Drake has remained one of the most discussed figures in all of pop culture.

While Thank Me Later was a revolutionary debut in terms of its rap and R&B mesh, It was stiff and rudimentary compared to what we knew was possible from the emcee, especially when compared to the cult following that ensued with So Far Gone. “Thank Me Later was the one and only project that was influenced by…where I was at in my career at the time,” Drake said of the project in last year’s interview with Rap Radar. “I think I felt a lot of pressure to prove that I knew big famous people…it was definitely the one project that had the least personal touches.”

Meanwhile, Take Care and Nothing Was the Same were transcendent records. Both near-flawless executions of the hybrid Drizzy was striving for. “[Nothing Was The Same] is probably my most concise album,” the OVO crooner told Rap Radar, “and within that concise offering was a lot of great sh*t.”

Since that flawless trifecta, Drake’s career has mostly been a balancing act, his recent projects inevitably in flux with the immaculate quality of those three unblemished works. But Aubrey Graham’s quality as an emcee is more than just his albums–which lately have lacked. His brutal honesty behind the microphone has only strengthened in the last decade, and he’s continued to flex his chops over the years with a handful of immaculate freestyles.