现在才知道 (2015)

If You're Reading This It's Too Late is the fourth mixtape by Canadian rapper Drake. It was surprise released on February 13, 2015 through OVO Sound, Young Money, Cash Money and Republic Records. The mixtape was primarily produced by Drake's longtime collaborators Boi-1da and 40, with additional production contributed by OVO signee PartyNextDoor, among others. Features include PartyNextDoor, Travis Scott, and Lil Wayne.

If You're Reading This It's Too Late received positive reviews and debuted atop the US Billboard 200, moving 535,000 album-equivalent units its first week. This achievement marked Drake's fourth time at the top of the chart. The mixtape also broke Spotify's first-week streaming record with over 17.3 million streams in the first three days. It was previously held by Drake himself, with his album Nothing Was the Same (2013), with 15.146 million streams in the first week. The album was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2016 Grammy Awards. In 2020, the album was ranked 367th on Rolling Stone's updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Background

In July 2014, Drake announced the title of his fourth studio album to be Views from the 6, upon which recording had reportedly not begun in session. In November 2014, in an interview, Toronto Raptors basketball player DeMar DeRozan mentioned that Drake was intending to release a mixtape in January 2015. On February 12, 2015, Drake released a short film titled Jungle, which featured snippets of new songs such as "Know Yourself" and "Jungle".

In an interview with HipHopDX, DatPiff founder Kyle Reilly revealed that Drake was initially in talks to release If You're Reading This It's Too Late as a free download on DatPiff hosted by DJ Drama, before Cash Money Records intervened. Due to its release via digital download outlets such as iTunes and Amazon Music as well as physically in vinyl and CD formats, contractually it is considered his fourth studio album for Cash Money Records. The album's cover art was done by Canadian artist Jim Joe.

Release and promotion

On February 12, 2015, the album was posted as an iTunes link from Drake's Facebook. It also was uploaded to OVO Sound's official SoundCloud account, but was quickly removed. It was released onto the iTunes Store on February 13, 2015, by Cash Money Records.

Drake hinted on his Instagram account of an alternate version of the project by DJ Candlestick and hosted by OG Ron C, titled If You're Choppin' This It's Too Late. This version was later released on April 14. The physical version of the album was also released on April 21, with two bonus tracks "How About Now" and "My Side" in stores as "collector's edition".

Critical reception

If You're Reading This It's Too Late was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the mixtape received an average score of 78, based on 33 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 7.4 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.

Tim Sendra of AllMusic said, "It makes for an album that's hard to love right away, but if you stick with it, is a rewarding listen." Evan Rytlewski of The A.V. Club said, "Drake may not have an hour's worth of great songs here, but he does have an hour's worth of thoughts he needs to get off his chest." Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph said, "Drake is amongst the most musically and lyrical progressive proponents of his chosen medium, bringing a level of educated artiness and psychological self-awareness to a genre too often reliant on big beats and braggadocio." Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly said, "Late is hardly a throwaway. In fact, it might be his most consistently rewarding full-length yet." Eric Zaworski of Exclaim! praised the release's production, writing that it "revels in the hazy drone of the 'Toronto Sound' that OVO's 40 and Boi-1da helped define, with offerings from up-and-comers like Brampton's WondaGurl and PRIME's Eric Dingus rounding it out." Paul Lester of The Guardian said, "the former child TV star comes out fighting, amid machinegun fire, complaining about everyone from his peers to his family – but he convinces more as the original sad rapper."