Keep the Family Close - Intellectual

In the second verse, Drake says “with my dad out in Tennessee is where I belong.” So “closer” refers to literal distance, as well as emotional connection.

Drake has a strained relationship with his father, who left his mom when he was five. But at this album’s launch, he told Zane Lowe:

My father is a huge inspiration for me…I’ve grown to just have an appreciation for the man that he is.

Drake is closer with his mother, whom he called “the most important person in my life.”

Drake has said it before, and now he has someone else say it for him: Don’t mess with him. The OVO crew is always there to back him up, and Drake is not one for holding back, look what happened to Meek Mill.

Yeah, trigger fingers turn to twitter fingers
Yeah, you gettin' bodied by a singin' nigga
I’m not the type of nigga that’ll type to niggas

And physical altercations? This isn’t the kind of person you want to be fighting with.

In his pre-album release interview with Beats 1’s Zane Lowe, Drake said that VIEWS is based around the change of the seasons in Toronto—from winter to summer, back to winter.

As the opening track, “Keep The Family Close” is based in the dead of winter—hence the woman (voiced by Sabrina Galmo) mentioning the cold.

Drake is shown sitting atop the CN Tower on the album cover, wearing a winter coat, with the storm approaching—her dialogue fits that moment, asking him how he can stand it out there.

As Drake told Zane Lowe:

We also make our winters work, and they’re harsh.

The first two sound effects are a TTC streetcar, and a TTC subway entering a platform. Both staple sound effects of the Toronto landscape.

Drake turns to his enemies, describing how people get in his pathway towards success. He feels like God is testing his patience.

Despite his tribulations, Drake found a way to succeed. Like a waiter/chef, he’s delivering and feeding the people. Both are average jobs with low wages. Instead of plates and dishes, though, he’s delivering and feeding the world with top-notch music.

In a span of just 16 months, Drake’s dropped three full projects: the surprise release of If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, What a Time to Be Alive (with Future), and the highly anticipated VIEWS.

“It’s not personal — it’s just business,” was reportedly coined by Otto Berman. Its popularity increased when it was featured in a scene from The Godfather II:

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=Bo7zkd0kRS4

Drake met this woman when they first started out and were struggling to survive and get recognized for their craft. As the years went by, they shared history and many memories together.

However, now the adage doesn’t hold true for Drake’s relationship with this woman. Their lives are too intertwined for such thing as a professional relationship to exist between them. He has reached a point where he has to say goodbye to her and go their separate ways.

Drake’s got quite a few relatives in Memphis, including his father; he paid tribute to them and the city in the music video for “Worst Behavior,” in which his father actually appears.

Despite living lavishly in L.A., Drake feels out of place in this city of untrustworthy people who, despite being predictable, Drake simply cannot comprehend. He wishes he could be in Memphis with his father, leading a simpler life. Tragically, Drake has explained in the past that he feels incapable of returning to Memphis:

I have a lot of family that I love very deeply [in Memphis]. But if anybody knows anything about the South and how it is, it’s tough to go around people who could use your help and you can’t help everybody. It’s like a guilt or a burden that comes over me, so I hadn’t gone to Memphis in a long time.

Fortunately, after shooting the “Worst Behavior” music video, Drake felt more at ease about the city, which means a respite there is not out of the question.

“Let’s just be friends” is a cliché breakup line. Drizzy points out the irony—when people give each other this line, they rarely follow through and stay friends.

It seems that Drake’s having relationship troubles—again. You can get out of Drake’s life, but it’s harder to get out of his lyrics.

This line may be directed at Nicki Minaj. The collaborators were rumoured to have an on-and-off thing together, until Nicki said they were just friends. Now, with the Meek Mill-Drake beef, Nicki and Drake have stopped talking.

Drake’s on the phone with a girl who plays the persona of a tough female.

“Gyal heart man,” as in “girl-hearted man,” is patois for a man who acts like a female. She’s not afraid of a soft man, potentially a “singing nigga” like Drake.

“No cyattie” is also patois and means “no woman”; specifically, any woman who wants to try and get up in her face. She’s not afraid of “no waste yute,” or a youth who’s a waste of time and space.

