"Workin' on the Weekend Like Usual"

Between “Life is Good” and the leak of “Desires” and a suspected full project being leaked on DatPiff early last week. It is almost abundantly clear that Drake and Future are gearing up a release to act as the follow-up to What a Time to be Alive, in the very near future. And although I am eagerly anticipating this project and can’t wait to hear what these two legends have in store, the impending release got me thinking about collaboration albums more broadly.

In thinking on this, I came to the conclusion that honestly, less is more. In the last 5 year we’ve seen a lot of artists attempt this collaboration album model to varying degrees of success. And although everything pales in comparison to Kanye West & JAY Z collaborating on the masterpiece that was “Watch the Throne” in 2011, there have been a number of these projects which have reached great heights and produced some great music. Of course, the aforementioned “What a Time to Be Alive”, was an almost instant classic, and Thug and Future gave an extremely solid effort on “Super Slimey” in 2017. However, on this front, I do feel there are more misses than hits.

One of the issues I have with this trend is simply the lack of chemistry which these artists possess. What make Watch the Throne, What a Time and Super Slimey so great is that all those pairs are artists who hang out away from music. They weren’t just projects made of two artists coming together, they were projects were two friends came together to create. And you can feel that added dimension quite clearly in the music. Moreover, in each of those situations, those artists had a history of collaborating, and had a history of creating greatness. Drake and Future had “Where Ya At”, Future and Thug had “Relationship”, and lets not even get started on the sheer array of decade worth of collaborations which Kanye and JAY Z had before Watch the Throne dropped. What I’m saying here is chemistry is so crucial. Just because two artists are able to collaborate with one another doesn’t mean they should. Even though Offset and 21 Savage produced a number of solid hits from “Without Warning”, it still didn’t feel the same as the three other albums mentioned.

Another issue I have with collaboration albums, is artists seem to forget and underplay the importance of producers in that process. Despite everything Drake and Future did, the true MVP of What a Time to be Alive is Metro Boomin. We all know how involved Kanye is in the production of any song he’s makes and that is only heightened when he knows he’s producing for JAY Z. Thus, I makes for a great and consistent sound throughout these projects. A sound which compliments the strengths of both artists. And it was that element that was missing from projects such as Future and the late Juice WRLD’s “WRLD ON DRUGS”, YSL’s “Slime Language”, and 2 Chainz and Wayne’s “COLLEGROVE”. Now that’s not to say these projects didn’t have their high points, or that these artists shouldn’t be working with one another. But I do think each of these projects were missing the signature direction that an elite producer provides for such endeavors.

Ultimately, none of what I’m saying is comes from a place of hatred for collaboration albums. I actually really love the concept and as a fan, having two of my favourite artists come together and amalgamate their talents is always a fun experience. However, I just wish there would be more thought that goes into these projects, and the more focus goes into the production and sound which the artists seek to create. Additionally, I think we as fans need to be more nuanced in who we ask for such albums from, just because two artists make a great song together, doesn’t mean they can replicate that over a 10 song, 40 minute album. And for artists, I think there should be a move toward more solo artist x solo producer collaborations, than artist x artist collabs. I think the push should be for more projects like “Savage Mode” by 21 & Metro, “Double or Nothing” by Metro and Big Sean or “PRhyme” by Royce and DJ Premier, which allows the artist to truly show off the full range of their skills alongside the clear direction which producers provide. The Daytona Model, if you will.