''What a Time to Be Alive'' is a collaborative commercial

mixtape A mixtape (alternatively mix-tape, mix tape or mixed tape) is a compilation of music, typically from multiple sources, recorded onto a medium. With origins in the 1980s, the term normally describes a homemade compilation of music onto a cassette ...

by Canadian rapper

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

and American rapper

Future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...

. It was released on September 20, 2015, by

Young Money Entertainment Young Money Entertainment is an American record label founded by rapper Lil Wayne. Young Money's president is Lil Wayne's lifelong friend and fellow rapper Mack Maine. The label was an imprint of Cash Money Records and is distributed by Republi ...

Cash Money Records Cash Money Records is an American record label founded in 1991 by brothers Ronald "Slim" Williams and Bryan "Birdman" Williams. Distributed by Republic, formerly known as Universal Republic, the label has been home to a roster of mostly hip h ...

Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...

, A1 Records and

Freebandz Freebandz is an American record label founded by American rapper Future (rapper), Future. The label's releases are distributed through Epic Records. History 2011–2012: We Global Freebandz was founded by Future. Future signed a major label deal ...

. The mixtape was executive produced by

Metro Boomin Leland Tyler Wayne (born September 16, 1993), professionally known as Metro Boomin, is an American record producer, record executive, beatmaker, and DJ. He is known for his dark production style and its influence on modern hip hop and trap. R ...

, who also produced or co-produced eight of its 11 songs. Additional producers include 40 (who also executive produced the mixtape), alongside

Southside Southside or South Side may refer to: Places Australia * Southside, Queensland, a semi-rural locality in the Gympie Region Canada * South Side, Newfoundland and Labrador, a community in the St. George's Bay area on the southwest coast of New ...

Allen Ritter Allen Raphael Ritter (born June 19, 1988) is an American record producer and songwriter. He has produced for a variety of artists, most notably Drake ("Controlla"), Travis Scott (" Pick Up the Phone"), Kanye West (" All Day", " Father Stretch M ...

Boi-1da Matthew Jehu Samuels (born October 12, 1986), known professionally as Boi-1da ( , a play on "boy wonder"), is a Jamaican-Canadian Record production, record producer and songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario. The Toronto raised producer has work ...

Frank Dukes Adam King Feeney (born September 12, 1983), better known as Ging and by his former stage name Frank Dukes, is a Canadian musician, record producer, and songwriter. A prolific producer, he has worked with artists including Camila Cabello ("Havana ...

, and others. It was released on the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

and

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...

, and debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200.

Background

''What a Time to Be Alive'' was supported by Drake and Future's previous collaboration on the

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

Where Ya At "Where Ya At" is a song by American rapper Future featuring Canadian rapper Drake.. Produced by Metro Boomin, it was released on July 17, 2015, as the second single from his third studio album, '' DS2'' (2015). Chart performance "Where Ya At" deb ...

". As friends, they originally planned to record a mixtape together earlier in the year; the project never fully materialized. However, during recording sessions for "Where Ya At", the duo began working on the project, beginning in July. According to a 2016 interview with

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reid Lowe (born 7 August 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence thro ...

, Drake spent 6 days in Atlanta working on the project with Future. "Digital Dash" was the first song they made for the project, presented as a finished piece to Drake prior to him getting on the song. " Jumpman" was the last song the duo created for the project.

Release, packaging and promotion

The mixtape was first teased by a range of sources; including DJ Skee,

Angela Yee Angela Yee (born January 3, 1976) is an American radio personality. She hosted the nationally syndicated morning show ''The Breakfast Club'' along with DJ Envy and Charlamagne tha God. She is on the Board of Governors of the We Are Family Fou ...

and Ernest Baker, and this project was officially announced on Drake's

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

on September 19, 2015, when he revealed the mixtape's release date and cover art. The artwork is a stock image that was purchased from

Shutterstock Shutterstock is an American provider of stock photography, stock footage, stock music, and editing tools; it is headquartered in New York. Founded in 2003 by programmer and photographer Jon Oringer, Shutterstock maintains a library of around 2 ...

. Drake and Future premiered the album on Beats 1 on

OVO Sound OVO Sound (also known simply as OVO) is a Toronto-based Canadian record label, founded in 2012 by hip hop artist Drake, producer 40, and Oliver El-Khatib. It operates as a subsidiary of, and is distributed through, Warner Music Group's Warner ...

