Drake’s third studio album, Nothing Was the Same is his most important. It built upon the succes Take Care while simultaneously expanding his canon as a lyrical and harmonic assassin, ultimately cementing his sound for a decade and beyond.
For all intents and purposes, Drake landed his first classic with his sophomore album Take Care, which earned him his first Grammy for his efforts. Take Care received rave reviews from critics and elevated the Toronto rapper from regional phenom to international superstar without compromising his uniqueness. Cut “Marvin’s Room” were clowned for being too emotional, yet it remains one of the most timeless songs of the album.
But, Nothing Was The Same, released two years later ten years ago, did everything that Take Care did musically, but better. It’s intro “Tuscan Leather” has sharper bars and is a more complete song than Take Care and sets the stage for the rest of the album. Meanwhile, he showcases his ability to both sing and rap at a high level on tracks like “Too Much,” “From Time,” and “Wu-Tang Forever,” and he arguably gets the better of Tha God MC Jay-Z on “Pound Cake” with lines like “The contract like '91 Dan Marino/I swear this got Michael Rapinos boostin' my ego.”
Drake’s third studio album somehow elevated him further at just 26, and proved that he could tap into new levels of his rap and singing bag. It forced people to take Drake seriously and ostracized the critics who were still caught up on him being a former child actor. Even the criticism he got for songs like “Started From the Bottom”—with many pointing to his Degrassi days as a sign of privilege—were drowned out by a viral music video, equally memorable 2013 MTV Video Music Award performance, and Platinum song certification for the song.
If there was ever a clear moment when Drake tried to claim the throne, it’s with Nothing Was The Same. It’s his favorite album, one in which he has a portrait with moving clouds hung in his Toronto mansion. It’s the real moment The Boy met the rap world, and claimed it for his own. “Just give it time, let’s see who still around a decade from now,” he raps, closing the album’s intro “Tuscan Leather,” and it’s also the prophecy that he fulfilled for himself 10 years later as one of the biggest rap stars in the world. Even if people consider Take Care to be his magnum opus, Nothing Was the Same was when Drake became Drake.
With the album dropping a decade ago, these are the 10 defining moments from the Nothing Was The Same era.
10. “Versace” Remix & “Jodeci Freestyle” SoundCloud release
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Leading up to the release of Nothing Was The Same, Drake was on a SoundCloud feature tear, and his verses on both the Migos “Versace” Remix and “Jodeci Freestyle” with J. Cole effectively set the internet on fire. 2013 was the turn of the blog era as the music industry began shifting toward streaming, but these two tracks encapsulate the wild wild west of pre-DSP collaboration madness. “Jodeci Freestyle” is the last song Cole and Drake ever made together and has both of their lyrical ability on full display, and Migos’ “Versace” remix remains one of the pivotal moments that helped launch them into the mainstream, all possible because of how charged up Drake was before Nothing Was The Same.
9. Would You Like a Tour?
8. Sparring with Jay-Z on “Pound Cake / Paris Morton Music 2”
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Before Nothing Was The Same, Drake and Jay-Z had only been on one song together with Thank Me Later’s “Light Up,” where Hov got the better of the rookie rapper. Drake got his lick back on “Pound Cake” and delivered one of the most lyrically tactful verses of his career while being able to spar with Tha God MC on a record only four years after their last battle. “Overly focused, it's far from the time to rest now/Debates growing 'bout who they think is the best now/Took a while, got the jokers out of the deck now/I'm holdin' all the cards and niggas wanna play chess now,” is Drake rapping like the rent is due, and the song is a microcosm of his newfound confidence to take rap’s throne.
7. “5AM in Toronto” pre-album release
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“Give these niggas the look, the verse, and even the hook/That’s why every song sounds like Drake featuring Drake,” is the epitome of The Boy talking his shit, and him dropping one of his best time stamp songs, “5AM in Toronto,” before Nothing Was The Same came out set the stage for the kind of energy he would have on the album. Drake spat venom at his competition on this track, and that fearlessness is what makes it compelling and helped build excitement for his impending classic. “Niggas treat me like I’ve been here for 10/Some niggas been here for a couple, never been here again/I’m on my King James shit, tryna win here again,” he raps like a hex, proving that even his most spiteful bars will still come true in due time.
6. Performing “Draft Day” with Lauryn Hill at OVO Fest 2014
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The OVO Fest that followed Nothing Was The Same was more memorable than most that came before it, thanks to a rare appearance and performance from the legendary Lauryn Hill. Hill performed “Lost Ones” and “Doo Wop” before Drake transitions into “Draft Day,” which samples the iconic song. This was a special moment because it felt like a coronation for Drake coming off the success of Nothing Was The Same and proved that his love in his home of Toronto could still match the love he was experiencing abroad.
5. The samples
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Drake’s go-to in-house producer Noah “40” Shebib and other frequent production collaborators like Boi-1da have a knack for picking unique samples for Drake to rap over, and Nothing Was The Same features some of their best selections to date. The album’s intro track “Tuscan Leather” was produced by 40 and samples Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing” and a live version of Curtis Mayfield’s “When Seasons Change” when the beat switches. This is followed by an impressive run of sample flips, like Boi-1da sampling “C.R.E.A.M,” “Don’t Say A Word,” and “Jimmy Smith Rap” on “Pound Cake,” or 40 sampling Zodiac’s “Loss Config” and Wu-Tang’s “It’s Yourz” on “Wu-Tang Forever.” Drake has some of his best bars over creative samples, and 40 and Boi-1da have a lot to do with that.
4. Hosting the ESPYs
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Drake is a showman on and off albums, and he jumps at any opportunity he gets to flex his acting chops. This was evident during his 2014 hosting of the ESPYs the summer after Nothing Was The Same dropped. Drake hosted the new sports award show so well because he didn’t take himself too seriously and really got into all of the different skits he was doing, from his Drake vs. Blake bits to professing his love to Skylar Diggins onstage. This was punctuated by him parodying himself and performing his original song “Side Pieces” with Brian McKnight to close the show.
3. “Hold On, We’re Going Home” VMA Performance
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Shortly before winning his first Grammy at the 2013 awards for Take Care, Drake put on a memorable MTV Video Music Award performance with a medley of songs from Nothing Was the Same, spearheaded by an artistic rendition of “Hold On, We’re Going Home.” One of the things that made the performance so memorable was the way Drake re-created the NWTS album cover to open his set. At this point in his career, the OVO rapper’s singing ability was still being called into question, so it was a bold move of him to open such an important performance with straight vocals, even though they were still unrefined. He followed that with an energized performance of “Started From the Bottom.”
1. The “Started From the Bottom” Music Video
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“Started From the Bottom” is one of the most popular records of Drake’s early career, yet the song and music video are the core ingredients in the mixture that cements the Nothing Was The Same era. Given his Degrassi upbringing, some people’s first reaction to the song was to question its legitimacy, but the moments from the Director X-led music video overshadowed any of the digs Drake was receiving for it. With cameo appearances from his mother and real childhood friends, a skit from comedian OB OBrien, and homages to his youth in Toronto, the “Started From The Bottom” music video is the most recognizable and notable moment from NWTS outside of the actual music itself. Images of a young Aubrey Graham strutting down the streets flooded with fake snow and a cocaine white Bently or partying with his friends in the Dominican Republic optimize the thesis of “Started From The Bottom”: we all “made it” from somewhere. And nothing has been the same since.
