Last week Drake dropped his surprise album If You're Reading This It's Too Late. It has since broken Spotify records, topped the Billboard 200, and sold 500,000 copies in its first week. Although he had confirmed that he had a new project coming early this year, most people assumed it would be a mixtape, and Drake even used that terminology himself. When it showed up as a Cash Money record, people were surprised. But apparently making the album available for purchase only via iTunes wasn't the original plan.
KP, the VP of Datpiff, told HipHopDX that the project was originally intended to be a DJ Drama-hosted, Gangsta Grillz mixtape before the label decided to get involved. However, KP revealed that If You're Reading This It's Too Late will be credited toward the album requirements Drake has with Cash Money Records.
"Originally we [Datpiff] were in talks to release it for free...and have DJ Drama host and even make it an official Gangsta Grillz...however the label was not in favor of that, and they struck an agreement to release the project the retail route, and it would count towards one of his albums," KP told HipHopDX. "It was a mutual decision since he wanted to give it away. They [the label] said, 'Hell no,' not in those words, so they 'agreed' to do it this way as a middle ground and it would count towards his Cash Money deal album total. The label had zero input or creative control over [the project]."
She also revealed that this decision was only made a few weeks ago when decisions were still "up in the air."
This clears up a lot of speculation fans had about why the project didn't come out as a free mixtape. Most had figured Drake had ulterior motives, assuming it was a move to try to complete his Cash Money contract so that he could leave with his mentor, collaborator, friend and labelmate Lil Wayne, who has been publicly trying to release himself form Cash Money, filing a $51 million lawsuit against the label.
Having this mixtape fulfill his four-album commitment would free him from his contract and make him able to move with Tunechi if/when he jumps ship. Time will tell when and on what label Drake will drop his official studio album Views From The 6, and we can only imagine how well that is going to sell.