“Anybody who want it can get it” means to fight someone and “seh feh” is patois for “say something if you dare.”

The girl’s voice on the outro is 416Jamz. She is on the Gyal Cast Podcast.

Drake distinguishes between the people that he used to love and the ones he never did. From his point of view, it’s nonsense to develop feelings for someone’s personality unless it was meant for a lifetime. For example, if Rihanna and Drake had beef, he would still love her. That might apply to Drake’s relationship to Nicki as well—he already mentioned in “Tuscan Leather”:

Not even talkin' to Nicki, communication is breakin'
I dropped the ball on some personal shit, I need to embrace it
I’m honest, I make mistakes, I’d be the second to admit it
Think that’s why I need her in my life, to check me when I’m trippin'

Drake also mentioned he “wasn’t speaking to Nicki” as much in his Views interview with Zane Lowe.

“feeling a way” means to be in your emotions about something or someone. (i.e. someones actions made you feel a way) Drake has built a career out of “feeling a way” about his romantic history. Drake uses the last line to re-iterate the theme of the song which is his realization that he can’t rely on his exes to actually care about him/hit him up to see how he’s doing.

The alignment of the stars or planets refers to an event that’s out of your hands. The term originated from the fact that planets can’t actually align perfectly. Therefore, someone who prays for the stars to align is leaving their luck to fate. Drizzy, on the other hand, has the resources to accomplish anything he wants to put his mind to.

Additionally, this person was only interested in Drake every time other than being there for him when he actually needed them. Here’s where we find out that this person wasn’t really Drake’s “friend” and they were waiting for fate to intervene instead of working hard to earn what they were craving for.

Kennedy Road is a street in Scarborough, ON; Drake has given it a shoutout before on “Energy”:

I got real ones livin’ past Kennedy Road
I got real ones wit' me everywhere that I go

Drake’s got both friends and girls in Scarborough, which also houses Drake’s beloved Habibiz hookah restaurant and cafe. In fact, Drake was so enamored of Habibiz that he included a replica of it on his 27th birthday cake.

Suffice it to say, Drake’s got ties in Scarborough, which means he’s probably aware of the high levels of crime the district is notorious for. Spending time there may have made him more wary; he’s begun to watch his back in all situations. Or perhaps some of his many friends from Scarborough have only stayed close to him in order to bask in his wealth and glory; Drake therefore finds this person’s behavior “predictable.”

This person had so much potential in Drake’s eyes. He envisioned them as being great and saw what they could have been, but instead they let him down. This brings to mind the lyrics of his song “Madonna,” where Drake sees a girl that could reach the same heights as the Queen of Pop:

You could be big as Madonna
Just get in the car and then let’s touch the road
Don’t make other plans

This is similar to the Chrysler 300, which looks almost like a Bentley, but falls short. Bentleys are known for being luxurious and high-end vehicles. At first glance, a Chrysler could be mistaken for a Bentley, but once you really take a good look, the differences are obvious.

Drake questions why people are around when things are going well, but always seem to disappear when they go wrong. They’re not around for all the seasons.

2015 was a successful yet controversial year for Drake. Views was pushed back, he had contractual issues with Cash Money, and was involved in an ongoing rap beef between himself and Meek Mill.

This leaves him wondering why his close “friends” aren’t checking on him to make sure he’s straight.

Drake revisits a running theme—questioning the loyalty of his friends, who don’t always stand by his side in times of need. Someone chose sides against him, and he feels betrayed.

Two possible targets: Nicki Minaj—who’s been a friend and/or a love interest, and Quentin Miller, his former collaborator who has generally tried to stay out of a fight with Drake.

Drake’s beef with Meek Mill in 2015 strained his relationship with Nicki, who was dating Meek at the time. Nicki told MTV:

You don’t ever want to choose sides between people you love.

But it seems that bridges were burned anyway. Drake told Zane Lowe:

I don’t really talk to Nicki, and you know, again, another person I have a lot of love for, a lot of love and a lot of respect. Not only for our past and how much work and time we put in, but in even just the way she dealt with the situation at hand.
I understand what love is, and I understand a personal situation. You know, she dealt with me how I would expect her to, which was with respect…there was points in time when I was sitting here waiting, like “how deep does your love go?”