Are Drake and Beyoncé Now House Music Artists?

Drake and Beyoncé drop house album and single to the excitement of fan base.

The legendary Aubrey Drake Graham dropped his 7^th studio album on June 17^th, a 14-track compilation coyly titled “Honestly, Nevermind.” Although Drake is best known as a rapper and hip-hop artists, this album is strictly deep house, an unexpected and provocative pivot for the artist.

The album was produced by Drake’s longtime collaborator Noah “40” Shebib, as well as the Grammy award-winning DJ Black Coffee, a prominent figure in the electronic space. The full credits of the album also list Gordo, formerly DJ Carnage, and Keinemusik, a Berlin-based traditional techno duo, among many others in EDM. And for his inexorable influence and indelible contributions to music and art, Drake humbly dedicated the album to the posthumous Virgil Abloh, a forever friend and silent collaborator.

One hour post the release of “Honestly, Nevermind,” Drake smashed Apple Music’s precedent for first-day streams globally of a dance record – it took Drake merely an hour to surpass Apple’ Music’s streaming record for the entire electronic music genre. And to top it all off, this release is Drake’s 11^th LP that has shot to the Number One Album spot on the Billboard 200. Love him or hate him, Drake has undeniable mojo, some swag to his saunter, a little sizzle to his steak.

Drake isn’t the only mainstream artist to be hopping on the EDM bandwagon, nor is he the most left-field. Hip-hop’s Queen B, the immortal Beyoncé, also released an electronic track titled “BREAK MY SOUL,” a single reminiscent 2014’s “7/11.” This new drop hit number one on iTunes in more than 30 countries and it trails just outside the top 20 in the UK singles chart. No stranger to success, Beyoncé has achieved 22 Number One Songs on the US Billboards Dance Club Songs charts and ranks 4^th in the category of the top 100 Dance Club Songs artists.

All this leads us to pose the question: are Drake and Beyoncé going rouge, becoming house artists? A more likely explanation than abandoning ship, disregarding their origin genre, would be the increasing popularity of house and electronic dance music, a movement much bigger than any individual artist. House music has become mainstream, widely celebrated, and perhaps even the sound of our generation.

To listen to Drake and Beyoncé’s albums, venture below.