By: Papa Minnow

Drake needs a break. Since 2017, the self-proclaimed “6 god” has released six new projects amounting to an average of 1 album a year, with four of those projects surpassing 20 songs each. 

It’s too much. As great as Drake has been throughout his career, there’s no denying that the latter half has not been as impactful as the former. 

Part of that is due to the rise of the streaming era where more plays equates to more money, therefore most artists are more incentivized to make bloated albums that focus on more listens. Since 2016, Drake has been playing the streaming game. 

The problem with the stream approach is that the quality of music has suffered immensely, and songs that would likely never see the light of day on a concise album, get thrown into the mix solely to meet a streaming quota.

Let’s get into Drake’s latest miss: For All The Dogs 

This album simply falls short of the expectations Drake fans have of Drake. The title left much to be desired as For All The Dogs brought the expectation of being more male driven with dope rap bars to back up his shit talking. 

I understand that Drake can never deliver a full rap album because of his reach, goals, and demographic so I knew there would be some slower and softer songs, but my expectation was more in line with what we got with Her Loss:

A mix of very good rapping with some cool R&B songs that sprinkled in some toxicity here and there. What we got was so far off from what the title implied. 

Drake’s rapping is so subpar that it feels like an old man trying to be hip. He’s developed this lazy flow with the majority of lyrical content being easy to dissect and digest. 

“Got you movin’ waste like a belt, if it ain’t him then it must be somebody else, damn.” – Drake on 7969 Santa 

On “Daylight” he delivers a whole scheme about being aggressive that ends with the line: “Like combo number one we whoppin’ niggas, nigga what?.”  Even on one of the most lyrically acclaimed songs, “First Person Shooter” thanks Cole, he raps: “Like a kid that’s bad from January to November it’s just you and Cole.” 

There just isn’t much substance on a lyrical front which is disappointing coming from the guy who had amazing guest verses this year and off the back of Her Loss which was more acclaimed. 

Subject matter also lands in the toilet as we have an even older Drake who’s 36 (about to be 37) still talking about doing girls wrong and finding issues with younger women. The worst of it comes about at the beginning of “Fear Of Heights” where he spends 40 seconds of the intro crying about Rihanna moving on with A$AP Rocky. 

There wasn’t a better way to sum up my feelings on the subject matter than this annotation from Genius.com 

My biggest gripe is that For All The Dogs isn’t concise. The album is a collection of songs thrown together, but there’s still a lackluster attempt to make it feel as if this was intentionally crafted. Songs such as “Calling For You”, “All The Parties” and “7969” have these terrible skits and outros that ruin the essence and replayability of each song. 

I actually enjoy “Calling For You”, but every time I want to listen to it I have to suffer through that TERRIBLE middle skit. And don’t get me started on Drake using an old Yeat song then adding a one minute intro that has no relevance to the actual song and makes me want to go mute each time I hear it.

It’s not all bad however, there are some positives sprinkled throughout this album. I would be remiss to not praise “First Person Shooter” featuring J. Cole, easily one of, if not the best song on the album and “Away From Home” which definitely draws from the “old Drake” that fans have come to grow and love. 

The production is really good and also carries a lot of songs to a land of listenability that would not have existed had the beats not been up to par. “Daylight”, “Another Late Night”, and “Gently” got listens solely off the production capturing my attention and being elevated over the lyrical content. 

Overall though there’s a lack of refinement throughout this album and most of the songs are forgettable and unmemorable especially given Drake’s talent. A lot of it feels soulless. 

Drake is simply chasing streams at this point and it’s a shame because cutting this album down to “Virginia Beach”, “Amen”, “Calling For You” (first half only), “Fear of Heights”, “First Person Shooter”, “IDGAF” (without the intro), “Tried Our Best”, “Members Only”, “What Would Pluto Do”, “All The Parties”, and “Away From Home” would have been an amazing body of work.

That’s why I’m happy to hear that Drake has indeed decided to take a break. Two years away from the game should do him some good.

Verdict: 13/23

FEATURED IMAGE VIA: 8am In Charlotte Music Video – YouTube