Drake was once the savior of R & B. On "Scorpion", he comes back

Like many rumors swirling before the liberation of Scorpion Drake's R & B album turned out to be largely a myth. Yet, there are seven heavy vocals on the second volume of Scorpion many of which blur in a creepy stew of romantic anguish and missed opportunity; it's the most R & B that Drake has delivered personally for years. This seems appropriate because the R & B is more important now than it has been at any other time in Drake's career. He plunges back into a genre that he has almost completely re-tooled and, commercially speaking, helped revive.

When Drake began scoring hits regularly in 2009, R & B was struggling to attract attention in the mainstream; the dollars were all in the Top 40 pop, and to a lesser extent, hip-hop. To cope during this period, R & B titans like Usher and Ne-Yo were forced to appear on numbing EDM disks. "It was a time when people were saying that R & B was dead," says singer Ro James Rolling Stone . "But Drake showed a different point of view."

He goes back in a genre that he almost completely reimagined and, commercially speaking, helped revive.

On Drake's records in those early years, some of his choices had a clear lineage: Noah "40" Shebib, his producer, is on record as a fan of Tank, and you can hear echoes of " Coldest Winter "Tank in the Rhythms of" Successful "," Fireworks "and" Marvin's House. " But Drake has redefined R & B singing with surprising speed. "It made it acceptable to be simple again," says Tiffany Fred, Grammy award winning songwriter, who also released a full EP of Drake covers. "He pushed the thought of a rapper to sing and proved that you do not need any theatricality," adds Brian Warfield, half of the writing production duo Fisticuffs (Jazmine Sullivan, Miguel)

was synonymous with singers capable of performing virtuoso performances and crushing tracks with heartbreaking ad-libs. "Before [Drake] by recording the hook in an R & B song, you stack it four times, you would have background voices," Warfield says. "The harmonies and ad-libs were where you had to flex your muscles, show your vocal ability and your ear."

Drake abandoned much of this tradition, or imported it – via samples of 90s singers rising stars like the Weeknd. Primary vocal lines remained accessible. "Drake does not do vocal acrobatics most of the time," Fred says.

This democratized a genre formerly known for its heroic deeds. "Drake puts his octave lower, so it's less flamboyant," says songwriter August Rigo (Kehlani, SWV). "And because it's in an octave close to talking, it allows anyone who can not sing to sing a Drake song, his ability to sing is ten."

"He made his own way Lionel Richie"

Drake also reversed the structural expectations for R & B songs. He loves Jodeci and sampled them, but a Drake ballad never bursts like a ballad Jodeci. He sings in long tangible lines, snuggling up against notes rather than attacking and embellishing them. His song form corresponds to this vocal approach – even in "Passionfruit", an undeniable hit, there is no cathartic release during the hook. "Usually songs are built from the couplet and the chorus explodes," says Rigo. "In Drake's songs, the chorus will arrive and everything will fall – it's a little backward." R & B singers are often known to jump the ladder; Drake is just as likely to modulate down.

Drake's innovations worked like crazy. "He made his own way, and the person I would compare it to is Lionel Richie," says Mark Batson (Beyoncé, Anthony Hamilton). "When everyone was doing hard funk music, Richie created that sweet way, and wrote good songs." (Drake did better to Richie, since he was on the other side of the aisle making the modern equivalent of funk – hip-hop – at the same time.) L & # 39; The purest example of the Drake R & B sound remains "Marvin's Room" of 2011's least-dynamic tracks to reach number 21 on the Hot 100. The single is magnetic precisely because Drake's spill of jealousy never overflows musically – there is no resolution in this R & B, no explosion anguish, only a stasis

This class of young singers took this style as gospel – here are some tools that they could use to survive in a world led by hip-hop. You'll hear Drake's echoes in Bryson Tiller and Tory Lanez, Tinashe and Jhene Aiko, Post Malone and Kehlani, A. Chal and 6lack, Majid Jordan and PARTYNEXTDOOR, Roy Woods and DVSN (the last four are all signed to Drake's OVO label) ). For years, it was impossible to turn on the radio without hearing a disciple of Drake. The look of this model was such that even R & B veterans like Alicia Keys and Beyonce, who specialize in old-school vocal presentations, moderated their energy on Drake tracks co-wrote ("Unthinkable (I & # 39; m Ready) "and" Mine "respectively

As all these artists pushed the sound of Drake, it was easy for him to engage in other interests. Take Care en Singing and swaying for the charts, Drake embarked on new genres, including Jamaican dancehall, Nigerian Afrobeats and South African house, which allowed other artists to take the lead on entire tracks. – leaving PARTYNEXTDOOR moaning and moaning on "Wednesday Night Interlude", handing the mic to Sampha on the "4422." And even though Drake was so successful in raising the tune, he worked hard to sharpen a noisy rap style , quarrelsome, who carried it to "Worse Behavior "to If you are reading this, it is too late, What time to be alive to" Free Smoke "and" No Long Talking. "

For much of Scorpion especially the first half, this remains Drake's mode: upside down, fists up. But the second part of the new album is a welcome change of pace. The transformation is announced on the final track of Side One by Hiatus Kaiyote's Nai Palm, which harmonizes with itself during an impressive excerpt from Aaliyah's cover. When Drake returns to Side Two, he is stunned into a familiar R & B-induced stupor. "Peak", "Jaded" and "Finesse" are wonderfully dull – no one could deliver the line "Honestly, I can not hold "with less bite than Drake. These could all be a long track, elegantly deflated and eminently singable. There's more momentum in "Summer Games," "Happy Birthday Ratchet," "Do not Matter to Me," and "After Dark," but you know those partially engaged melodic patterns and nonchalant growls – you've heard them almost a decade.

For Drake, this part of Scorpion is both a good return to form and a moment of dissonance. When R & B was struggling, it helped to clear a path to go forward. But now, he offers a surprisingly rigid view of R & B – especially at one point, perhaps the first of a decade, when his grip on the genre weakens. Several young singers on the charts today, including Daniel Caesar, Ella Mai and Jacquees, owe nothing to the sound of Drake. And by far the best R & B of the last three months has been Ty Dolla $ ign, who likes the kind of vocal drama that Drake has sent into exile: for Ty, the more complex harmonies and melismatic acrobatics, better c & # 39; East.

When Ty appears twice on the second half of Scorpion he feels scary and important, an extraterrestrial incursion into Drake-land. He is there in "Jaded", wildly emoting somewhere behind Drake as a translator of R & B sentiments. And on "After Dark", Ty stands at the forefront, placing and ad libbing through a whole unrestrained verse. After years of drawing on Drake's plans, R & B is moving to new models. But these two songs suggest that Drake might consider moving with him.