What album is What a Time to Be Alive on?

In the Fall of 2015, two of the biggest rap artists in the world, Drake & Future, released an 11 song mixtape executively produced by Metro Boomin and long time Drake producer, 40.

Metro produced or co-produced eight of its 11 songs. Additional producers include Southside, Allen Ritter, Boi-1da, DJ Esco, Frank Dukes, and others.

It was released on the iTunes Store and Apple Music, and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and sold 334,000 copies in its first week.

With such a monumental album, naturally come a five facts article by DailyRapFacts. Enjoy!

5 – Drake & Future recorded ‘What A Time To Be Alive’ in Atlanta in 6 days.

What a Time to Be Alive was allegedly born out of an impromptu, six-day recording session between the duo in Future’s hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.

Drake told Rolling Stone, “It’s a little soundtrack for people that need it right now. I went to Atlanta for six days with the hopes of doing some songs with Future, and when you get around Future, it’s like a vortex, that guy can outwork anybody right now. It’s tough to see someone do four, five songs in one night and not try to match it.”

Drake & Future recorded ‘What A Time To Be Alive’ in Atlanta in 6 days

4 – ‘Digital Dash’ was the first song they made for the project and ‘Jumpman’ was the last song the duo created for the project.

‘Digital Dash’ was presented as a finished piece to Drake prior to him getting on the song.

‘Jumpman’ would be the highest selling and most popular song from the album. The song was eventually certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for combined sales and streaming units of over four millions units.

In an interview with Fader, What a Time to be Alive executive producer Metro Boomin recalled one of the song’s sessions. “I remember, it was like six in the morning, I had been up in the studio all night mixing beats. And Drake come in in the middle of the night to f–k with ‘Jumpman. Drake was playing the new verse,” he added. “And I heard ‘Jumpman, jumpman. Metro Boomin on production, wow.’ and I knew it was going to be a hit.”

3. After a commercial featuring Taylor Swift rapping to ‘Jumpman’ while running on a treadmill, downloads of the song increased by 431%.

Apple released a commercial for Apple Music featuring Taylor Swift rapping along to the song and accidentally falling face first on the treadmill, which ultimately became very popular and was dubbed as ‘TAYLOR vs TREADMILL’. Following the premiere of the commercial, downloads of the song increased by 431%. According to Swift, the storyline was based on true events.

3- WATTBA marked the second project for both artists to chart at number one on the Billboard 200 in 2015.

If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late for Drake and DS2 for future, respectively

2- Future gets almost double the airtime of Drake on the album.

Future having the majority of the bars and time on the album led many to understand the true time that went into the album. Doing it in 6 days in Futures hometown, Atlanta, with the majority of Future’s crew and producers its no wonder it sounds like a Future album with Drake added in.

1 -There were rumors of a sequel to the album dropping late 2018 early 2019.

In an Instagram story posted back in April 2019, Drake can be seen throwing up the deuces, saying “What’s that? We gotta cook that up, that two.” Future then hints at the fact that the album is already done, “It’s already cooked.”

Superstar team-ups almost always seem better in theory. History suggests they are nearly twice as likely to produce a resounding dud as a working piece of art, and yet the prospect never ceases to excite us. When rumors began to swirl weeks ago that Drake and Future might be releasing a joint project, the Internet went into a frenzy. Watch the Throne parallels were drawn, fake cover art circulated, and a website countdown appeared as if to wish it into existence.

What a Time to Be Alive materialized on Sunday*,* and the mixed results won't surprise anyone who has already noted the decided lack of chemistry between these two. There's been a Drake feature on every Future album, but none of them are particularly riveting, and on What a Time it's clearer than ever that they have difficulty sharing the same space. Many tracks are just Future songs with Drake verses tagged on (Future gets almost double the airtime), and Drake often sounds out of his element. When Future gets rolling on songs like "Digital Dash" and "Live From the Gutter", Drake is a bystander. The tape was allegedly born out of an impromptu, six-day recording session, and too many moments on it feel like they were thrown together in that time span. Drake probably shouldn’t be on a song called "I’m the Plug", for example, and the hook on "Big Rings" is terribly bland and awkward. This wasn't created with the care or the dutiful curation we've come to expect from both artists when solo.

But that spontaneity is kind of the point of What a Time to Be Alive. Unlike Watch the Throne, which was presented as a grand statement album from self-coronated heads of rap royalty, What a Time is a tag-on release, a one-off that intentionally exists in the shadows of its 2015 predecessors as a bonus disc. Designating it a tape seemingly alleviates the pressure to curate. Meanwhile, Drake’s cushy Apple deal allows him to disseminate it for retail via iTunes and premiere it exclusively on his OVO Sound show on Apple Music’s Beats 1 Radio. It’s a low risk, high reward proposition.

Both artists offer slightly watered-down versions of themselves: Drake offers snarky responses to his recent ghostwriting allegations ("I might take Quentin to Follies," "The pen is working if you niggas need some ghostlines," etc.) and Future mentions internal struggles ("When you say you love a nigga do you really mean it?/ When I was sleepin' on the floor you shoulda seen how they treat me/ I pour the Actavis and pop pills so I can fight the demons," "I watched my broad give up on me like I'm average"). It’s an odd juxtaposition, especially with Drake returning to the stiff, pinched "yes, I wrote these, can’t you tell?" style of his circa-2010 hashtag rap bars, with some truly dire results ("You remind me of a quarterback/ That shit is all in the past", from "Digital Dash", needed a vigorous "no" from someone in the room).

Even with Drake’s lazy punchlines, though, both he and Future are still great rap artists in their primes, and sometimes they figure things out just based on sheer talent. What the tape lacks in congruence, it makes up for in glimmering Metro Boomin production, and Drake throws Future the perfect alley-oop on "Scholarship" over his muffled synths. "Jumpman" is a certifiable banger. "Diamonds Dancing" is the first great Drake-Future collab that clicks on all cylinders. Of course, the brightest moments for both rappers come at the end of WATTBA when they are each allowed to work on their own and make music in their respective comfort zones—first Future on "Jersey", then Drake on the 40-produced "30 for 30 Freestyle", which showcases some of his best rapping in recent memory. It’s a disjointed but fitting end for a working relationship that’s still a work in progress.

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