By the time his debut album, Thank Me Later, dropped in 2010, he established himself as the king of melodic rap. Early on, Drake grew bigger by refining his approach of blending rap and R&B styles like no other. The 6 God’s first mixtape, Room for Improvement, came out back in 2006, and only moved 6,000 units, which is wild compared to the 500,000 his So Far Gone EP would go on to sell in 2009. He really did have to start from the bottom. Without a doubt, today, Drizzy warms that royal seat on both a numbers and cultural impact level. True to his braggadocios line on his 2013 song “Tuscan Leather”-"This is nothin' for the radio, but they'll still play it though/’Cause it's that new Drizzy Drake, that's just the way it go"-people have grown to eat up everything he releases. Over the past 15 years, Drake has thoroughly been building his own body of work to the point where it's now undeniable he's arguably one of the greats. In the future, Omen hopes to get into film scoring and dabble more into R&B production.A seat on the diamond-encrusted rap throne cannot be obtained without a remarkable catalog to prop it up. Since then, Omen has worked with a slew of artists, including Fabolous, Juelz Santana, Jae Millz and Ludacris, for which he won a Grammy when his 2006 album “Release Therapy” won Best Rap Album. “That was my first placement,” says Omen. In 1999, when Rocafella artist Memphis Bleek was working on his debut album, he heard a track Omen had produced and used it for his “Coming of Age” debut. Omen’s been producing since the early 90s, when he was part of a local New York aspiring rap group. He also says him and 40 will be doing a lot of the production on the album collectively and currently have a couple of more records in the works. Who is Drake?’ I told Drake then, ‘you’re on your way to greatness.'”Īlthough Omen couldn’t reveal any more details on “Thank Me Later,” he did say it will be the equivalent to “‘So Far Gone’ on steroids,” which is Drake’s mixtape that propelled him to superstardom and a record deal with Universal Motown via Young Money Records earlier this year. “No one knew this kid yet, not even Wayne was checking for him then,” says Omen, “but when people heard that record, they were like, ‘this song is hot. “Overdose On Life,” which also features rappers Mickey Factz and Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes, also served another purpose: after leaking in the early part of 2008, the track became the first taste the U.S. Omen told them about the very fitting “Overdose On Life,” and sent it over.Īlthough “Overdose To Life” didn’t make the cut for “Detox,” Dre flew Drake and 40 out to the west coast off the strength of the track, where they remained for a couple of months working on music. 30 minutes later, Drake had finished the “craziest 32 bar verse ever, and we laid it,” says Omen.Ĭoincidentally, a few days after that, Omen got a call from an A&R at Aftermath Records, asking Omen for tracks for Dr. Omen played Drake a song he had created for his own release, a track titled “Overdose On Life,” and asked Drake to write to it. In 2007, Omen reunited with 40 in the studio, this time asking him to bring Drake. “I heard Drake, and immediately thought, ‘this kid is crazy!'” “He told me he needed my insight on Drake’s direction,” says Omen. A few years later, during another visit to Canada, Omen was introduced to a new artist 40 was working with named Drake. Omen, an up-and-coming producer then, met 40 in Toronto back in 2003 while working on Canadian artist Jellystone’s album. The-Dream eventually got on the track as of now, he has a verse and appears on the last two choruses and on the bridge.īut Omen’s working relationship with Drake started years before this track came into fruition. When they go out and they get dressed up and put their makeup on and get their hair done, they have the capacity to shut the club down,” Omen recalls. Drake said he had a song idea called ‘Shut It Down’ aimed at club-going females. The idea for the track, which Omen describes as a “Prince-like, powerful song,” is about “empowering females. Camila Cabello Joins Hans Zimmer for 'Frozen Planet II' Song 'Take Me Back Home'