This week Drake earned his 21^st number one single on the Billboard RnB/ Hip Hop chart surpassing Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder the previous record holders.

This is just the latest record to fall to Drake who in 2019 beat the Beatles for most number one singles in a calendar year on the Billboard top 100. Drake the 2nd highest selling artist of the 2010’s behind Adele has started the 2020’s as he ended the 2010’s breaking records and further cementing his status as the biggest artist in the world.

Drake is set to release his album Certified Lover Boy in January 2021. Due to his activity during lockdown releasing a steady stream of successful singles Drake will be hopping to break 700,000 first week units. But due to Coronavirus limiting the ability of people to buy his music in shops, the amount of pure sales (non-streaming) will be lower than when his last album Scorpion was released in 2018. Therefore the likelihood of Drake breaking a million as he did with Scorpion is low.

With songs such as ‘Laugh now cry later’ and ‘Life is good’ expected on the album, this may be a return to an earlier version of Drake’s music, with an album similar to his 2012 project ‘Take Care’. With many still believing that this is Drake’s best project to date, this could be a return to form from the artist from the six, as many critics criticised the lack of theme and continuity on ‘Scorpion’ and ‘Views’ his previous official studio albums. Many praised ‘Take Care’ as having some of Drake’s best writing with songs such ‘Lord Knows’ and ‘Underground Kings’ specific highlights. With the album being heavily worked on by The Weekend, many argue that his influence created the introspective emotion that many people praised the album for.

Drake who took the mantle as the world’s biggest rapper in 2011 from Lil Wayne will be hopping for a least another 5 years of dominance. His dominance is a product of popular Rap music shifting as it did in 2007 from ‘Gangsta rap’ headed by 50 Cent to more auto-tuned /emotional rap music headed by Kanye West then further by Drake in the early 2010’s. This shift in music came from a 15-year period which was dominated by ‘Gangsta rappers’ such as 2Pac and Biggie Smalls, then 50 Cent took over in the early 2000’s. Music is likely to shift again in the next 5 years or so, therefore artist’s like Drake who are the beneficiaries of the emotional rap wave will be looking to produce as much music as possible now.