After dropping off the radar a bit to recalibrate, Drake lends an assist to his OVO artist Smiley. They return with a new collaboration, “2 Mazza,” paying homage to their hometown slang. The two Toronto rappers shrug off the concept of chasing mass appeal, instead making an insider cut that is just for those in the know.
It’s an interesting and potentially smart strategy for Drake, who spent the last year being roundly abused by an iconoclastic and deeply insular foe. So withdrawing to his own familiar bubble and reconnecting with his roots, perhaps he’s hoping to marshal his hometown base, and use that groundswell as a foundation for his bid to return to mainstream glory.
In many ways, this constitutes a hard reset on his career; his initial successes were with local artists like Kardinal Offishall, which helped him connect with audiences in Canada long before he linked up with Lil Wayne and became the center of the hip-hop universe for a bit.
It also makes sense for him to do so with Smiley, one of his own OVO artists; after spending a decade collaborating with artists from the American South to build his popularity stateside, perhaps that’s why it seemed like he lost touch. Solidifying his home fort might just keep him grounded enough to get back into the public’s good graces.