Drake is not a musician. He is a really good entertainer, and with the re-release of For All the Dogs (Scary Hour Edition), he has proved me right once more.
For the past 19 hours, I have been flummoxed by how one Aubrey Drake Graham has delivered 6 songs of bar after bar after bar. Re-releasing his For All the Dogs, the Scary Hour Edition adds 6 songs that did not find their way on Drake's first go. 6 songs that make you stop and consider, what has Drake been doing on every other album before this.
Just a week ago "Best I Ever Had" came on shuffle, and I was dumbfounded by how terrible of a song that was. Continuing with "Marvin's Room", Drake built this sing songy, boo-hoo, overly toxic presence who drunk dials his ex to convince her to come back to him.
But this is different. Really different.
This isn't Best I Ever Had. This isn't Marvin's Room. This isn't God's Plan. This isn't Nonstop. This isn't Nice For What.
Though I love it, this isn't Passionfruit either.
This is Weston Road Flows. This is Do Not Disturb. This is Lemon Pepper Freestyle. All in One. Six Songs. One After Another.
What makes these six songs stand out is how basic they are. There is nothing complex to the beats. The beats are catchy, but they are stripped down giving you the same sound on repeat.
There is nothing to focus on but each one of his complex but approachable lines. The beat eventually fades into the background leaving you with nothing to be distracted by. Breaking the typical song mold, most songs do not have a typically chorus: it is just bar after bar after bar.
Nearly every line is a one punch k.o. It's astounding. All you can do is sit and just bob your head.
As you nod along, you realize this man is not a musician. When you compare these six songs to the last seven albums Drake has released, you can only sit and realize Drake makes music for the masses.
You will never hear one of these songs on the radio. They are to simple. They are too raw. To unfiltered.
These songs are so to the point, pulling no punches, that if they ended up on the radio, no one would know what to do with them. There is no glitz of glam. Drugs or money. Overt violence or what would seem to be lies about his life. Yes, you will find traces of the normal rap troupes, but this is different.
I will never know the experiences that most rap songs sing about: I am a Catholic, college educated, middle class guy, from Wisconsin. Yet, listening to these 6 songs, I can see the story unfolding as he delivers each line.
Red Button
I wish he would push the red button and just decimate everyone. The first of the six songs sets the tone for what's to come.
If I press this red button dog, everybody Heaven gated. Press this red button dog and everything forever changes.
Change it would.
This is not sing songy Drake. He spends the next minute, a literal minute, no chorus, letting everyone know he is not to be messed with.
Stories About My Brother
When the jazzy vibes reminiscent of a Hey Arnold closing credit scene hits on this song, you can feel the deep, reflective nature.
This is like the storm before the calm, we'll get to the vacation later... People got a heavy misread on my disposition / Talkin' loose, then hit me up after on some / Please Drake listen listen / Energy they bringin' is inconsistent.
The next three and a half minutes are bar after bar letting you know if you thought you could take Drake, his brother will come to deal with you the same: correct. Almost backing up "Red Button", Drake is not here to make you dance in the club or put this on your Tik-Tok.
The Shoe Fits
The opening lines say it all:
Y'all might want to skip this one, this is a / Harsh truth / Very harsh truth
This song made me write this piece: I was driving home and Drake drops a line around halfway though that made me wake up from the drive home after leading a retreat.
Look, Drake takes aim on very specific crowd that I do not think my readers fall into: Clout Chasing Instagram Personalities. Just like before, he comes correct. The truths are hard, and his delivery of these truths are even harder.
Wick Man
A nod to Keanu Reeves' master assassin, Wick Man's rather militant rhymes float on its ethereal beat.
Though he does let the shells reverberate as they hit the floor, Drake takes a moment to reflect on himself, and even touch on what many of us bi-racial children deal with.
Plagued 'bout the fact I was born a perfectionist / Still can't even wrap my mind around the success of this / Point me to your boss, [-----], you a receptionist / I really hate the fact I make this [----] sound effortless / I put so much thought into the messages / It's borderline obsessiveness, remember who you messin' with / White America say I'm becoming a threat / Black America love to remind me what my mama look like / As if I'd ever [------]' forget / I'm never enough
Out of all the songs, this may fall to the bottom for me, but what stands out is a true reality: no matter how hard you try to compensate for you dichotomous racial makeup with your efforts, it will never be enough for someone. It is a fleeting line, but one I know I will sit with for a while as I continue to grapple with what it means to be mixed race in a society hyper-fixated on rather superficial differentiator.
Evil Ways (Ft. J.Cole).
Arguably the most complex beat, the change up makes sense when you consider who jumps on the song: J.Cole.
Something about Drake's ability to go back and forth with J.Cole, and not seem out of place, cements the fact that Drake is an entertainer.
Yeah, I got some evil ways / Even through the glasses, you could see the gaze / To find your way up to the top, this [----] gon' be a maze / Volkswagen [----] the way I'm runnin' Beatles plays
Referencing the fact he overtook The Beatles for most Top 10 Songs on the Billboard Charts in one year, Drake once again reaffirms that the nice guy singer, is nowhere to be found when he brings attention to his evil gaze.
You Broke My Heart
The most commercial off all the songs, it makes sense why this one finds itself on top of the Apple Music weekly releases.
Opening with the cries of a woman begging her lover to not leave, shades of Marvin's Room come through, but Drake is not here to dial drunk like Noah Kahn. Drake is not here to call anyone. He is answering the phone to make one thing clear: he is not having anything from his ex.
Thought you would've shown a little grace / How can I expect someone who never had they own place to know they [----] place? / Treatin' me like I'm dumb or somethin' / Like you're runnin' somethin' / Like they dropped you on your head when you was one or somethin'
I have said it before, and I will say it again: Drake is an entertainer, not a musician.
There is no way Drake does not know what he is doing when he releases albums like Her Loss, Honestly Nevermind, Certified Lover Boy, Dark Lane, or Scorpion. When you compare about 90% of the songs coming from those five albums to these six songs, they are nowhere near the same.
Drake knows what people want and he delivers.
Talk to any of my students and they clamor when I let them know More Life Is Drake's best album with all subsequent albums being awful. He knows how to sell music, to move the culture, to make himself one of the best.
A musician will make music, will make art regardless, of how it will be received.
When you listen to these six tracks and hear what Drake is actually capable of, there can be no argument against the fact that this man knowingly puts out music that is so far removed from what he is capable of.
I am not here to say this is your gateway to rap music if you do not listen to it typically.
It is poetic, it is raw, it makes you pause and savor what your just heard. It is Drake in a way you are not going to hear on the radio because this is not entertaining.
Its pure art.
These lines will linger in your mind far longer than any one of Drake's radio hits.
These lines will make you restart a song just to hear a single line delivered again.
These lines are not entertaining in the way Drake's other music is: there is malice and intent in each line he delivers. His message is clear.
Drake is where he is in the music world because he knows what people want, but do not get it twisted, if you think you can step to him, he will set you straight.
These 6 added songs should be their own EP. They deserve to be a standalone project. They are so far from Drake's normal. They are indeed scary. They demonstrate what Drake is truly capable of.
This cool, low key, commercial guy on the radio who once stared in Degrassi, is just having fun. The hate he revives just rolls off. He can laugh and joke in public. Go on SNL. Take the jokes about his music. Have people troll him by pooping on his beats. He can let all this go and continue putting out what he does and living his life.
Drake doesn't care about all that because when it comes down to it, he knows what he is capable of. The Scary Hour Edition of For All the Dogs is Drake firing a warning shot in the air: come correct.
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