What do you do with a hip-hop artist who just won’t abide by genre rules? Take a seat, listen, and smile

We hadn’t heard much about Drake’s long promised fourth studio album since last summer, when he released the single “0 to 100/The Catch Up,” a walking-pace, rough-lyric ode to ultra-bass-heavy Biggie Smalls days. The track implied that his synth-heavy era was at least on a temporary hiatus, and then the 28-year-old Toronto native offered a simple and tantalizing “We already got Spring 2015 poppin” forecast about the upcoming Views From the 6 disc.

One of this staff ’s favorite hip-hop artists, Drake and his fourth release were afterward a source of constant discussion, and then, without warning, Views From the 6 dropped on February 13 without so much as a press release beforehand. It was a fascinating marketing strategy; no multi-vector media marketing, no staged, pseudo-spectacular public relations badness or exploding relationship in order to generate interest—the album simply appeared out of thin air. The lack of frenzied marketing was all the more remarkable given that competing albums are poised to drop any moment from Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West.

A first listening suggests one of the most fascinating hiphop discs of the year. From “How About Now,” “Heat of The Moment,” and “6 God” to the title track, we have a swirling, diving mix of traditional, almost garage recorded homages to the past, spiced by hard language (very NSFW) and synth beats, and then, out of nowhere, moments of gorgeous melodic bliss. You never know what’s coming, and you never mind for a moment. Drake continues to fascinate, as does the bizarre market reality that Iggy Azalea actually outsold him last year.

Sometimes there’s just no accounting for taste.