Drake and Smiley Team up on New Track "2 Mazza"
The highly anticipated collaboration between OVO Sound'sSmileyand label headDrake, titled '2 Mazza,' arrived earlier today. Both Toronto rappers come together for the joint effort, marking the first since their successful 2021 hit 'Over the Top.'
'2 Mazza' immediately distinguishes itself by leaning into authentic Toronto street lexicon. The phrase 'mazza' itself, used to describe a 'crazy situation' or a chaotic scenario, becomes a central theme, woven into the fabric of the song's narrative. Smiley leads the charge with vivid, street-level storytelling, reflecting on his come-up and navigating the complexities of his environment. His signature, somewhat laconic yet impactful delivery, often described as a 'one-of-a-kind flow' with a distinctive 'cartoonish Snaggletooth wheeze,' provides a raw and unfiltered perspective over a hypnotic, R&B-infused beat. The song is part of Smiley's first album in three years, titledDon't Box Me In.
Drake's verse on '2 Mazza' serves as a complementary counterpoint, mirroring Smiley's ascent while also showcasing his own journey from humble beginnings to present-day opulence. His presence on the track not only lends significant star power but also reinforces his long-standing commitment to nurturing talent within his OVO Sound imprint and putting Toronto's unique voice on the global stage. '2 Mazza' is more than just a song; it's a cultural moment, a sonic snapshot that brings local Toronto slang to a global audience, all under the influential co-sign of one of music's biggest names.
Watch the music video above.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
Drake Breaks His Tie With Rihanna With A New Bestseller
Drake debuts at No. 1 on Billboard's Digital Song Sales chart with "What Did I Miss?", his fifteenth ... More leader, and as it arrives, he breaks his tie with Rihanna. NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Singer Rihanna (L) and rapper Drake pose onstage during the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage) In America, hip-hop is not just the most consumed genre of music, it's also the most streamed. The biggest names in rap typically perform best on platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, iHeartRadio, and others, but several major figures in the genre have proven they can sell massive quantities of albums and singles while also dominating the streaming rankings. Drake is one such star, and he demonstrates his commercial prowess once more with his brand new song "What Did I Miss?" Drake's "What Would I Do?" Debuts at No. 1 "What Did I Miss?" debuts at No. 1 on the Digital Song Sales chart, where the track enters in the highest rung with just under 6,000 pure purchases. It claims the top spot by only a few dozen sales, pushing "Ordinary" by Alex Warren down from the summit the Drake tune arrives. Fifteenth Digital Chart-Topper for Drake With a new winner to his credit, Drake earns his milestone fifteenth champion on Billboard's ranking of the bestselling tracks in the United States. "What Did I Miss?" pushes him ahead of Rihanna, with whom he was previously tied, as both had scored 14 leaders. The two superstars have collaborated numerous times throughout their careers, but now Drake surpasses her — at least for the moment. Taylor Swift Still Leads Taylor Swift continues to dominate with 29 No. 1s on the Digital Song Sales chart. That's as many ruling smashes as both Drake and Rihanna combined. Nicki Minaj holds onto second place with 17 wins. A Mix of One-Week Hits and Long-Running Smashes Most of Drake's No. 1s on the Digital Song Sales chart led for just one frame, though a few have managed to control the tally for long stretches – even months. "God's Plan" ranks as the rapper's longest-running leader, with eight frames at No. 1. "In My Feelings," which was released the same year, dominated for half a dozen weeks. Throughout his time in the spotlight, Drake has sent 159 tracks to the Digital Song Sales chart. Of those, 62 have broken into the top 10. "What Did I Miss?" Rules Eight Billboard Charts "What Did I Miss?" opens at No. 1 on eight different Billboard charts this week. Three of those lists are focused exclusively on sales, while another three measure only streaming activity. The track also conquers both the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs rankings simultaneously, though it stalls in the runner-up spot on the Hot 100.
