By: David Williams
Score 7.6/10
Drake and 21 Savage are no strangers to superstar team-ups. Drizzy teamed up with maybe Atlanta's living trap legend Future to create What a Time to be Alive. This instant classic beamed platinum club toxicity through polished, glistening production and the duo's dynamic chemistry. At the same time, 21 anchored the ominous, horror-filled collaboration Without Warning with Offset and super producer Metro Boomin. The two have worked together before, most memorably on the track "Sneakin'" in 2016, and have been hovering in the same musical spaces for years. Still, it was a pleasant surprise when a joint album announcement for Her Loss came halfway through the music video for "Jimmy Cooks," a fan-favorite rap cut from Drake's dance-themed Honestly, Nevermind.
Drake is a corporation at this point in his career. Like McDonald's, the public doesn't know him more than they know the chairman of Walmart because everything he raps about is surface-level superficial topics. This is a contributing factor as to why his material has gotten stale over the last 5 years. He doesn't push himself or put himself in uncomfortable situations. No artistic growth can be achieved when you don't desire to do so. Look at the lyrical evolution of his peers Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole; their content is a natural progression of maturation. Now closer to 40 than 30, the sophomoric topics Drake still touches seem more desperate by the day.
"Rich Flex" begins with Drake playfully speaking to 21 Savage like a kid encouraging his friend to hop in a double dutch rope at recess. From there, the Slaughter Gang CEO raps over dark drums using his dry delivery and witty humor. The song then morphs into a current-day trap version of "24's" by T.I., where Drake sounds lively and locked in something we've been missing from him with his last few projects. "Major Distribution" is one of the most entertaining songs on the record. The production plays to the duo's strengths with a pounding bassline. Drake describes how he pretends to be Macaulay Culkin in one of his many compound estates, as 21 shares the errands Instagram models run for him.
Image Courtesy of Drake
The first misfire comes from "Privileged Rapper," where both artists give a lethargic performance projecting no emotion throughout. "Hours in Silence" is an example of Drake's complacency lately. The song is bloated, clocking in at over 6 minutes, and filled with moody croons over moody about a woman who did him dirty, giving him regrets of staying tied to this person: "Shoulda been a wham, bam, thank you, ma'am."
The album excels the most when the songs don't take themselves too seriously, "Spin Bout U" is tailored for the adult entertainment nightlife of Atlanta. The thumping bass of "Broke Boys" oozes braggadocio, and we even get a small taste of a back-and-forth between the two during 21's verse. The haunting production of "More M's" is in the sonic neighborhood of Without Warning. Savage sounds right at home, delivering broody atmospheric bars.
"Middle of the Ocean" has a nocturnal tone and soul sample. It's a classic Drake deep cut, spouting decadent one-liners about NFL teams, A-list celebrities, private jets, and European destination weddings over a luxurious beat. However, "Pussy & Millions" might stand out on the project. Drake delivers a triumphant hook and divides the groovy instrumental evenly with 21 before Travis Scott steals the show during a room-shaking beat switch.
Image Courtesy of Drake
Theoretically, "Circo Loco" should have been a hit song sampling the legendary electronic duo Daft Punk's "One More Time." However, its lyrical content of Drake ruins the record. In the song's opening moments, he takes aim with a line regarding Megan Thee Stallion getting shot allegedly by Tory Lanez. Let's say it wasn't a diss to her, and it was supposed to be a double entendre: the line is clunky and is him clout chasing solely for streams. If it was a diss, he comes off as ignorant, and with his humongous platform, that can be a dangerous thing when it was already proven by a doctor that someone did, in fact, shoot the Houston MC in the foot.
Yet, Drake isn't finished with cringe conflict. He chooses to continue with his weird on-again-off-again relationship with the disgraced artist formerly known as Kanye West, which has been going on for over 4 years now. When it seems he has nothing else to talk about, he goes into the default mode of yet another yawn-inducing Ye subliminal diss prolonging a never-ending, hard-to-believe feud: "Linking with the opps, bitch, I did that shit for J. Prince / Bitch, I did it for the mob ties." While dunking on the hateful rhetoric and public travesty of Ye is a layup at this point, his barb falls flat and personal.
Let's be honest; this is a Drake record featuring 21 Savage, not a true collaboration between the two, as Aubrey Graham takes up almost two-thirds of the 1-hour runtime. At this point in his artistic career, he is like an NBA player whose point per average has been on a steady decline year after year. He's still an All-Star with a legendary status, but he's not the player he used to be. He enlists the help of Savage to carry him in spurts helping him with the workload and filling in the cracks with a cement full of charismatic punchlines. In many ways, 21's presence sharpened Drake's pen game hence why this is the best he has sounded since More Life. It's time to conclude that Drake is past his prime and is nowhere close to the artist he was years ago, and 21 Savage is an underrated star in his prime.