’s easy to theorize the first one: Its become a tradition that what Drake co-signs generally becomes an object of interest, whether that’s Migos’s 2013 hit “Versace,” iLoveMakonnen, or recently, the unprecedented album sales for Gucci Mane’s new mixtape-album Everybody Lookin (Drake signs a hook on the record, appeared with Gucci live and on Instagram). That’s way more albums than most rap/R&B acts get green-lighted within a four-year period. He’s gearing up to release his third full length release (the aptly titled PARTYNEXTDOOR 3) next Friday the 12th. So from his earliest moment of public exposure - even without a charting pop hit - PARTYNEXTDOOR became an object of interest in the hip-hop-listening community. Drake stannery has gradually become a major force in hip-hop fandom and listenership, allowing his music to dominate the charts for long stretches the measure of the success of a new album currently is whether it can dethrone Drizzy’s April album VIEWS.

The Toronto singer dealt in the kind of gauzy, trap-tinged, post-Weeknd R&B that would eventually become a constant for both the acts Drake signed and pop music in general.

PARTYNEXTDOOR emerged in 2013: the first signee to Drake’s OVO Sound label.

Partynextdoor 3 album