While this album certainly was one of Drake’s best, it in no way deserves the hype that he created. For weeks leading up to the album’s release, Drake was talking about how this would be one of his best albums yet and that it would satisfy everything that all of his fans had been begging for. While he did include features that were certainly exciting like Bad Bunny and SZA, the entire album in itself lacked the “Old Drake” R&B feeling. 

The album starts with “Virginia Beach”, which features an old Frank Ocean snippet from “Wise Man” and is easily one of the strongest songs from this collection. Aside from the incredible features on this album, it all together felt a bit last minute and random. Despite accomplishing an equal mix of both old and new Drake, the album did not deliver enough of an old R&B sound in my opinion, especially considering that he had implied that it would feel more like a throwback album.

While, of course, a fan should be a strong supporter of an artist’s growth and artistic improvement, it’s beginning to feel like Drake has reached his creativity ceiling. Rather than revisiting the style that the majority of his fans urge him to bring back, he simply keeps recycling old rap techniques and is not working to push the boundaries of rap with anything new and innovative. 

Despite his recent lack of creativity, the Canadian artist featured tracks on his album that entirely countered the various low points that can be found in the project. These include “IDGAF ” featuring Yeat and “Slime Me Out” featuring SZA, both of which somewhat explored new ground and style for Drake.

However, the feature that was by far the most memorable was from his five-year-old son Adonis at the very end of “Daylight”, where Adonis drops a spectacular verse. 

Somewhere between the lines, this album served its intended purpose, however, the purpose is still unclear. The only takeaways were Drake’s desire for fame, money, and women; the message throughout this album was not nearly as precise and thorough as several of his past releases.

Circling back to the features on his album, unfortunately, his guest artist typically outdid his own verses. For instance on the track, “IDGAF” featuring Yëat, to the unfamiliar ear it nearly sounded like Yëat was featuring an up-and-coming artist on one of his songs rather than the other way around. The unfortunate phenomenon in this song has drawn so much attention from fans that the specific line, “I’m countin’ up the money for fun” from Drake in a high pitched and squeaky tone after Yëats long and vulgar rap verse, has turned into the main component for a popular TikTok trend.

A trend in which users appear to be dressed in a more intimidating outfit or makeup during Yeats verse, and switch to a dorkier looking outfit during Drake’s verse. Instances like this are precisely why Drake has created a reputation of goofiness; however, I many feel that it has somewhat added to his charm.

All in all, this album was a reasonable transition from his previous works as it follows his past style with a bit of a new taste; however, it goes without saying that fans are eager for something better nonetheless.