As the month of October and the Halloween season come to an end, it’s fair to say that they stood out from previous years in the world of music, with the album releases of three particular artists: Drake, Bad Bunny, and Brent Faiyaz. On Friday, October 6, at 6 am, Drake released his long-awaited album, “For All the Dogs,” gifting excited listeners 23 new tracks, including collaborations with a few prominent artists such as 21 Savage, J. Cole, SZA, and more, for the weekend. Exactly a week later, on Friday, October 13, Bad Bunny released his very unexpected album, “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana,” after having suddenly teased fans of it only a few days before. Lastly, on the last Friday of the month, Brent Faiyaz released his album, “Larger Than Life,” which stunned fans as they had no clue about the new album until just one day before its publication. With the addition of these three major albums to music streaming apps like Spotify and Apple Music, listeners are drowning with new songs from their favorite artists, not knowing what they want to listen to anymore.
Drake’s “For All the Dogs,” his eighth studio album, was part of a promise he had made to his fans during his It’s All a Blur Tour this past summer to return to his former musical style, which, tied to heartbreak and confusion, he used at the beginning of his career. Yet, Drake included many different flairs throughout his album. For example, while his song “8 a.m. in Charlotte” features the minimalist, soul style of Conductor Williams, his song “Rich Baby Daddy” presents the Atlanta bass music of INOJ and Ghost Town DJs. In addition, his other song “7969 Santa” employs a similar but slightly faster beat and background melody as his previous songs “TSU” and “Pain 1993.” In addition to the aforementioned artists, Drake also collaborated with Bad Bunny, Yeat, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Chief Keef, Lil Yachty, Sexyy Red, and Teezo Touchdown, providing a sweet balance between songs with and without features on his album.
With “For All the Dogs,” Drake earned his 13th No. 1 album on the Billboard Top 200 Chart in which all 23 of the album’s songs ranked in the top half of the Billboard Hot 100 list, led at the No. 1 spot by his song, “First Person Shooter,” featuring J. Cole. Furthermore, the album debuted with 412,000 equivalent album units, marking the fourth-biggest week of the year (Travis Scott’s Utopia with 496,000, Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time with 501,000, and Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) with 716,000 units). In addition, “For All the Dogs” recorded 514 million official streams of its tracks, also marking the fourth-largest single-week total for an album; Drake’s albums “Scorpion” and “Certified Lover Boy” produced 745.9 million and 743.7 million, respectively, and Swift’s “Midnights” produced 549.3 million streams.
Bad Bunny’s “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana,” translated into English as “Nobody Knows What Will Happen Tomorrow,” contains 22 new tracks of Bunny’s voice, along with some featured collaborations with Young Miko, Bryant Meyers, Luar La L, YOVNGCHIMI, Eladio Carrió, Arcángel, De La Ghetto, and Ñengo Flow.
Just two weeks after announcing on his WhatsApp Channel that his new single “Un Preview” will “possibly be the last song I release this year,” Bunny released a list of 22 songs on his Twitter account, each named “Fuego,” or “Fire.” This was the same promotional strategy that he used last year for his “Un Verano Sin Ti” album in which he also published a list of songs, with each having the word “PALO,” loosely translated in English to “hit,” right next to it. A day later, on Monday, October 9, he posted a video on his Instagram account with the caption “el día más esperado por muchos ya llegó,” which translates in English to “the most awaited day for many has arrived.” Furthermore, the video demonstrates him getting out of a vintage Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, for which he had requested to Wires Only early this year, and being swarmed by paparazzi as he enters the popular New York restaurant “Carbone.” Once in the restaurant, the majestic orchestral melody from the famous French jazz singer Charles Aznavour’s “Hier Encore” song starts playing, as Bunny showcases his newly shaved head, which fans assume means that he’s returning to the trap musical style that he used in the early stages of his career, a slim, black suit, and white sunglasses. A few moments later, he’s greeted as “Don Benito” (Bunny’s real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) by an elegantly-dressed gentleman saying “it’s so nice to see you.”
“Nadie Sabe” marks Bunny’s fifth studio album, his third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, and his eighth total and consecutive No. 1 ranking on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart. In addition, all 21 songs from the album ranked in the Billboard Hot 100, with 10 of them in the top 40, becoming the fourth all-Spanish collection to lead the chart (after his previous two albums “El Último Tour Del Mundo” and “Un Verano Sin Ti” and Karol G’s “Mañana Será Bonito”). During the first week, “Nadie Sabe” also logged 184,000 equivalent album units, establishing the second-largest total in a Latin album’s debut week, since his own “Un Verano Sin Ti” (237,000 units). 
Lastly, Brent Faiyaz’s latest album, “Larger Than Life,” offers fans 14 new tracks of music, featuring collaborations with Missy Elliott, Lil Gray, Coco Jones, A$AP Rocky, A$AP ANT, Babyface Ray, Tommy Richman, and more. On Thursday, October 26, Faiyaz unexpectedly announced the album’s release, which was set for the next day at midnight. In his announcement, Faiyaz posted a video of a crew of men, including a teenage boy, selling CDs right outside of an auto detailing store, saying that “it’s the hottest s*** out right now, when, a few moments later, Faiyaz himself pulls up in a black Cadillac SUV, telling him to raise the price of the CDs. Moreover, “Larger Than Life” had a particularly strong debut, with a No. 2 spot on the Billboard 200. During most of this year, Faiyaz has been traveling the world on tour, headlined as “F*** the World, It’s a Wasteland.”
With the album releases of Drake, Bad Bunny, and Brent Faiyaz—three leading artists in the music industry—this past month of October has stood out from the rest of the year, as it especially gave rap, reggaeton, and R&B fans something to look forward to at the end of their weeks and something to charge up their fun weekends with.
