Drake releases too many albums that are too long. Or maybe he is just an artist seeing what works. I mean, maybe. Let’s see.
Her Loss opens with Drake declaring, ‘You need to find someone else to call / When your bank account get low.’ This is perhaps one of the worst lyrics of the last few millennia, but I’ll let that pass, since the production on ‘Rich Flex’ is passable, opening with a soul-infused interpolation which echoes Kanye’s debut The College Dropout, before pivoting to some rhythm-/keyboard-mixed electronic beats.
‘Major Distribution’ turns the keyboard up and adds lyrical flow which faintly echoes Baby Keem’s Kendrick Lamar-inspired and Drake-inverted Melodic Blue, a standout hip hop album from 2021. The bassline echoes the work of Travis Scott on Astroworld or Kanye West on Donda. ‘Go stupid,’ the riff goes. Well, that’s one way to put it.
‘On BS’ also kinda misses the point. 21 Savage brings some artistry to the scene on this album but Drake continues to drag things down with monotone. Drake’s flow is certainly catchy, and has something of his idol’s braggadocio, but without finding bravery in his bravado. Alas, the result is something quite empty. Jay-Z emphasised technique and Kanye emphasised artistry. Drake takes artistry to a banality that just misses the point. According to Google, banality entails ‘the fact or condition of being banal; unoriginality.’ Well, certainly.
Recently Taylor Swift has joined Drake’s bandwagon with Midnights. It is telling that, just as 808s and Heartbreak overshadowed the 2010s, Donda overshadows the 2020s. Kanye has the tendency for his most underrated albums to be the most influential. Compare with the critically acclaimed My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy that is much harder to imitate — though it hasn’t stopped many from trying.
‘BackOutsideBoyz’ has forgettable flow and production. And that’s the last track I’m going to —
‘Privileged Rappers’. OK, I’ll just leave that fifth track there, and end the review before I lose my mind.
Edmund Wilson 