drake wins the toronto catalog war and the weeknd is left alone in the after hours

stop scrolling, toronto has a verdict. the oldest argument in every group chat with a 6ix god emoji in its name, drake or the weeknd, has gone to the crowd, and the crowd picked the man who once made a whole song about texting back. the weeknd is, in the words of the famous cartoon dog sitting in a burning room, fine. this is fine.

some lore for the non-terminally-online: Drake and The Weeknd are both from toronto, used to work together, and are now compared constantly, like two cousins at every family dinner. the receipts cut both ways. drake has fifteen Billboard 200 number-one albums and fourteen Hot 100 number-one singles, a record for a male solo artist. but CBC reports that in Billboard's chart-based list of the century's greatest, drake has the most albums of any Canadian while the weeknd has the most singles, including the top song overall. on top of that, the weeknd is the second most-awarded act in Juno history with twenty-two trophies, and After Hours was both a critics' favourite and a best seller in 2020. meanwhile critics largely called Certified Lover Boy more of the same, short on lyrical insight.

and the crowd still went drake. on morfi's opinion market, where people back their take with actual money, drake sits at 60% consensus against the weeknd's 40%. that's 22 traders and $3,605 behind the opinions. so the crowd is basically scoring this on volume and vibes: the albums, the number ones, the sheer fact that a drake song is playing in some mall somewhere at all times. the weeknd's case is about quality per song, and the crowd has left it on read.

my take, and it is only a take: the crowd is right if 'catalog' means a buffet and wrong if it means a tasting menu. drake is wallpaper in the best way, there for every breakup, gym session and 2am drive. the weeknd built eras, each one a full cinematic universe with its own red suit and bandaged face. 'consistency across eras' is literally in the market description, and nobody switches up eras better than abel. but i also know that arguing with a crowd that has wallet energy is like arguing with the algorithm. you will lose and it will recommend you a drake song afterwards.

to be clear, this verdict is fresh. trading opened less than a day ago, and Madame Odds already called drake's first blood in this exact fight, so the lead has held for now. watch whether the weeknd's stans show up with the Juno receipts and that chart record, or whether drake's lead hardens into permanent canon. if you think the crowd got it wrong (or extremely right), join the market on morfi and put your conviction where your playlist is.