Digital Dash

Album: What a Time to Be Alive (2015)
Charted: 62
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the opening track from What a Time to Be Alive, a collaborative mixtape by rappers Drake and Future.

    Drake told Rolling Stone: "It's a little soundtrack for people that need it right now. I went to Atlanta for six days a couple weeks ago with the hopes of doing some songs with Future, and when you get around Future, it's like a vortex, that guy can outwork anybody right now. It's tough to see someone do four, five songs in one night and not try to match it."
  • A "digital dashboard" is the control panel located in front of a driver. Future references a number of luxury vehicles on his verse, including his main BMW 7 series coupe, a Rolls Royce Ghost and an old "six trey" (1963 Chevy Impala). He also boasts of having someone's girl riding shotgun.
  • Drake addresses Meek Mill's ghost-writing accusations on his verse.

    I might take Quentin to Follies
    You hate your life, just be honest


    "Quentin" is Quentin Miller, Drake's alleged ghost writer and the creator of a reference track leaked by Mill on "Wanna Know." Since the OVO leader has a lot to thank Miller for, he talks about taking him to Follies, the most popular strip club in Atlanta.
  • This is one of three What a Time to Be Alive tracks (along with "I'm a Plug" and "Jersey") that Southside co-produced. The Atlanta-based beatmaker was behind much of Future's DS2 album, including the hit cut "Commas" (with DJ Spinz).

    Southside told MTV News that it was through Future that his work on What A Time To Be Alive began. "Me and Metro [Boomin] made the 'Digital Dash' beat while we were on tour and sent it to Future," he recalled. "We got in the studio with [Drake and Future], and it was history from then on. They were working so fast and so consistent that you might miss a song getting recorded. I actually didn't hear 'I'm The Plug' until two days later."
  • Drake recalled recording this song and the rest of the album during an interview with Zane Lowe on his Beats 1 show. "I went to Atlanta and spent six days with Future ... He's a machine. I've never seen anybody with that much of a catalog," the Toronto rapper said.

    "'Digital Dash'...he had just bodied it so much," Drake added. "It was presented to me as a finished piece. I gotta do it justice."

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