Carried by the juggernauts “God’s Plan” and “Nice For What”, Drake is releasing his fifth album, Scorpion. Drake
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released February 12, 2015 | Cash Money Records - Young Money Ent. - Universal Rec.
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released June 29, 2018 | Republic Records
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Carried by the juggernauts “God’s Plan” and “Nice For What”, Drake is releasing his fifth album, Scorpion. Coming off of his uneven Views and his eclectic playlist More Life, the Toronto artist offers a complete panel of 25 tracks spread over two sides like an old vinyl or a dusty tape. Drake is trying to explore all the angles of his musical personality, with a first ensemble focused on rap, and the other edging towards pop. In “Scorpion”, Drake is also trying to encompass his entire dynasty, and invited his two long-time role models to the party: Jay-Z for a red-hot verse and Michael Jackson on a ghostly melody. Darker and sharper in the first part, Drake reaches later on a few radiant moments like “Blue Tint” and “Ratchet Happy Birthday”. But for the first time in many years, the worldwide musical emperor appears to falter on his throne and offers a glimpse into a few fragile moments. Following Pusha T’s repeated attacks, Drake recognises his paternity maybe sooner than he initially intended. And while he often claims to be “Emotionless”, Aubrey Graham here proves he can’t always be in control. He appears urgent on the “Nonstop” borrowed from Blocboy JB, nostalgic on the soulful “8 out of 10” and annoyed on the catchy “Sandra’s Rose”, produced by DJ Premier. Bit by bit, he’s always trying to prove his legitimacy, justifying his success, his accomplishments. Scorpion marks a turning point in his discography, a transition with a few flashes and short-winded moments that scratch the surface of the artist’s personality. Throughout the album, Drake doesn’t directly address his critics, but provides a lot of information about his position and state of mind. Slick but tormented. The best Canadian mix.
© Aurélien Chapuis/Qobuz
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released March 18, 2017 | Cash Money Records - Young Money Ent. - Universal Rec.
After releasing the hugely popular but artistically underwhelming Views in 2016, Drake went back to the mixtape approach for his next release, 2017's More Life. Over the course of 22 songs and almost an hour and a half of music, Drake shows again why he's one of the most frustrating rappers in the world. The main problem is that he's a better hip-hop-inspired R&B singer than he is an R&B-inspired rapper, but he refuses to acknowledge it. Listening to track after track of molasses-slow trap featuring Drake going on about how once he was on the bottom and now is firmly cemented at the top is tiresome at best, painful at worst. He only really comes to life on the songs where he drops the hard façade and lets some of his emotion show through, like the lovely island-inflected groover "Get It Together," which features Jorja Smith killing it in the role often occupied by Rihanna, or the dark-night-of-the-soul ballad "Nothings into Somethings," which balances his intimate crooning with introspective rapping. The bubbling "Passionfruit" is Drake at his smooth, melancholy best, showing off his skill at creating surprising melodies and entrancing atmosphere. These moments are too few and far between and most of the record sits right in the center of the rut Drake has dug for himself over the years. There are some tracks that break free of the boredom and show some kind of pulse -- usually the tracks where guests drop by and add their skills to the mix. Young Thug, in particular. His dramatic rapping and outsized persona put Drake to shame on "Ice Melts." He's Technicolor, while Drake is various shades of gray. That track and Sampha's feature ("4422"), where the singer gets deeper emotionally than Drake ever has, don't do Drake any favors. They only serve to showcase his flaws and make it clear that More Life is another overly serious, musically uninteresting effort. The few choice tracks, high-profile guests, and occasional stylistic shifts aren't enough to keep More Life from being another disappointing release. That it proved immensely popular upon its release will only serve to reinforce his misguided belief that he's the best rapper around. ~ Tim Sendra
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released April 29, 2016 | Cash Money Records - Young Money Ent. - Universal Rec.
