In the Fall of 2015, two of the biggest rap artists in the world, Drake & Future, released an 11 song mixtape executively produced by Metro Boomin and long time Drake producer, 40.
Metro produced or co-produced eight of its 11 songs. Additional producers include Southside, Allen Ritter, Boi-1da, DJ Esco, Frank Dukes, and others.
It was released on the iTunes Store and Apple Music, and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and sold 334,000 copies in its first week.
With such a monumental album, naturally come a five facts article by DailyRapFacts. Enjoy!
5 – Drake & Future recorded ‘What A Time To Be Alive’ in Atlanta in 6 days.
What a Time to Be Alive was allegedly born out of an impromptu, six-day recording session between the duo in Future’s hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.
Drake told Rolling Stone, “It’s a little soundtrack for people that need it right now. I went to Atlanta for six days with the hopes of doing some songs with Future, and when you get around Future, it’s like a vortex, that guy can outwork anybody right now. It’s tough to see someone do four, five songs in one night and not try to match it.”
4 – ‘Digital Dash’ was the first song they made for the project and ‘Jumpman’ was the last song the duo created for the project.
‘Digital Dash’ was presented as a finished piece to Drake prior to him getting on the song.
‘Jumpman’ would be the highest selling and most popular song from the album. The song was eventually certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for combined sales and streaming units of over four millions units.
In an interview with Fader, What a Time to be Alive executive producer Metro Boomin recalled one of the song’s sessions. “I remember, it was like six in the morning, I had been up in the studio all night mixing beats. And Drake come in in the middle of the night to f–k with ‘Jumpman. Drake was playing the new verse,” he added. “And I heard ‘Jumpman, jumpman. Metro Boomin on production, wow.’ and I knew it was going to be a hit.”
3. After a commercial featuring Taylor Swift rapping to ‘Jumpman’ while running on a treadmill, downloads of the song increased by 431%.
Apple released a commercial for Apple Music featuring Taylor Swift rapping along to the song and accidentally falling face first on the treadmill, which ultimately became very popular and was dubbed as ‘TAYLOR vs TREADMILL’. Following the premiere of the commercial, downloads of the song increased by 431%. According to Swift, the storyline was based on true events.
3- WATTBA marked the second project for both artists to chart at number one on the Billboard 200 in 2015.
If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late for Drake and DS2 for future, respectively
2- Future gets almost double the airtime of Drake on the album.
Future having the majority of the bars and time on the album led many to understand the true time that went into the album. Doing it in 6 days in Futures hometown, Atlanta, with the majority of Future’s crew and producers its no wonder it sounds like a Future album with Drake added in.
1 -There were rumors of a sequel to the album dropping late 2018 early 2019.
In an Instagram story posted back in April 2019, Drake can be seen throwing up the deuces, saying “What’s that? We gotta cook that up, that two.” Future then hints at the fact that the album is already done, “It’s already cooked.”
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Songs such as ‘WAIT FOR U’, ‘Life is Good’, ‘Big Mood’ & ‘Desires‘ were rumored to be on the album.
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