The Jamaican artist Popcaan has been one of the biggest stars in dancehall for years, and he and Drake are close enough that Drake has a tattoo of the flaming-skull logo for Popcaan’s Unruly label. These days, Popcaan is officially a part of Drake’s OVO empire. And last night, as a sort of Jamaican Independence Day celebration, Popcaan released a new full-length project called Fixtape.
Fixtape isn’t exactly a long time in the making; Popcaan released Vanquish, his last mixtape, at the end of last year. But Fixtape comes with some big names attached. Drake appears on two different tracks from the project, though he sleepwalks his way through both of them. One of those Drake collabs, “Twist & Turn,” also features PARTYNEXTDOOR. And Fixtape also has appearances from French Montana and Toronto rapper Preme, as well as Stylo G, Jada Kingdom, Dane Ray, Masicka, and Tommy Lee — the dancehall Tommy Lee, not the Mötley Crüe Tommy Lee.
Musically, Fixtape is relatively soft and minimal. There’s menace to some of the tracks, but most of the time, Popcaan relies on an easy, relaxed sense of melody. The tracks have a hazy warmth to them, and the whole tape fades nicely into the background most of the time. Stream it below.
Fixtape is out now on OVO Sound/Warner Bros.