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If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late proved just how strong Drake was in the rap game. No one else could have released a project with so little fanfare but so much buzz. When it dropped, on February 13, 2015 – exactly six years after his star-making So Far Gone – the mixtape felt like a stopgap release ahead of the much-anticipated Views (then still known as From The 6), or maybe something of a clearinghouse. But really, it’s a fully realized love letter to Toronto. IYRTITL itself could easily have been called View From The 6, and now stands as one of Drake’s strongest projects. Whatever it was, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late was a high water-mark for Drake: his first release as the most powerful figure in hip-hop. It took that kind of clout to pull off a “surprise” release that actually caught people off guard.

At the time of its release, Jay-Z was officially an elder statesman, Lil Wayne was wrapped up in label drama and Kanye West’s The Life Of Pablo was still a year away. So when IYRTITL dropped, no one else was positioned to release an intro track as authentically boastful as Drake. “If I die, I’m a legend,” he raps on “Legend,” adding, “I got enemies, I got a lot of enemies/Got a lot of people trying to drain me of this energy.” The darkly hypnotic battle cry quickly transitions into “Energy,” setting the tone for IYRTITL’s first act – a five-song run that’s among the best in Drake’s career, belying the casual-seeming nature of the surprise release. - Udiscovermusic