Drake God's Plan

Table of Contents

• Background and Composition

"God's Plan" is a song recorded by Canadian rapper Drake, released on January 19, 2018, through Young Money and Cash Money. Co-written by Drake, Cardo, Yung Exclusive, Boi-1da, Noah "40" Shebib, and Brock Korsan, and produced by Noah "40" Shebib, Cardo, Yung Exclusive and Boi-1da, the track acts as a single from his second EP, Scary Hours (2018), and the lead single from his fifth studio album, Scorpion (2018). Musically, it has been described as pop, pop-rap, and trap, with lyrics addressing Drake's fame and fate.   "God's Plan" received lukewarm reviews from music critics, who called it a typical Drake song. Commercially the song became the 29th song in history to debut at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it Drake's fourth chart-topper in that country, and second as a lead artist. The single topped the charts in fourteen countries, including the UK and Canada and reached the top ten in nine others. The song broke first-day streaming records on both Apple Music and Spotify, and was the most streamed song of the year on both services. An accompanying music video for the song was directed by Karena Evans and uploaded onto Drake's official YouTube channel on February 16, 2018. In the video, Drake is giving away nearly one million US dollars to people and institutions in Florida. It received five nominations at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards, including for Video of the Year and three nominations at the 61st Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Rap Song, winning the last one.

Background and Composition

Following the release of his fourth studio album Views (2016) and his playlist More Life (2017), Drake did not release any music for eight months until the EP Scary Hours on January 19, 2018, following multiple leaks, like for "Pistols". "God's Plan", was first teased on January 1, 2018, at New York New Year's Eve Party, and originally featured American rapper Trippie Redd. Redd had been talking about the collaboration since October 2017 The song creation started in September 2017 after Cardo sent Drake the instrumental. The song, originally titled "Grace of God", was chosen from a series of beats sent to Drake in September. Drake apparently called up Cardo and said "We got one" before the production of the record itself began fully. "God's Plan" was written by Aubrey Graham, Ronald LaTour, Daveon Jackson, Matthew Samuels, and Noah Shebib and produced by Cardo, Yung Exclusive, and Boi-1da. The original instrumental for "God's Plan" was sent to Drake in September 2017 by Cardo. Cardo created the instrumental with FL Studio and some VSTs. Boi-1da's addition to the song came when Drake gave him "God's Plan" half finished, Drake requested the song to have a more "bouncy vibe" and Boi-1da added more drums to the production. The single was released digitally on January 19, 2018, simultaneously with Scary Hours, acting as a single from his aforementioned EP, and the lead single from his fifth studio album, Scorpion (2018). Musically the song has been described as a pop, pop-rap and trap song composed in common time (⁴ ₄ time) with a length of three minutes eighteen seconds and written in the key of E minor with a tempo of 154.4 (or 77.2) beats per minute and a common chord progression of Am7–Bm7.