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
Drake Returns Robustly, With Reinforcements
At the end of the first night of Wireless Festival on Friday, after Drake had been hoisted out over the tens of thousands of fans who had taken over the bottom half of London's Finsbury Park while Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' blared over the speakers and fireworks brightened the night sky, he asked the audience, and also festival organizers, for a little indulgence. Curfew was firm, but art has its own clock. Boom, there was Lauryn Hill, suddenly onstage performing the feisty Fugees classic 'Ready or Not.' Drake had dropped down into the pit below the stage, and was looking up at Hill with joyful awe. He popped back onstage while Hill performed her biting kiss-off 'Ex-Factor,' which formed the base for one of his breeziest songs, 'Nice for What,' which he performed alongside her until the festival cut their mics off. This year's Wireless Festival was a three-day affair given over to Drake and his many spheres of influence, and in a weekend full of collaborations and guest appearances spotlighting various corners of his very broad reach, this was perhaps the most telling. During her career, Hill has been a ferocious rapper, a gifted singer, a bridge between hip-hop and pop from around the globe. She is the musician who, apart from Kanye West (now Ye), provided perhaps the clearest antecedent for Drake and the kind of star he wished to be: eclectic, hot-button, versatile, transformative. Apart from a few dates on an Australian tour earlier this year that got cut short, this was Drake's first high-profile live outing in over a year. That public retreat came in the wake of last year's grim and accusation-filled battle with Kendrick Lamar — in which Lamar's Not Like Us,' which suggested Drake had a preference for too-young women, became a pop anthem, a Grammy winner and a Super Bowl halftime showstopper, as well as the focus of a lawsuit by Drake against Universal Music Group, the parent company both rappers share. The question of what's next for Drake has, for most of the last 15 years, also pointed to what's next for hip-hop, and often what's next for global pop. And that's part of what's made the past year so disorienting — the sidelining of Drake has left an explicit hole in that conversation. But the post-conflagration part of his battle with Lamar has been something of an anticlimax. The struggles with Lamar often distilled to one central perceived tension — Lamar had purchase over a purer version of hip-hop, while Drake had less claim to it. Side-picking was hip-hop's primary sport last year. But if Lamar's victories were arguments for a traditionalist view of hip-hop ethics, Drake's performances here, and the ones he orchestrated around him, offered a more catholic approach, and also one focused on the future — an implicit rebuke to that mode of thought. Drake headlined each night of Wireless with a differently themed set list: a day focused on R&B, a day of rap, a day of club and party music. And his sets were peppered with guests — he kept referring to the calls he'd made, the subtext being that plenty of people still happily answer those calls. And so these appearances were about alliances, sure — with American rappers like 21 Savage and Sexyy Red, or British stars J Hus, Skepta, Headie One, Dave and Central Cee. (Drake even anointed a young British comer, Fakemink, who delivered an out-of-breath version of 'LV Sandals.') 'Nobody can outrap London rappers,' Drake said. The Nigerian star Rema, during the festival's third night, gave one of its most electrifying performances, ranging wide from the tender flirtation 'Calm Down' to the warlike 'Ozeba.' Opening night tilted toward the sensuous with Mario, sounding hale on 'Let Me Love You,' and Bobby Valentino, slightly less so on 'Slow Down.' Giveon did an austere three-song set wearing silk and cradling a glass of wine. Bryson Tiller, perhaps the first R&B singer to respond to Drake's innovations in real time in the mid-2010s, excelled on 'Exchange.' There was also an intoxicating but slightly overlong run of songs with Drake sharing the stage with his longtime collaborator PartyNextDoor, with whom he makes some of his most astrally placid music. Sometimes these performances felt designed for an audience of one: Drake. Few stars of his level are so vividly fans of other musicians, and certainly not in hip-hop. His joy while watching Skepta