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Since the release of his last non-mixtape/non-collaboration album in 2013, Drake has solidified his position as a pop music icon, scaling the charts, dominating gossip columns, and generally living the good life. Or so it seems. 2016's Views is another in a string of dour transmissions from the dark night of Drake's soul. As before, he casts himself as both the melancholy bachelor looking out over the city from his penthouse manor, and the criminally underrated rap genius demanding his due, and it's one album too many for both personas. He's already delved deeply into his insecurities, lambasted all his exes, and displayed his fierce self-pride, never shying away from telling everyone exactly where he started and how far he's come. Frankly, it's become as boring and annoying as a needle stuck in a groove. No matter how ably the production casts his raps and ballads in the best possible light, no matter how well the frequent use of chopped and swirled samples from '90s R&B songs fit in the mix, no matter that the occasional song rises up from the narrative and makes a splash, the album is a meandering, dreary rehash of what Drake has done before in much better fashion. Of the songs that stand out, his uptempo, Caribbean-flavored duet with Rihanna ("Too Good") is the most enjoyable; "One Dance," another song with a Jamaican dancehall feel, is another fun track. Still, these poppy moments feature Drake as the wounded lover, being treated poorly yet again. A few other tracks connect, like the almost light-hearted "Feel No Ways," which makes good use of a stuttering Malcolm McLaren sample or, of course, the hugely catchy hit song "Hotline Bling." The nostalgic "Weston Road Flows" comes close, with the great Mary J. Blige sample running through the track, but stumbles when Drake name drops Katy Perry and brags about wrecking marriages. The track, like so many others made up of over-blown boasts, seems to be fighting a battle that was won long ago. Drake has not only arrived, he's taken over. And if he's never going to get the same respect that someone like Chance the Rapper gets, making records as self-pitying and self-serving as Views isn't going to do much to further Drake's career artistically, either. Basically, Drake needs to lighten up and add some new colors to the paintbox, whether it’s songs about something other than his bummer love life (like the good times before the inevitable breakup), or the fabulous things that come from all the money and fame he never lets anyone forget he's accrued. Eventually, people will get tired of the same old song if it's sung too often. On Views, Drake is starting to sound a little weary of it himself. ~ Tim Sendra
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released February 15, 2019 | Young Money - Cash Money Records
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So Far Gone is the third mixtape from Canadian hip-hop artist Drake. Featuring resonant keys, minimalist beats, and lyrics concerning both relationships and friendships, the effort includes guest appearances from the likes of Lil Wayne and Santigold. The record was preceded by the singles "Best I Ever Had" and "Successful." ~ Rob Wacey
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released May 6, 2016 | Cash Money Records - Young Money Ent. - Universal Rec.
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released January 1, 2012 | Cash Money Records - Young Money Ent. - Universal Rec.
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Drake’s highly anticipated follow up to the platinum Thank Me Later is full to the brim. Made up of beautiful contradictions, tender vocals, tight flows and big name collaborations, Take Care is a more than worthy successor to the Toronto rapper’s first studio album. Amongst the 19 tracks on the album are collaborations with the likes of Rihanna, The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne and even Stevie Wonder (a harmonica solo on Doing It Wrong). Drake lays everything on the table here, displaying everything from sheer confidence (Headlines, HYFR) to mellow and fragile insights into his love life (Marvins Room, Doing It Wrong). The mix of deep, soulful singing and sharp rapping is what makes this album brilliant, and these two aspects don’t remain separated as Drake often combines the two in order to make his raps more melodic, something that has given him a more original sound during his rise to the top. Take Care also steps it up in terms of production with a team including T-Minus, 40, Jamie xx, Boi-1da, The Weeknd, Illangelo, Doc McKinney and Supa Dups. Despite the generally ambient style, the extensive list of producers makes for a reasonably diverse mix of techniques, influences (in terms of genre) and tempos.
