I was pretty bored so I decided to run some numbers and find out. Basically I went through every Drake project since SFG and added up all his performances for each. Then I calculated what percentage of those performances that were actively being sung as opposed to rapped. (Didn’t take as long as you’d think, maybe like an hour)

I didn’t count features. Only his individual performances. Also didn’t count the verses he raps with a melodic flow (like the verses on The Language for example) only performances where he actively is singing at different pitches (The Hook on The Language qualifies as singing by this definition).

The Results:
SFG - 37%
TML - 38%
TC - 34%
NWTS -38%
IYRTITL - 26%
WATTBA - 14%
Views - 55%
More Life - 40%
Scorpion - 40%
DLDT - 21%

Career Average - 34%

Drake often is perceived as an artist who merges Rap and Rnb so you would think it would be a 50/50 split of rapping and singing but for the most part it’s not. He only hit 50% once in his career (with Views). I also noticed his best received projects are typically above 25% but below 40%. Not too much but not too little.

Anyway like I said this was done out of boredom so I’m not really trying to make any point here. Just found it interesting.

very very interesting. thank you for this

I think he gets credited as that because he’s was one of the main ones who actually did like true R&B as a rapper.

Like there’s a reason he of all people got the narrative that he cries or is soft while artists who also sang like TPain, KanYe and Cudi didn’t. It was cus of songs like Doing it Wrong, Marvins Room, etc where it’s just pure traditional r&b

He sounds like something in between a baritone and a tenor, not as tenor as the weeknd or MJ, but as tenor as Prince for example, they got the same ton

informative

sounds cool thx

This is fascinating. People highlight his singing so much for a couple reasons. That 34% is most likely much higher than any of his contemporaries let alone older generation rappers.

Also, his singing mostly lacks autotune and odd additional sounds like other rapper-singers ie Travis, Trippie etc.

Lastly, his singing works! Songs like Hold On, In My Feelings, and Find Your Love are loved by mainstream casual listeners.

I’m still waiting for the full R&B album he promised around the NWTS era.

Thanks for this extensive breakdown. Never knew what it would look like on paper, but now I know. Dont think I've ever seen someone break it down like this either.

That’s funny that you made this @op cause I was actually thinking about doing this for Take Care just a couple days ago
Good work

He needs to sing 36% on CLB

Huh, didn’t expect TC to be the lowest of his major albums even though it’s still 40%+. Nice work OP

Yea as it turns out the mood of TC is very RnB ofcourse but Drake isn’t really actively singing much on it. A lot of great features on it (Weeknd, Rih, etc) and some great rnb samples but he really rapping a lot on that album 🤷🏽‍♂️

Great minds think alike

Yeah the last time he landed a project in the 30s was NWTS. I think that’s where he needs to be for a Classic.

Nice 35/65 ratio

This. People forget drake really dipped into a pure RnB bag. Not just melodic raps.

Cool thread OP

Unrelated question are u a virgin by any chance?

don't do that

Haha Virgin

That dig only stings if it’s somewhat true

S*** is laughable when said to a nigga like me

Probably had your momma squirting all over my backseat lil boy sit down

Wonder what CLB will be my guess is between 40-50%

how long did this take

like an hour. I didn't have to listen to every single song to come up with the results. I know his discography pretty well so most of it was pretty much done from memory and skimming through some of the ones I hadn't heard in a while.

The Formula itself for each album was pretty simple:

Total Number of Drake Performances = a
Total Number of Sung Performances = b

b ÷ a = sung performance ratio

(A performance is 1 verse, Hook, or Bridge)

Nah bro thats way too much imo

Need that 30-38% ratio

one of the greatest threads/topics I've seen in a while good s*** op my g

Man I appreciate bro

just be tryna come up with something to keep us busy until CLB drops

thanks for always showing love my dude