What was the highlight of Drake's weekend? Ask him, and he'd likely answer hosting the second OVOFest, the one night of the year Toronto becomes hip-hop's Mecca. Or maybe he'd get more specific and say having Nas come out to perform "Made You Look" was the best part. He wouldn't be off-base to say Stevie Wonder's mini-set in the middle of the concert was an achievement few rappers could pull off, let alone any rapper under 25. These are all worthy answers but the true highlight came quietly at 1:30 a.m. Sunday, when Drake dropped "Headlines," the first single from his forthcoming album, Take Care (due on his birthday, Oct. 24.)
If you've paid attention to the too-good-for-just-Mediafire freebies ("Dreams Money Can Buy," "Trust Issues") and DJ Khaled's summer anthem "I'm On One," you know two things: A) Drake is killing anything he touches right now and B) His maudlin, faded songs are so insular, so disconnected from the four-on-the-floor clubs that you wonder if he ever leaves the studio or just chooses to get bent comfortably. And that's why "Headlines," produced by Noah "40" Shebib and Boi-1da, is a real surprise. The usual dank and cold beats are replaced with a buoyant, staccato synth line and Casio snares. The song just goes, without a soft-to-loud dynamic or even obvious entry and exit points for its verses and hooks.