It’s never fun writing about musicians who have given you amazing moments of nostalgia. People are complex humans who all make mistakes, and Drake is not immune, but at what point does the mic drop?
The first time I heard Drake was probably “Best I Ever Had,” and the unfinished yet still beloved mixtape track, “Do It Now.” He was fresh. He was audible. He wasn’t going to shoot me. Drake was a dynamo, the second coming of Lil Wayne in a more suburban package. He was corny and although we knew it, we didn’t care. The music was great, and well, for those of us who knew we were an itsy bit corny too, Drake was relatable to an audience that comprised the hop-buying crowd much more than those who were producing the music.
The marketing strategy of him just being himself was a genius instruction from Lil Wayne, but that would not last very long.
Last Week, Drake’s eighth solo studio album, For All The Dogs, dropped, well, seventh if you don’t count that untz untz album he made, and per usual, the internet was in a storm over it, but not quite because the music is good. Honestly, I don’t know if it was good. I usually wait to listen to the tracks people suggest and move from there because my ADHD just does not have the fortitude to power through sh-t I might not like (but it didn’t do numbers in my corner of the internet).
Drake responds to Joe Budden pic.twitter.com/vWR3yXfk7Y
— DJ Akademiks (@Akademiks) October 7, 2023
Anywho, Drake has undeniably made some bangers. We are close enough in age to have attended high school together, so his music has really been the soundtrack to so much of my adulthood, but as Joe Budden asserted, he simply is no longer making music for people his age, and honestly, that’s ok; that’s not why I am here. As an artist who is pretty big in a particular niche, I can attest to the natural evolution of an artist, I can also attest to the difficulty in always having to reinvent yourself and how those things are not mutually inclusive, so it’s not really my place to tell someone who they should be but come the entire f-ck on Drake!
Take the knife and cut the sh-t.
Drake’s style is hard to pinpoint as of late because, honestly, what the f-ck is it? Is he from Toronto, the 6, the Islands, India, Memphis, Louisiana, Houstonlanavegas, or is it a … combination? Drake is giving off all these personas and the biggest one is messy b-tch. Let me stop before the superpolluter throws having a plane in my face. All that flyness and still no Rihanna, yeah, I would be pissed too. Speaking of Rihanna, bad bitches and f-cking problems, Drake has a sore spot for Rihanna and it’s probably the undercarriage of his balls. As Rihanna has had her second child with his former collaborator A$AP Rocky, he is still mentioning her box on his album. In fact, since 2011, Drake can’t keep Rihanna off his tongue, even if she’s no longer sitting on his face. He’s mentioned her in just about every album that he’s dropped. The most recent reference was that he had badder bitches than Rihanna…
WHERE? SHOW YOUR WORK DRAKE!?!
Why are you not with them? Why are you not referencing them with the same obsessive intensity? How you gone say she don’t run you, when you always run your mouth about her? She gone, Drake, and she’s not coming back, and you just have to accept that all of those years that she wasn’t claiming you wasn’t because she was hiding you from the world, but hiding the world from you because you are kind of a colonizer, I don’t know. Wait, is the badder bitch, you had? You? Let me not be so harsh, I would be punching the air if I fumbled Rihanna, too.
Drake is an artist and artists are and should be sensitive, but his response to Joseph Budden’s critique was so over-the-top. All that access to the world’s best weed and you still don’t know how to chill? Be for real, what Joe said was not even that inflammatory, and in fact, he gave you props as a musician, but someone challenged you to grow and your response was, ‘look at my toy, I’m better than you!’ It feels like that sweater vest that has now transformed into that life jacket thing he wears all the time and is a bit too compressive.
Please come up for air, bud; do it for all the dogs.
Drake also needs to realize that just because you are at the top of your craft doesn’t mean that your access is granted to any and every space, and I’m not just speaking about him being a child of every cultural group, either. Drake has a way of usurping images and sounds without regard to clearance or the smaller artists that he sh-ts on for hits. Drake has been sued countless times for copyright infringement and even recently with the song “Slime You Out,” where he uses a picture of Halle Berry being literally slimed. He asked Halle for permission. She said no. He did it anyway. Besides being sued by his ex for using her voice in “Marvin’s Room,” Drake used the work of Jimmy Smith at the beginning of “Pound Cake,” and was sued but won the case, with the judge citing that the work was transformative, (this is quite rare and makes me wonder if the judge was a Drake fan). Drake has also been rightfully accused by Obrafour, Pet Shop Boys and Rye Rye (twice) of using their work without permission.
Shouldn't have let him get away with it, @halleberry pic.twitter.com/KRhM36F3BE
— Amey Raghuraman (@AmeyRaghuraman) October 6, 2023
If you are an artist who does not respect other artists but simply their art, you don’t really respect the art, either. You just wish you could’ve come up with it on your own. You are greedy.
Drake, you are a man with more money than God, but you are, in fact, not God — at least outside of the 6.
Drake stated that his new album would burn some bridges and sever some ties. Why? Look, I am all about writing about things from your past but if I write about a person who has specifically wronged me, we do not have ties to sever, and the bridge has already been torched. I’m not going to wait until I get into a studio (or, in my case, Notes app) to settle my grievances — or even start them — those b-tches would have already known how much I hate them before the work came out, and I surely wouldn’t be using my genius to talk about them in several albums, like you still pushing tea, love?
Imma fan Of Drake and imma Fan Of Joe Budden. Both got some good points.
— MUZZEN! (@whatevermuzzy) October 7, 2023
My thing is, Drake REALLY can't say that "the raps you rap had 450 men showing up to your shows in dusty eynce jeans to screw up their faces to mood musik 29" when YOU was one of them 450 men. pic.twitter.com/o29z7eXRx9
Also, what in the entire f-ck did Esperanza Spalding do to you other than remind you that everything is, in fact, not yours? One strum from her bass was deeper than that entire song. Only thirsty people grasp for straws with such verocity — Drake this does not have to be you.
I don’t have to love every Drake song to love him as an artist because there are many (most of them where he sings) that I don’t. I think Drake, like any other person, is complex. I mean, we saw the “God’s Plan” video — that sh-t still gives me chills thinking about it — but is this part of his plan, Aubrey? The Drake that appeals to fans is the one who does not take himself seriously. He is in on the joke, not the Drake who has become one. Not respecting other artist’s hard work while demanding respect from the world is behavior fit for a tyrant.
Drake's music has been on a rapid decline since Certified Lover Boy.
— Ernest Owens (@MrErnestOwens) October 7, 2023
The incel has always been within him, but it's louder now.
From the R. Kelly sample, the Meg thee Stallion diss, Halle Berry slime cover, to now coming at Rihanna and Esperanza Spalding — he's lost it.
This is who @drake chose to diss. The INSANELY talented Esperanza Spalding. Her story reads like someone who was destined for greatness.
— ♦️RESIST♦️All Hallow’s Eve ???? (@Decodnlyfe1) October 6, 2023
Stick to club songs and leave REAL musicians alone. pic.twitter.com/6MHk996JHH
Again, I won’t tell an artist what their evolution should look like. Hell, he’s clearly doing well for himself, but it’s crazy that you have that big-ass 767 and still refuse to ascend.
