Drake features Black Coffee on his new Album " More Life "

In recent years, Drake’s love affairs with the world’s flavors of pop music, from dancehall to grime, has seemed at once endearing and calculated. To the cynical observer, his embrace of stars like Skepta, Wizkid, and Popcaan felt like an attempt to be as palatable as possible to everyone who encountered him, regardless of hemisphere. On Drake’s new “playlist,” More Life, his fascination with global pop is more joyful and generous than it’s been in the past.  

More Life is often opposite to last year’s VIEWS, a warm, convivial counterpoint to that album’s frigid introspection. It is looser, sequenced in the way only a fanboy can cram a mixtape with the objects of their obsession. A clear highlight is “Get It Together,” a collaboration with the 19-year old British vocalist Jorja Smith and the South African house DJ/producer Black Coffee.

It takes a full minute for Drake to appear on “Get It Together,” and in a respectful show of patience he allows Smith and Black Coffee to run the show. The song’s instrumental is a very lightly updated version of Black Coffee’s 2011 song “Superman.” Coffee’s reworked instrumental has been pared down to a minimalist groove—retaining the irresistible polyrhythms and lounging jazz piano of the original—but shorn of its brighter hues in favor of something slightly more melancholic. Smith, for her part, brings a dusky singing voice that sounds one-part Rihanna, one-part Parisian jazz lounge. And for what is the majority of the song, she basks in Coffee’s production, singing sweet nothings to someone who’s just not there. 

When Drake finally does appear, he finds that perfect blend of wounded pride, desire for forgiveness, and unhurried poise he hasn’t shown much of late. His singing, as well, has not sounded this languid in quite some time. “Get It Together,” recalls songs like “Take Care” or “Controlla,” where Drake is at his easygoing and boisterous best. It is an almost quiet rejection of the conflicted and angry songs on VIEWS. With “Get It Together,” and More Life overall, Drake sounds like he’s having fun again.