section_path: Impact
section_name: Impact
paragraph_text: Impact
  
  A prominent figure in pop culture, Drake is often praised one of the most influential figures in hip-hop; particularly his use of singing over hip-hop instrumentals has been noted as an influence on modern rappers. He is widely credited for popularizing the Toronto sound to the music industry and leading the "Canadian Invasion", a play on the British Invasion in the 1960s, of the American charts—alongside the likes of Justin Bieber and the Weeknd. In 2022, music recognition app Shazam revealed Drake to be their most searched artist by users, with music featuring Drake collecting 350 million recognitions; his 2016 single "One Dance" collected 17 million recognitions alone. In 2018, articles by The Guardian and Rolling Stone called him "the definitive pop star of his generation" and "perhaps biggest post- Justin Timberlake male pop star of the new millennium", respectively.
  
  The Insider declared Drake the artist of the decade (2010s). Regarding the general view that Drake introduced singing in mainstream hip-hop, the publication said that at the height of Auto-Tune in hip-hop during the late 2000s, "there were virtually no artists who were both a legit rapper and a legit crooner who delivered velvety smooth pop/R&B hybrid vocals that could exist separately from his hip-hop songs". Commenting on Drake's Take Care, Elias Leight of Rolling Stone noticed in 2020 that "now nearly every singer raps, and nearly every rapper sings", as many artists "have borrowed or copied the template of that the boldness of the original is easily forgotten", according to the writer.
  
  Aaron Williams of Uproxx added "jump-starting the sad boy rapper craze alongside Kid Cudi " and "helping to renew stateside interest in UK grime and Caribbean dancehall with Skepta, PartyNextDoor, and Rihanna" to the modern trends Drake assisted. BBC Radio 1Xtra argued that his co-signs helped push the British hip-hop scene to a wider international market, as he did with the Toronto music scene. According to CBS Music in 2019, Drake has inspired "the next wave" of artists coming out of his hometown. Writing for Bloomberg, Lucas Shaw commented Drake's popularity has influenced the promotion of music, with Certified Lover Boy attaining large commercial success despite relatively minimal orthodox marketing techniques, stating "fans are consuming Drake's in a way that is different to others". He also noted the album as novel in relation to consumption, with each song having relatively equivalent streams, as opposed to a dominant single (s). Justin Charity of The Ringer noted Drake's signature of producing "half-hearted" performances on songs to create a "natural and off-the-cuff" effect has become the "obvious touchpoint for male R&B singers". Charity further wrote Drake's success in the genre is "so thorough that it's all but impossible to hear certain vintages of R&B without hearing Drake".
  
  Beginning in 2022, Drake's music was canonized academically by Toronto Metropolitan University, which began teaching courses titled "Deconstructing Drake and the Weeknd", with the pair's music used to explore themes related to the Canadian music industry, race, class, marketing and globalization. With the release during LGBT Pride Month of his seventh album Honestly, Nevermind (2022), Mark Savage of the BBC wrote Drake's exploration of house, a genre with overt origins in black and queer spaces, would help "build a bridge to those subcultures" for younger music listeners.
  
  A prominent figure in pop culture, Drake is often praised one of the most influential figures in hip-hop; particularly his use of singing over hip-hop instrumentals has been noted as an influence on modern rappers. He is widely credited for popularizing the Toronto sound to the music industry and leading the "Canadian Invasion", a play on the British Invasion in the 1960s, of the American charts—alongside the likes of Justin Bieber and the Weeknd. In 2022, music recognition app Shazam revealed Drake to be their most searched artist by users, with music featuring Drake collecting 350 million recognitions; his 2016 single "One Dance" collected 17 million recognitions alone. In 2018, articles by The Guardian and Rolling Stone called him "the definitive pop star of his generation" and "perhaps biggest post- Justin Timberlake male pop star of the new millennium", respectively.
  
  The Insider declared Drake the artist of the decade (2010s). Regarding the general view that Drake introduced singing in mainstream hip-hop, the publication said that at the height of Auto-Tune in hip-hop during the late 2000s, "there were virtually no artists who were both a legit rapper and a legit crooner who delivered velvety smooth pop/R&B hybrid vocals that could exist separately from his hip-hop songs". Commenting on Drake's Take Care, Elias Leight of Rolling Stone noticed in 2020 that "now nearly every singer raps, and nearly every rapper sings", as many artists "have borrowed or copied the template of that the boldness of the original is easily forgotten", according to the writer.
  
  Aaron Williams of Uproxx added "jump-starting the sad boy rapper craze alongside Kid Cudi " and "helping to renew stateside interest in UK grime and Caribbean dancehall with Skepta, PartyNextDoor, and Rihanna" to the modern trends Drake assisted. BBC Radio 1Xtra argued that his co-signs helped push the British hip-hop scene to a wider international market, as he did with the Toronto music scene. According to CBS Music in 2019, Drake has inspired "the next wave" of artists coming out of his hometown. Writing for Bloomberg, Lucas Shaw commented Drake's popularity has influenced the promotion of music, with Certified Lover Boy attaining large commercial success despite relatively minimal orthodox marketing techniques, stating "fans are consuming Drake's in a way that is different to others". He also noted the album as novel in relation to consumption, with each song having relatively equivalent streams, as opposed to a dominant single (s). Justin Charity of The Ringer noted Drake's signature of producing "half-hearted" performances on songs to create a "natural and off-the-cuff" effect has become the "obvious touchpoint for male R&B singers". Charity further wrote Drake's success in the genre is "so thorough that it's all but impossible to hear certain vintages of R&B without hearing Drake".
  
  Beginning in 2022, Drake's music was canonized academically by Toronto Metropolitan University, which began teaching courses titled "Deconstructing Drake and the Weeknd", with the pair's music used to explore themes related to the Canadian music industry, race, class, marketing and globalization. With the release during LGBT Pride Month of his seventh album Honestly, Nevermind (2022), Mark Savage of the BBC wrote Drake's exploration of house, a genre with overt origins in black and queer spaces, would help "build a bridge to those subcultures" for younger music listeners.