Drake wasn’t fronting one bit when he bragged that one of rap’s most influential artists, Lil Wayne, couldn’t have found a better successor on the time stamp “6PM In New York.” Like his mentor, the Canadian megastar is a behemoth artist when it comes to accolades. No matter what he drops, people eat it up each and every time. While the average person only sees his prime, he showed early signs of his star power far before he soared to mainstream heights with albums like Thank Me Later in 2010 and Take Care in 2011.

On the note of his sophomore paragon, he preceded the Rap & B classic with sliders like “Dreams Money Can Buy,” “Heat of the Moment” and “Club Paradise,” which all got rereleased and housed on Care Package in the summer of 2019. When the latter project came out, new school 6 God fans used Twitter as their microphone to rave over new music, while real ones scoffed at the idea that people could be so late. Day-one fans remember bumping those on YouTube and downloading them for the free onto iPod Nanos and Touches.

Riding the time machine even further, if you’re hip to the day-one starter pack, you can likely relate to coding tracks like the Goapele flip “Closer to My Dreams” featuring Andreena Mill or a rework of Page’s “I’m Still Fly” on your MySpace page. Even with attention-stealing features in mind, you're aware that his link-up with Timbaland for “Say Something” went diamond in the streets.

Veterans of Team Drizzy could go all day on the aux cord with classics that preceded his big-dog status. Shedding light on just how lucrative his early catalog is, XXL dug into the vault, scoured the internet for nostalgic loosies and surveyed the people to highlight 34 tracks—the same number as his current age—that only the OGs can parrot line for line. Check them out below and note, this list doesn’t consist of the more obvious hitters like “Successful,” “Find Your Love,” “Best I Ever Had” and more. These are the Drake songs only day-one fans can recite.

  • "Closer to My Dreams"

    Drake Featuring Andreena Mill
  • "Ransom"

    Drake Featuring Lil Wayne
  • "On A Wave"

    Drake and Tinashe
  • "The Winner"

    Drake
  • "5AM In Toronto"

    Drake
  • "Replacement Girl"

    Drake Featuring Trey Songz
  • "Trust Issues"

    Drake
  • "Wildfire"

    SBTRKT Featuring Drake
  • "I'm Still Fly"

    Drake
  • "I Get Paper"

    Kevin Cossom Featuring Drake
  • "Girls Love Beyonce"

    Drake Featuring James Fauntleroy
  • "I Get Lonely Too"

    Drake
  • "Dreams Money Can Buy"

    Drake
  • "9AM in Dallas"

    Drake
  • "Un-Thinkable (I'm Ready)"

    Alicia Keys Featuring Drake
  • "Club Paradise"

    Drake
  • "Say Something"

    Timbaland Featuring Drake
  • "Unusual"

    Trey Songz Featuring Drake
  • "Still Got It"

    Tyga Featuring Drake
  • "Throw It In The Bag (Remix)"

    Fabolous Featuring The-Dream and Drake
  • "I Invented Sex"

    Trey Songz Featuring Drake
  • "Give Ya"

    Drake Featuring Trey Songz
  • "Come Winter"

    Drake
  • "Heat of the Moment"

    Drake
  • "July"

    Jhené Aiko Featuring Drake
  • "What If I Kissed You"

    Drake
  • "Must Hate Money"

    Drake Featuring Rich Boy
  • "City Is Mine"

    Drake
  • "Waiting Up"

    Riz Featuring Drake
  • "Congratulations"

    Drake
  • "November 18th"

    Drake
  • "Free Spirit"

    Drake Featuring Rick Ross
  • "Little Bit"

    Drake Featuring Lykke Li
  • "Fear"

    Drake

More From 97.5 NOW FM