The album cover and booklet were shot by Toronto-based photographer Caitlin Cronenberg. The fact that Drake was significantly larger than life-size on the cover was widely discussed, and CN Tower's Twitter account later confirmed it to be photoshopped.
The cover artwork for Views was released via Drake's Twitter account on April 24, 2016, which features Drake sitting atop the CN Tower in Toronto. On April 29, 2016, it was revealed that the title had been shortened to Views. According to Drake on Twitter, "the 6" is a reference to his hometown of Toronto, Ontario. The album's title was first announced as Views from the 6, as it first appeared from a report in a July 2014 article from Billboard. It won Top Billboard 200 Album and Top Rap Album at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, among other awards.
The album has been certified six times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Despite this, it became one of Drake's most commercially successful albums having sold over seven million certified units worldwide. The album received lukewarm reviews from critics, many of whom found it to be an overlong retread of Drake's previous work. All 20 songs from the album charted on the US Billboard Hot 100. It spent a 13 non-consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 and became Drake's first number-one album on the UK Albums Chart. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, with over one million album-equivalent units in its first week of release, including 852,000 copies, and achieving a then-record over 245 million streams. The album was supported by five singles: " Hotline Bling", " One Dance", " Pop Style", " Controlla", and " Too Good". Similar to his previous records, the album sees Drake discussing romance, experiences with betrayal, and celebrations of loyalty and friendship. The album marks Drake's first full foray into Jamaican dancehall music, while also featuring other genres such as R&B, trap, Afrobeat, UK funky, and pop. Views takes influence from West Indian and West African music. Featured guest appearances include PartyNextDoor, Pimp C, Dvsn, Wizkid, Kyla, and Rihanna. 40 also primarily handled the production on the album alongside Nineteen85, Maneesh Bidaye, Kanye West, and Jordan Ullman, among others. Recording sessions took place from 2015 to 2016, with both Drake and his longtime collaborator and record producer 40 serving as the record's executive producers. It was released on April 29, 2016, by Cash Money Records, Republic Records, and Young Money Entertainment. For all intents and purposes, the Drake of Views is the same one we got on If You’re Reading This and What a Time, but if his previous proper album ( Nothing Was the Same) foretold anything, it’s that the man peering down from CN Tower sees things differently than the rest of us.Views is the fourth studio album by Canadian rapper and singer Drake. He isn’t too much for the world, though, ruminating on his position as one of music’s biggest names-and those who’d rather he wasn’t-on songs like “Still Here,” “Hype,” and “Grammys.” Maybe the the most affecting acknowledgment to this end is the fact that “Hotline Bling,” a strong contender for 2015 song of the summer, was such an afterthought by the time Views was released that it appears here as a bonus track. There are references here to specific people (“Redemption”), places (“Weston Road Flows”), and experiences (“Views”), along with nods to the influence of the city’s Caribbean population on “With You,” “Controlla,” and “Too Good” (which just happens to feature Rihanna). “I made a decision last night that I would die for it,” Drake raps on “9.” “Just to show the city what it takes to be alive for it.” Drake’s presence eclipsed Toronto just about as soon as So Far Gone dropped, but the city-and what it thinks of him-was never far from his mind. Views, which followed two wildly successful projects in 2015 that he’d branded as mixtapes- If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late and the Future collab What a Time to Be Alive-would confirm him as both, his penchant for immaculate songwriting still fully intact and the pressures of existing as the most popular voice in rap, as well as his hometown’s most successful export, weighing heavy on his mind. He looks less like the superhero he’d made himself into over the course of a roughly six-year rise as singer-songwriter extraordinaire and more like a troubled monarch. On the cover of his fourth studio album Views, Drake looks down from atop Toronto’s CN Tower, paying homage to the city’s notoriously frigid winter temperatures in a heavyweight shearling coat and high-cut boots.
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