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Drake's 'Views' exceeds 1B streams on Apple Music

Popular rapper Drake recently saw his album "Views" become the first to surpass one billion streams on Apple Music, an achievement Apple commemorated with a plaque presented to the artist on Monday.

Drake posted a photo of the award — with a signed thank-you from Apple CEO Tim Cook — to his Instagram account earlier today. A separate post shows Drake and former manager Cortez Bryant taking receipt of the Apple Music plaque from Cook and Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue.

Drake released "Views" as an Apple Music exclusive in April under Lil Wayne's Young Money label. Windowed for one week of unshared sharing, the album accrued more than 250 million streams and 1 million iTunes sales in its first five days of availability.

Long an Apple Music collaborator, Drake and Apple have teamed up on concert tours, streaming exclusive and produced content, the latter resulting in the Apple-backed "Hotline Bling" music video. The artist was also on hand to announce the streaming music service onstage at an Apple keynote event last year.

The partnership continued on Monday when Drake released the short film "Please Forgive Me" as an Apple Music exclusive.