Is Drake on par with Michael Jackson?

Thriller introduced a Michael Jackson we could not understand at the time and we will never fully understand later, with sequin gloves, moonwalking and a paranoid and disturbed mind.

Drake is the only singer in the past 37 years to beat Michael Jackson’s record of having 9 songs from the same album in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.

Nearly 30 years ago, Michael Jackson – then only 24 years old – told the production team that he wanted to make an album where each song had the ability to knock out listeners.

He was fed up with albums where only one song was worth the money, and all the rest were mediocre. Finally, he and producer Quincy Jones created the album Thriller.

Michael Jackson got what he wanted, each song in Thriller was a knockout when 7 out of 10 of its songs entered the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Over the past 37 years, that record seemed impossible to break. Until September of this year, when Drake released the album Certified Lover Boy and in just one week, 9 of its songs dominated the top 10.

“Is 2021’s Drake as big as Michael Jackson or The Beatles at their peak?”, chart/music magazine Billboard asked this question on Twitter.

A question that seems to only “ignite” arguments between fan communities, but thinking carefully, it is a question that in any era people should ask to have a deeper look. throughout the symbols from the past to the present.

So, is Drake on par with Michael Jackson? Many people say no. Although Certified Lover Boy may surpass Thriller in some numbers, Thriller’s greatness is not limited to just the numbers.

Thriller created a new world where musical apartheid had collapsed, and anyone who wanted to dance, whether white or black, was welcome to become its citizen.

Thriller introduced a Michael Jackson we could not understand at the time and we will never fully understand later, with sequin gloves, moonwalking and a paranoid and disturbed mind.

What about Drake’s Certified Lover Boy? Despite its sales records, it was a dull, clichéd album.

However, it doesn’t mean they don’t have anything in common. Before Thriller, MTV often did not broadcast MVs by black artists simply because they thought black music was “not rock enough”.

It reminds us of the criticism against Drake, that he doesn’t rap enough. If Thriller proved that pop audiences and metal fans could swoon in the same musical space, Drake’s products filled the gap between rap and pop.

Drake’s way of melting rap into mellow melodies was once considered heresy, but it changed the sound of popular music.

Actually, it wasn’t until now that Drake’s name was mentioned in conjunction with Michael Jackson. People often call Drake a cheesy rapper because he often sings and raps about a broken heart or the sad mood of a guy in love.

But there’s another theme that appears frequently in Drake’s music: Michael Jackson.

He mentioned Michael Jackson many times in his rap lyrics. He took advantage of Michael Jackson’s 1983 recording to include in the album Scorpion. There are videos of him dancing the moonwalk to Billie Jean music.

He said that when he was a child, he watched Michael Jackson with a religious experience, and for the first time understood the power of an entertainer.

Yes, a great entertainer creates a cult following, but more importantly, among those followers, some also become greats. Elvis Presley’s legacy is not only his music or fashion, but also The Beatles – his passionate fans.

So, the question “Is Drake on par with Michael Jackson?” Not to compare two symbols of two eras. It just shows the continuity of music, and isn’t the success of modern music the greatest compliment to the music of the past?

Looking back at history, every pop king/queen never separated themselves into a separate autonomous kingdom but was always a “gangster unifier”, from Elvis Presley to The Beatles, from Michael Jackson to Madonna. And Drake is on his way to doing the same.