It’s safe to say that everyone was more than surprised when Drake announced on Thursday that he was dropping, oh, just a whole album, the next day?! His last album Certified Lover Boy, was a certified hit, with half the songs making the charts. So why drop another? Why mess with what’s working?
When I saw the tracklist was posted, I was looking forward to the last track named “Jimmy Cooks”. First of all, it’s the only song with a feature. Any song with 21 Savage as a feature is easily going to be one of the best on the album. Second, I’ve recently dived into the world of Degrassi where Drake made his TV debut, and he was one of my favorite characters. His name in the show was “Jimmy Brooks” and the title is obviously a spinoff of that. This song seemed like more of a freestyle, which was completely different than the rest of the album (stay tuned for elaboration). He even shouts out Lil Keed on this track, an upcoming rapper who recently passed away last month.
Before I pressed play on this album, I had no expectations. I just assumed it was going to be like any other Drake drop after I listened to this song. But I was wrong.
This album is definitely unlike anything I’ve heard from Drake. He goes a different route with the production than he ever has before. Who knew Drake was going to explore the world of EDM, specially house music beats. The first few songs are happy beats to sad lyrics but in the worst way possible. The beats themselves are cool, the lyrics could be better. They’re simple and repetitive. Which is confusing if you’re a Drake fan, but makes perfect sense if you’re a fan of house music. He’s known for his lyrics so this can be a bit of a shell shock, but if you listen to this album for the rhythm you may have a different appreciation for it.
I recommend making it through the first few songs and it gets a little better.
Anytime a top artist like Drake drops an album, there are lots of opinions being thrown around. I am no Drake connoisseur but I do know some of his popular songs and a few of his lesser-known ones. This album reminded me the most of Views. The lyrics are similar in singing about his “woes” and wanting to find love so badly. My favorites from this album are probably “Calling My Name”, “Liability”, and “Jimmy Cooks”. I prefer the classic Drake sounds and these ones seemed closest to that.
Drake has been posting nonstop since the album announcement and seemingly let it all out. I think that as long as someone is making the music they want and isn’t worried about what other people think, then that’s the only thing that’s important. If Drake feels good releasing this album, then that’s all that matters. Let’s be honest, he’s going to get all the streams either way. Within an hour of the drop, it received the most streams of any other dance album on Apple Music, which is absolutely insane.
In my personal opinion, this album is a flop for me. I probably won’t listen to it ever again. But for true Drake fans that have been looking for something different, I can see this being the album for them. He definitely channeled older Drake for the vibes and the lyrics but changed the beat up a little bit. We have to give credit for that!
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