's "OVO Sound Radio" show on September 20, 2015, and weeks after it was released on the

and

. The

Summer Sixteen Tour The Summer Sixteen Tour was a co-headlining concert tour by Canadian rapper Drake, and American rapper Future. It began on July 20, 2016 in Austin, and concluded with its final show in Toronto, Ontario on October 8, 2016. Scheduled for 60 perfor ...

by Drake was made to support this mixtape.

Critical reception

''What a Time to Be Alive'' received generally positive reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 70, based on 24 reviews. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' described Drake and Future's chemistry as expected and said "Future deals with personal demons that he tries, and fails, to drown in drugs; Drake is mostly about insecurities and lesser gravity". ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' gave the album 3.5 out of 5 stars, attributing the "fresh and spontaneous" feel to the quick production of the album, where "both artists replaying off their louder-than-life personalities without overthinking the details". However, Sheldon Pearce in a ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' review suggests that this limited time-frame for making the album is the sonic downfall of the mixtape arguing that the album "wasn't created with the care or the dutiful curation we've come to expect from both artists when solo." In a mixed review, Sheldon Pearce of ''

'' criticizes the "decided lack of chemistry between these two", because "they have difficulty sharing the same space" when on the same song. Pearce goes on to highlight how Future's presence, both in content and persona, is much more prevalent than Drake's, where the latter appears to be a "bystander" and "out of his element". Yet, he highlights moments where the collaboration works most effectively. On "Scholarships", Drake "throws Future the perfect alley-oop", "Jumpman" is a banger, and "Diamonds Dancing" is the first track between the two artists that "clicks on all cylinders". Additionally, Pearce lauds the production by Metro Boomin as "glimmering" and hails both rappers when they are able to work on their own and make music in their respective comfort zones in songs like Future's "Jersey" and Drake's "30 for 30 Freestyle". ''

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

'' said about Drake verses; "despite a corny bar here or there, Drake sounds way more energized with much better flows." ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' was disappointed with Drake on the album, quoting "despite a beat by Drake whisperer Noah "40" Shebib, the album-closing "30 For 30 Freestyle" doesn't come near clearing the admittedly high bar Drake has set for himself in 2015."

Commercial performance

''What a Time to Be Alive'' debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200, with 375,000

album-equivalent units The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...

; it sold 334,000 copies in its first week, with the remainder of its unit count representing the album's

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

activity and

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

sales during the tracking week. It became both

and

's second albums to chart at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200 in 2015 (''

If You're Reading This It's Too Late ''If You're Reading This It's Too Late'' is a commercial mixtape by Canadian rapper Drake. It was released on February 13, 2015, without prior announcement, by OVO Sound, Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records and Republic Records. Th ...

'' and '' DS2'', respectively). In its second week it sold 65,000 copies. As of January 27, 2016, ''What a Time to Be Alive'' has sold 519,000 copies in the United States. On March 15, 2016, the album was certified

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA), for combined sales and

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...

s of over a million units.

Track listing

Notes * "30 for 30 Freestyle" features background vocals by Kyle Machado

Personnel

Musicians * Maneesh – piano, keyboards (tracks 3, 6) Technical * Eric Manco – recording (tracks 1–5, 7–9) *

Seth Firkins Seth Chaim Firkins (August 5, 1981 – September 23, 2017) was an American audio engineer. Firkins engineered songs for artists such as Rihanna, Future, Young Thug, Jay-Z, Trina, Ciara, and Gucci Mane. Career Firkins was exposed at an early a ...

– recording (track 6) * James Kang – recording (track 10) * Miguel Scott – recording assistance (tracks 1–9, 11) * Noel "Gadget" Campbell – mixing (tracks 1–9, 11) *

Noah "40" Shebib Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...

– mixing (tracks 1–9, 11) *

– mixing (track 10) * Les Bateman – mixing assistance (tracks 1–9, 11) * Greg Moffett – mixing assistance (tracks 1–9, 11) * Harley Arsenault – mixing assistance (tracks 1–9, 11) * Noel Cadastre – engineering (tracks 1–9, 11) * Chris Athens – mastering (all tracks) * Dave Huffman – mastering assistance (all tracks)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2015 mixtape albums Albums produced by Boi-1da Albums produced by Metro Boomin Albums produced by Noah "40" Shebib Albums produced by Southside (record producer) Cash Money Records compilation albums Collaborative albums Drake (musician) albums Epic Records compilation albums Future (rapper) albums Trap music albums Albums produced by Allen Ritter Albums produced by Frank Dukes