Black Coffee and Drake. Picture: Twitter
From the moment “Falling Back”, the first full song on Drake’s new album “Honestly, Nevermind”, starts playing Black Coffee’s influence is clear.
It's a vibe straight out of the veteran house DJ’s current sonic direction.
Over the rest of the 13 song album, Drake croons about unrequited love (as he always does) over a soundscape that sounds like a remix of sorts of Black Coffee’s recent Grammy Award winning album, “Subconsciously”.
In fact, the “Overdrive” beat sounds almost identical to “Flava” featuring Una Rams and Tellaman off of “Subconsciously”.
Last year, in a review of Pitchfork, writer Tarisai Ngangura spoke this into existence when she wrote that “Flava” could "easily fit into the perpetually lovelorn rapper’s playlist".
Black Coffee and Drake had previously collaborated in 2017 on the “More Life” single “Get It Together”, which was essentially a remake of the DJs classic single, “Superman”.
"Drake just dropped a full Dance album and Black Coffee production very heavy on that. What a time," Tweeted Cassper this morning.
Drake just dropped a full Dance album and Black Coffee production very heavy on that. What a time.
— Don Billiato (@casspernyovest) June 17, 2022
In describing his approach to “Subconsciously” to Apple Music two years back, Black Coffee said, “I want the melody to be right. Then the lyrics can follow."
That philosophy is on full view on" Honestly, Nevermind", as its open, minimalist production paves the way for moody and emotive songwriting to take centre stage.
While the overarching sound is dance music, it’s largely a genre-bending body of work that dabbles in both electronic and traditional dance.
It’s a broad sound that’s likely to be popular on the European festival circuit that Black Coffee frequents.
There’s also heavy involvement from multiple South African Music Awards (SAMA) winner Tresor. The South African-Congolese pop star co-wrote several songs on here and also had his vocals used on “Currents”, “Down Hill” and “Flight's Booked”.
Tresor previously co-produced and co-wrote on Drake’s previous album "Certified Lover Boy" on the afropop song “Fountains” featuring Tems.
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