Drake releases 'Forever' featuring Kanye, Lil Wayne, and Eminem

Why it matters

"Forever" the single was tied to the September 2009 theatrical release of More Than a Game, the LeBron James documentary. The placement was a deliberate Young Money/Cash Money commercial play: Birdman and Wayne wanted Drake on a Top 40 song with Kanye, Wayne, and Eminem before Drake's debut album came out in 2010, so that Drake's debut would land into an already-warm commercial environment. It worked. "Forever" peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, went four-times platinum, and got Drake into the kind of pop-radio rotation that mixtape artists rarely access before a debut LP. By the time Thank Me Later dropped in June 2010, Drake's name recognition was already national; the single's mid-2009 chart run had done its job. The strategic logic that powered the Drake rollout (mixtape → high-profile feature → debut LP into a pre-warmed audience) is now the standard model for major-label commercial rap launches, used for everybody from Megan Thee Stallion to Lil Baby to Doja Cat. Drake did not invent the model. He and Cash Money executed it cleaner than anybody had before. You can see the template here.