rap, or helping Sexyy Red out of her shoes so she could twerk more freely, was infectious — even when others were performing, Drake was working harder. Around half of Drake's time onstage was devoted to his guests. When he himself performed, he leaned on high-energy strings of like-minded tracks — on night two, it was the pugnacity of 'Headlines,' 'Energy,' 'Know Yourself' and 'Nonstop'; on opening night, it was a tender run of 'Teenage Fever,' 'Virginia Beach,' 'Feel No Ways' and 'Passionfruit,' which he sang just a touch behind the beat, then smeared the back half into a quiet-storm vamp. He didn't overindex on his biggest songs: often just a hint of a familiar warm-bleed synth sent the crowd into a roar. His opening songs each night weren't hits, per se — they were Easter eggs for loyalists. On the first night it was 'Marvin's Room,' his 2011 magnum opus of toxic solipsism. On night two, it was 'IDGAF,' a rage-rap experiment with Yeat, who joined him onstage in a matching Chrome Hearts poncho. And on the final night, it was an unheard new song with the British star Central Cee, manna for the local crowd. Each time, it was the equivalent of walking in a room and immediately making yourself comfortable on the couch — no pretext, no pretense. Drake is also not immune to schmaltz — at the end of each night, he took to the same crane-hoisted platform to thank the crowd during 'I Will Always Love You' (a gesture he borrowed from his mentor Lil Wayne). And on the second night, just before that, the pop singer Vanessa Carlton emerged at a piano and pounded out a sweet rendition of her yearning 2002 hit 'A Thousand Miles' while Drake cheesed madly. (The daily pre-Drake performer lineups displayed deep reverence for each form: sets from the nimble R&B singers Summer Walker and Sailorr, Southern rap surrealism from Sahbabii, the inventive British rappers Lancey Foux and Fimiguerrero, the South African amapiano star Uncle Waffles, the Nigerian neo-traditionalists Burna Boy and Odumodublvck.) Though joy was his dominant mode throughout the weekend, Drake was also keen to project strength. On the first night, he was wearing a bull-riding vest (or something like it) that read 'Stay Cocky.' Drake also brought his own press, sending a private jet to ferry a boatload of popular livestreamers and YouTubers — Adin Ross, BenDaDonnn, DDG, Los Pollos, Kyle Forgeard of Nelk, and more — who provided nonstop content online throughout the weekend. It was a sophisticated media strategy — their collective reach exponentially outstripped the real-time crowd, and allowed Drake to do for high-profile streamers, still a media curio to many, what he once did for promising little-known regional rappers: boost their profile with his simple stamp of approval. Here, Lamar and other enemies were mostly an afterthought, or at the most, a subtext. At one point on night two, the crowd erupted into a vulgar chant directed at Lamar, spurred on by Ross. Drake heard it and puffed his chest a little: 'Y'all thought y'all could knock the boy off for real?' Earlier this month, Drake livestreamed on YouTube for an hour, driving an ice delivery truck through the streets of Toronto to premiere his new single, the sinister 'What Did I Miss?,' which just made its debut at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It's almost foaming at the mouth with disdain, a strong entry in Drake's long catalog of I-wish-you-would disdain. He performed it on the festival's second night, but only then. However, he played 'Nokia,' his optimistic up-tempo party hit from earlier this year, each of the three nights. 'Nokia' was released in February on 'Some Sexy Songs 4 U,' Drake's collaborative album with PartyNextDoor. As a whole, that release felt like a tentative place holder, a style experiment with loose energy and low stakes. But 'Nokia' was different, an electro-rap hybrid that recalled 'Hotline Bling,' one of his biggest hits. It felt of a piece with the story about himself he was telling especially on the festival's third night, which showed off his gift for big-tent pop — 'Controlla,' 'Find Your Love,' 'Work' — that absorbs elements from around the globe, from vital music scenes often overlooked in the mainstream. Drake's reach takes in British drill, Jamaican dancehall, Nigerian Afrobeats, South African amapiano, Southern rap, and so much more — in short, a trans-Atlantic cosmopolitanism unconcerned with any one local rule book. The rest of the world is so, so big.