There are certainly some rap classics in waiting on Take Care, including the title track on which Drake and Rihanna play the love game by exchanging heartfilled verses over Jamie xx’s production. Headlines and Crew Love (featuring the Weeknd) have “hit” written all over them with their hard-hitting and confidence filled lyrics. Marvins Room soothes the soul with its tender vocals and jealousy driven lyrics, a classic emotionally charged (lost) love song. Drake and his mentor Lil Wayne shrug off all the meaningless questions coming their way on HYFR, a track radiating swagger. And finally he concludes the album with The Motto (featuring Lil Wayne and Tyga), a piece of pure rap brilliance. By the looks of things, Drake is settling into his status as a superstar nicely. © Euan Decourt/Qobuz
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released June 29, 2018 | Cash Money - Drake LP6
Is there anything more tiresome than being at a party, or at work, or anywhere really, and finding yourself cornered by someone who tells the same story over and over and there's no chance to escape? On his last two albums, and the many singles and songs that surrounded them, Drake skated dangerously close to being exactly that kind of joy-killing, endlessly tiresome boor. On 2018's Scorpion, the ice finally cracks and Drake plunges headfirst into the icy depths of boredom and despair as the 25 songs go back and forth over the same lyrical territory and the monochromatic trap beats drag along slowly behind. Drake runs through his greatest hits yet again -- he's the best rapper yet no one will admit it, he's been treated wrong by every woman he's ever been with, he's rich as hell, and life is tough when you're on top -- to decidedly diminished returns. This time around, there is the matter of Pusha T's diss track to be dealt with and the existence of his freshly uncovered paternity to talk about, but even those tracks are filtered through Drake's tired lens that only seems to come into focus when it's directed inward. As the tracks slog past, one wishes for a feature to break the monotony or a song with a different tempo to break the trap spell, but it's not until the 11th track that Jay-Z shows up to give Drake a run for his money in the boredom stakes, and not until the 16th track that "Nice for What" -- the one song that gives any sense of the old Drake who wrote the occasional fun pop song -- comes along to inject some bounce into the mopey proceedings. Of course, that song is followed by the slowest, bleakest track on the record, and nothing else -- not even "Don't Matter to Me," which features a ghostly Michael Jackson sample -- manages to raise blood pressures or get feet moving or keep eyelids from drooping. At this point in his career, maybe it's not fair to expect Drake to be writing pop songs or having fun, but it was the balance between downcast, introspective soul raps and less cloudy, almost happy-sounding pop songs that made his best albums work so well. Scorpion doesn't even come close to being one of his best; instead, it's a one-trick record stretched out into 25 endless tracks by an artist who's so deep into the self-obsessed, self-pitying rut he created for himself that he can't see daylight anymore. Anyone who follows him there should be prepared to spend the next hour-plus buried deep in the inner self-loving/loathing depths of Drake's mind, where nothing else, not politics or humankind or the people around him who have yet to diss him, exists. It's a bleak and tiring place to spend time, and one can only hope that Drake himself gets weary of it soon, too. ~ Tim Sendra
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released September 25, 2015 | Cash Money Records Inc.
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released January 1, 2010 | Cash Money Records - Young Money Ent. - Universal Rec.
By the time of the release of Drake's first full-length album, the Canadian rapper was already a star thanks to his huge single "Best I Ever Had," his celebrated mixtape and then EP So Far Gone, and his spots on hits by Young Money and Eminem. Thank Me Later had the tough assignment of living up to the anticipation and further Drake as an artist, and it totally lives up to the hype. Thanks to the rich and nuanced production and Drake's thoughtful, playful, and intense lyrics, Thank Me Later is a radio-friendly, chart-topping collection of singles but also a serious examination of Drake's life that holds up as an album.
Most of the record finds the young rapper (23 at the time of release) conflicted about his growing stardom and fame. Whether it’s a relationship splitting up as on the melancholy “Karaoke,” worries about the fame changing him (“The Resistance”), fears that so-called real hip-hop fans will find him manufactured (“Show Me a Good Time”), or the difficult nature of romance when you’re a star (“Miss Me”), Drake isn’t afraid to examine what the past year has done to his life. He’s also not afraid to talk about how great life has become as well, dropping plenty of lines about the money, the women, and his own prowess as a rapper. His belief in his own skills is well-founded, as the list of collaborators lined up to work with him attests. T.I., Swizz Beatz, Young Jeezy, the-Dream, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, and Drake's mentor Lil Wayne all drop by to add verses, sing hooks, and produce tracks, and their presence sometimes serves to liven things up and keep Drake away from his melancholy nature.
