In 2017, dvsn found itself playing in front of thousands of enraptured German fans. The R&B duo consisting of singer Daniel Daley and producer Nineteen85 had joined Drake on his The Boy Meets World Tour; the act, which had recently signed to his OVO Sound label, figured the 15,000-capacity venues would be mostly tuning out its opening sets. Instead, large crowds at each of three stops in Germany belted back every word. “They’re singing, lighters up, fully tuned in to what Daniel is doing onstage,” recalls Nineteen85. “That’s when I realized, ‘Oh, this is way bigger than us.’ ”
Drake and Nineteen85 go back: The producer born Paul Jefferies, who was mentored by OVO Sound co-founder Noah “40” Shebib, produced “Too Much” on Drake’s 2013 album, Nothing Was the Same. But at the time of the tour, dvsn had released only one album, Sept. 5. (A year prior to its release, Drake had played some of the duo’s tracks on the Sept. 5, 2015, episode of his OVO Sound Apple Beats 1 show, which inspired the album’s title.) By February 2016, dvsn had signed a recording contract with OVO Sound. Sept. 5 arrived the following month, entering the top 20 of Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The duo released its second album, Morning After, in October 2017 — and it achieved the same feat.