By Matthew DiPlacido
For many years now, Drake has been regarded by rap fans as one of the best in the industry. Banking off the success of his debut album “So Far Gone” in 2009, he released his sophomore album “Thank Me Later” in June 2010, which sold an astounding 447,000 copies in its first week, sending the “Degrassi” cast member into even further stardom.
In the following years, he released hit after hit. Some of his largest songs include “Marvin’s Room,” “Started From the Bottom,” “Nice For What,” “One Dance,” and “God’s Plan.” However, after recently releasing his thirteenth album, “For All The Dogs,” the 37-year-old rapper has hit a major plateau.
The beginning of the drama surrounding his most recent album started before he even released it. On Aug. 21st, 2023, Drake unveiled the album cover for his newest project, displaying a painting of a dog created by his 5-year-old son, Adonis, causing varying feedback. Many people claim that Adonis’s work on the cover was fantastic, claiming that it compared to that of famous Brooklyn painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. However, others claim that it is a prime example of how album covers are being devalued by the rap industry. Some angry fans even went as far as to say that this was an elaborate tax loophole for Drake after hearing rumors on social media that Adonis’s payout for his work was around the $9 million range, kicking off the controversy around his eighth studio album.
On Oct. 6, the Toronto-born rapper released “For All The Dogs.” This 24-song track list amassed 402,000 copies sold in the first week, however, this figure doesn’t exactly tell the story of the quality of the album. Many sources claim that the album started off very strong, with tracks such as “Virginia Beach” and “Amen” being some of the best songs on the LP.
This quality doesn’t stay up for too long, though, with people like famed music reviewer, Anthony Fantano stating that “it’s not a well-groomed and consistent record… there are so many bars and tracks just flying on this thing… they weigh it down.” Fantano even proposed that Drake should’ve cut the last six songs of the album, with which many others agree, including popular music reviewing platform “The Pitchfork,” where they describe the second half of the album as “a good half-hour of…slog through [Drake’s] thoughts on wealth, women and surgical injections.”
Now, despite things looking bad for Drake, he has started to take steps in the right direction. On Nov. 17, Drake released a deluxe version of this LP titled “For All The Dogs Scary Hours Edition.” On this edition, he added six new songs that he recorded within a five-day span, and they have all received fantastic feedback from the rap community.
Eric Skelton from Complex Magazine, said, “usually, I don’t think artists should listen to their critics… In this case, though, it feels like Drake took in the criticism from ‘For All The Dogs’ and used it as fuel to make six songs that actually fill in the holes that made the initial album feel incomplete.”
After the release of the initial project, Drake stated to various news sources that he was going to take a hiatus from creating new music to focus on health issues with his stomach and to take time to raise his son.
After seeing a glimpse of hope in “Scary Hours Edition,” many fans are left to hope that the Canadian-raised rapper can gather his bearings during his time away and come back with an album better than ever before, maintaining his stay at the top of the game along with his G.O.A.T status.
Writer’s Opinion
Overall with the strong beginning of the album blending into an inconstant ending, with scattered thoughts and cringe-worthy bars; on my personal scale, I would rate the original album a 6/10. With the deluxe obtaining a higher rating with a 7.5/10. This feels like a comfortable place for it to sit on my scale, due to it being a prime example of what good things can occur when artists actually listen to their audience and give the people what they want.