The T.I./Swizz Beatz track “Fancy” is a fun and sassy summer jam with a huge hook, his track with Jay-Z ("Light Up") is a fierce takedown of the Industry and the damage it can wreak, and the Nicki Minaj collabo "Up All Night" is a tough-as-nails boast that features Drake at his most insistent. Elsewhere, Lil Wayne's verse on "Miss Me" is his usual breathtaking verbal roller coaster, the-Dream's vocals on the verses of "Shut It Down" are heartbreakingly sincere, and Jeezy adds some welcome ferociousness to "Unforgettable." It’s like all the guests had to bring their best game to keep up with Drake, and they didn't want the youngster to show them up. He never shows anyone up exactly (though Jay-Z's verse sounds kind of out of breath compared to Drake's), but he definitely proves that he belongs at the very top of the game. His nimble flow is impressive; his words are heartfelt, brainy, and surprising; and while his singing may not be the best, it shows a vulnerability that is rare in rap circles. Indeed, it is this willingness to be introspective and honest that makes Drake unique and helps make Thank Me Later special. It is the rare album, rap or otherwise, that follows through on the artist's potential and the fan’s anticipation. ~ Tim Sendra
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released January 1, 2017 | Cash Money Records - Young Money Ent. - Universal Rec.
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released June 29, 2018 | Cash Money - Drake LP6
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released January 1, 2013 | Cash Money Records - Young Money Ent. - Universal Rec.
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released May 6, 2016 | Cash Money Records - Young Money Ent. - Universal Rec.
Booklet
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released June 29, 2018 | Republic Records
Is there anything more tiresome than being at a party, or at work, or anywhere really, and finding yourself cornered by someone who tells the same story over and over and there's no chance to escape? On his last two albums, and the many singles and songs that surrounded them, Drake skated dangerously close to being exactly that kind of joy-killing, endlessly tiresome boor. On 2018's Scorpion, the ice finally cracks and Drake plunges headfirst into the icy depths of boredom and despair as the 25 songs go back and forth over the same lyrical territory and the monochromatic trap beats drag along slowly behind. Drake runs through his greatest hits yet again -- he's the best rapper yet no one will admit it, he's been treated wrong by every woman he's ever been with, he's rich as hell, and life is tough when you're on top -- to decidedly diminished returns. This time around, there is the matter of Pusha T's diss track to be dealt with and the existence of his freshly uncovered paternity to talk about, but even those tracks are filtered through Drake's tired lens that only seems to come into focus when it's directed inward. As the tracks slog past, one wishes for a feature to break the monotony or a song with a different tempo to break the trap spell, but it's not until the 11th track that Jay-Z shows up to give Drake a run for his money in the boredom stakes, and not until the 16th track that "Nice for What" -- the one song that gives any sense of the old Drake who wrote the occasional fun pop song -- comes along to inject some bounce into the mopey proceedings. Of course, that song is followed by the slowest, bleakest track on the record, and nothing else -- not even "Don't Matter to Me," which features a ghostly Michael Jackson sample -- manages to raise blood pressures or get feet moving or keep eyelids from drooping. At this point in his career, maybe it's not fair to expect Drake to be writing pop songs or having fun, but it was the balance between downcast, introspective soul raps and less cloudy, almost happy-sounding pop songs that made his best albums work so well. Scorpion doesn't even come close to being one of his best; instead, it's a one-trick record stretched out into 25 endless tracks by an artist who's so deep into the self-obsessed, self-pitying rut he created for himself that he can't see daylight anymore. Anyone who follows him there should be prepared to spend the next hour-plus buried deep in the inner self-loving/loathing depths of Drake's mind, where nothing else, not politics or humankind or the people around him who have yet to diss him, exists. It's a bleak and tiring place to spend time, and one can only hope that Drake himself gets weary of it soon, too. ~ Tim Sendra
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released January 1, 2011 | Aspire Music group, LLC
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released January 1, 2011 | Aspire Music group, LLC
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released July 14, 2013 | Drake (Cash Money)
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Rap/Hip-Hop - Released January 1, 2009 | Young Money Entertainment - Cash Money Records - UMRG
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Drake in the magazine
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Drake bites again with Scorpion
Carried by the juggernauts “God’s Plan” and “Nice For What”, Drake is releasing his fifth album, Scorpion.