I don’t know if there is anybody who complains about Drake’s music as much as I do. Sometimes he can create an absolute banger and sometimes he makes something like Honestly Nevermind and it’s absolute cheeks. To be frank, he hasn’t had a good album since 2015 with If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, followed up by Views in 2016 which was such a mid album. It hurts knowing that every album after that has been booty too. Yet Drake keeps us hooked with amazingly catchy singles, fun collaborations with popular artists, and then dropping one liners that seem to be unforgettable. She said do you love me, I tell her only partly, I only love my bed and my moma – I’m sorry. Like that shit isn’t even really a bar, but the way he said it, what it represents – it’s a certified LINE.
Drake has now released a new album with one of my personal fave artists 21 Savage and I can’t even pretend – it’s not bad. It’s not good either, there’s a lot of doodoo – a lot of singing which HE NEEDS TO STOP DOING. I literally laugh every time he starts singing on the first track of Her Loss. But on the songs where the two actually rap, it’s pretty not bad.
By the way, this isn’t me necessarily reviewing Her Loss, although I would say that my favourite tracks are Rich Flex, Major Distribution, Broke Boys, and More M’s. I am fully aware that Drake is regressing in the quality of his music since 2016. Being perfectly blunt, Drake meant a lot to me growing up, so I will always have a soft spot for him. I remember when Best I Ever Had came out and I thought, “damn this is some shit I have never heard before.” You see, before Drake really blew up, he had something to prove. He had a chip on his shoulder. Everybody wanted to make fun of the light skin actor from Toronto who started off on Degrassi. Everybody wanted to make fun of this guy who wanted to sing while he rapped about a girl that scorned him. No one really believed in him as the mid 00’s were dominated by sex and gang affiliated rap music. But Drake showed them all wrong.
Drake made it a point to show that there was a space in the mainstream rap genre for artists like him. Singing/rapping about unrequited love (which is probably why I liked him so much as a cringe teenager), writing bars about his relationship with his mother, and showing love for the city of Toronto. Drake didn’t find a niche, he made it. He carved himself a piece of the American popular music market by being authentically him. He was this young romantic kid from Toronto who wanted to make his dream come true.
I really do believe that his soft thug aesthetic opened the doors for other artists like him. But now he’s a 36 year old man disrespecting women, constantly making excuses, and playing the victim. He does all of this while being the biggest rapper in the world. I just feel like, in the past he rapped with a chip on his shoulder, but now he acts like it’s still there when in reality he is the most popular artist on the planet. I want to like Drake because I know that he’s talented. But I don’t think he understands how to utilize this talent. It’s sad knowing that he’s not as self aware as he think he is. And it’s just a shame knowing that he didn’t grow up with his music like how I did.
(By the way, that’s an absolute bar by me)