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
In 2019, Royal Portrush hosting Open was huge for Northern Ireland. This year, it'll be bigger
About this time last year, I wrote a column celebrating my 25th Open in a working capacity. It turned out to be a load of cobblers. The statistic, that is, not the column. Then again? Anyway, I'd forgotten, you see, about the cancellation of the 2020 championship due to the COVID pandemic, so it was only 24. This week, then, is my actual silver jubilee, so one presumes that the good folk at the R&A have commissioned a limited-edition range of commemorative tea towels, porcelain thimbles and decorative hinged trinket boxes to mark the occasion. I'll have an amble over to the Royal Portrush merchandise tent to check out the shimmering wares later in the week. Part of this column was composed yesterday in the shadow of a wonderful, awe-inspiring edifice of maritime magnificence. Yes, that's right. The check-in terminal of the Stena Line ferry at Cairnryan. The Scottish golf writers went in two by two? Well, we tried to do it in an orderly fashion but, because this correspondent was running late, the embarking process descended into a nautical nonsense that featured the kind of flustered bellows and tortured grunts that Noah probably had to deal with as he tried to shepherd the last few biblical beasts up his bloomin' gangplank. We made it, though. It's going to be a busy old week here on the Antrim coast. Back in 2019, the last time The Open was staged at Portrush, the tickets for the championship days were gobbled up in the time it took you to say, 'tickets for the championship days have gone on sale.' It was the first-ever sold-out Open. That wasn't surprising, of course. Portrush hadn't staged the championship since 1951. It was a hugely significant moment for Northern Ireland after a troubled past. I always recall an Irish colleague observing the giddy scene six years ago and writing, 'When Darren Clarke steps to the tee at Royal Portrush at 6:35 am and gets the Open underway, he will become the first Northern Irishman to fire a shot here and have it universally welcomed.' The masses lapped it up. 'It will be mayhem, but merry, Irish mayhem, which is the best kind,' said the late, great Peter Alliss, who played in The Open when it first came to this parish back in '51. He was right. Here in 2025, there will be an additional 40,000 spectators flooding through the gates with a total of 278,000 people expected over the course of the week. It will be the second-highest attended Open in history after the 290,000 souls who shoehorned themselves into St Andrews in 2022. I hope there are enough of my 25th anniversary dish cloots on sale for the masses to purchase as a keepsake? The infrastructure these days is as big and as bold as you would expect from a sporting and corporate beast that constantly grows arms and legs. A hierarchy has developed in terms of Open venues as the organisers look more favourably at hosts that can easily accommodate the 200,000-plus mark. That we're back at Portrush within just six years speaks volumes for the R&A's mantra of the bigger, the better. This emphasis on how many punters they can cram in gently elbows certain esteemed courses into the margins. That's a pity for some truly magnificent venues. To be honest, I find an Open almost too big for my liking. But maybe I'm just getting on in years? Each to their own, eh? In the build-up to the eagerly anticipated 2019 showpiece, I had a sit down with a lovely gentleman called Ian Bamford, who was a young 'un back in 1951 and went on to become an Irish Amateur champion and a great, cherished doyen of Royal Portrush Golf Club. 'I still remember queuing to watch a western at the cinema that week and was in touching distance of Dai Rees and Norman Von Nida,' reflected Bamford of a couple of well-known golfers who were killing a bit of time. I'm not sure we'll see Rory McIlroy or Scottie Scheffler popping into the Portrush Playhouse. The past is a different world. 'When Royal Portrush was founded in 1888, there were only 1,600 people in the town,' noted Bamford. 'There were four pubs and four churches.' Given the volume of bodies in town over the next few days, the queue to get a libation at the Harbour Bar will probably stretch to the Giants Causeway. I may have better luck in the church? The final major of the men's season is upon us already as the season hurtles by at a furious rate of knots. I find the condensed nature of the global golf schedule a trifle unsatisfactory. When the Claret Jug is handed out on Sunday, it'll be nine months until the Masters. At least there's a Ryder Cup in September to fill part of this void Once the prolonged wait for Augusta is over, the majors come at us thick and fast in a crash, bang, wallop configuration that does them something of a disservice in a jam-packed scene. There's barely a moment to draw breath. Come Sunday night, the men's majors will have passed in a flash again. As my 25 years at The Open prove, time really does fly. Now, where's my celebratory tea towel? Nick Rodger is a correspondent for The Scotland Herald, which is owned by Newsquest/Gannett.
