Drake dropped his highly awaited eighth studio album, “For All The Dogs,” on Oct. 6, 2023, under his label, OVO Sound.
After experimenting with house music in his album, “Honestly, Nevermind” and returning later to drop a banger-packed collaborative album with 21 Savage in 2022, it seems that Drizzy has lost his motivation to make engaging and coherent music.
Throughout “For All the Dogs'” nearly hour and a half runtime, Drake rehashes many of the same themes we’ve seen from him going back to the days of “Scorpion” in 2018 – including his quasi-traditionalist views of women and obsession with rap beefs that seem to materialize from nothing. There is overall little introspection on Drake’s part, lending his supposed talent for songwriting to edgy tracks about many of these same superficial ideas he’s perched his career on over the last few years.
That being said, there are actually high points on this album. “Slime You Out” featuring SZA is great. It was originally released as the lead single on Sept. 14, 2023.
Drake’s vocals echo the same sound that he produced in the early 2010s. This nostalgic singing is greatly supplemented by Noah Shebib’s production, whose technical and creative skills are tragically underutilized on the rest of the album. Just as she did on Travis Scott’s recent project “Utopia,” SZA adds beautiful vocals tied to moderately profound lyrics.
It’s no surprise that this was used as the lead single because it most definitely does not get better from here.
Perhaps one of the most egregious examples of how low this album can go is seen in the track titled “Gently.” Drake opens the song by drooling awkward auto-crooned bars in Spanish over a beat that can’t decide whether it’s a moody trap intro or a knock-off reggaetón beat.
After Drake imitated a Jamaican accent on his album “More Life” and later on a song with Jamaican singer, Popcaan titled “We Caa Do It,” it should be no surprise that Drake saw Bad Bunny’s appearance on this track as an excuse to do the exact same with the latter’s sound. Not well, either.
Something very strange about this album is Drake’s insistence on name-dropping random people, all of whom are unknown to the audience. Who is Hailey on “Bahamas Promises?” Who knows.
Drake’s ephemeral seriousness on this album is negligible when songs like “Away From Home” ramble on about more people who may or may not even exist. Do we know anything about Jay, Neeks, Rose, Tristan, Devoe and Candy? No, nothing.
“I remember fightin’ over Monica with Jason / I remember only knowin’ Andre and Jason / I remember buyin’ all the iceberg from Jason / That’s three different Jasons, my life like the matrix,” he sings.
That is an actual excerpt from the second half of the same song. And yes, it’s the penultimate track on this project.
The themes, sounds, lyrics, production, features and so much more on this album make no sense together. It almost feels like Drake fired his ghostwriters and proceeded to dredge up some of the most boring and pointless media buzz-chasing singles that he’s ever created.
What has made so many of Drake’s previous projects great was a combination of masterful production, catchy flows, and clever wordplay that didn’t take itself too seriously, but still retained a level of candor that just isn’t there anymore.
Drake later released a deluxe edition of the album, “For All The Dogs Scary Hours Edition,” on Nov. 17, with six additional tracks at the end of the record. These six songs are passable bangers at best, that still somehow manage to eclipse almost all 23 original tracks.
One of the new tracks, “Wick Man,” sees Drake very humbly comparing himself to John Wick, with the hook mentioning how he empties clips like how the fictional hitman would. The shots, so to speak, are aimed at rapper Pusha T, whom he has had extensive beef with for many years. The Alchemist’s dreamlike production makes it just a step above the original cuts.
Plus, at least the audience actually knows who he’s talking about on this track. There’s even a dash of introspection, with him dedicating a few bars to his experience being biracial. If only he had put this same effort into the original project.
Drake doesn’t seem to care about making quality music anymore, but rather engaging in petty internet drama and making token appearances on live streams that keep his name in media circulation. It’s frustrating to listen to Drake in 2023, because we all know how great he can be, yet he chooses mediocrity time and time again.
