Brow Beat

Stream Drake and Future’s Surprise Mixtape, Aptly Named What a Time to Be Alive

Future and Drake.
Future and Drake.

Photo via Drake and Future’s Instagrams

After days of only-slightly-veiled teases, Drake and Future released their surprise collaborative mixtape, What a Time to Be Alive, on Sunday night. Or at least “mixtape” is what they’re calling it. As with Drake’s blockbuster “mixtape” If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late from earlier this year, the 11-track collection was made immediately available for purchase on iTunes. Though, unlike that mixtape, the collection was released in era when Apple has shifted focus to Apple Music, with which Drake has made himself an ally in the streaming wars. If you have a subscription to Apple Music, or you want to sign up for a free trial, you can stream or download it now for free.

What a Time to Be Alive is a bit of a break for Future. Though he’s coming off his first No. 1 album, Dirty Sprite 2, no 2015 album or mixtape has sold more copies than Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. According to Drake, who discussed the mixtape on his Beats 1 radio show, he met up with Future to do only “a few songs,” but (perhaps not surprisingly, given how prolific Future is) they ended up with enough material for an 11-song release.

But the release of What a Time to Be Alive is an even bigger get for Apple Music, who will have the album as an exclusive for one week. While Tidal pinned its hopes on artist exclusives, and has scored exclusive albums from artists such as Prince and exclusive tracks from artists such as Beyoncé and Rihanna, What a Time to Be Alive might be the highest-profile streaming exclusive yet—even bigger than Dr. Dre’s Compton. As popular as all those other artists are, few artists (short of Taylor Swift) are more popular in 2015 than Drake.

Here’s the album art and full tracklist for the album/mixtape, which is executive produced by hot producer Metro Boomin: