For a lot of, a few years now, one of many prime knocks in opposition to Drake — arguably hip-hop’s greatest famous person for a minimum of the previous decade — has been that he doesn’t rap sufficient. Each time he drops a brand new album, the grievance may be discovered on social media; that is cool, however why doesn’t he simply RAP?
That is an comprehensible sentiment; in spite of everything, whereas Drake’s leap to mainstream consideration got here with the leak of his R&B-leaning “Model New” and its simp-tastic follow-up “Finest I Ever Had,” he was solely within the place for such an incredible breakout due to his freestyles and rapper’s-rapper tasks like Room For Enchancment and Comeback Season.
It’s equally comprehensible why Drake’s all the time tried to toe the road between serving these two largely separate fanbases. Certain, the fellas supported him early and his rap fan bonafides are simple (he’s a sponsor of Ultimate Rap League battles, for crying out loud), however his greatest industrial successes are largely attributable to assist from the women.
That was an enormous a part of the explanation for the outcry in opposition to his most up-to-date album, For All The Canines. Regardless of its title suggesting music catering to the rough-and-tumble a part of his fanbase that loves his intricately constructed bars, what he dropped as a substitute was a mawkish assortment of wounded crooning aimed squarely at MRAs and the ladies who despise them however date them anyway.
Nonetheless, Drake’s typically at his greatest when his again is up in opposition to the wall. Metabolizing the critiques of his newest, he went again to the lab, synthesizing his responses to these reactions into his third Scary Hours EP, launched as For All The Dogs: Scary Hours, and doing precisely the factor so many people have wished him to do for therefore lengthy: RAP.
Rap he does, choosing beats talking clearly to his backpacker origins (Alchemist, what up!) and doubling down on the nice and cozy reception to his J. Cole collaboration “First Person Shooter” with one other epic team-up, this one infused with the pass-the-mic chemistry exhibited by fan-favorite rap duos like Jadakiss and Types and Clipse.
Because it’s such a brief mission, slightly than doing a full-length evaluation, I believed I’d simply checklist my impressions of every of those tracks and why they hit the mark the place the earlier mission didn’t.
“Purple Button”
You already know Drake is in that mode when he reminds followers of the short-lived backronym for his title. “Do Proper And Kill All the pieces” Aubrey goes off for almost two minutes and thirty seconds with no hooks, harkening again to his Nothing Was The Similar intros. Protecting a rhyme sample going for that lengthy is usually a problem and the truth that Drake sounds so easy at it simply goes to point out how a lot observe he’s put into his craft.
“Tales About My Brother”
Drake says “sufficient about me” all through this observe, nevertheless it’s nonetheless primarily a group of boats about his standing and wealth compared to his rivals and enemies. Mobster Drake might be the least plausible model of the famous person, however the variety of metaphors he comes up with for putting out a hit on someone is borderline awe-inspiring. My favourite: “My brother put some holes in your prime, you a Air Power.”
“The Shoe Matches”
That is the closest track on the EP to carrying over the spiteful spirit of the unique album. For six full minutes, Drake recounts his experiences with a lady with a jealous boyfriend who spends his time hating on Drake from afar, solely to in the end lose his woman to one of the most washed-up NBA players in the league right now. You’re in all probability higher off taking Drake’s recommendation at the start of the observe and hitting skip.
“Wick Man”
Calling your self a lipstick is … as questionable as a variety of what Drake’s mentioned in recent times and your traction for the Pusha T jabs will range relying on where you stood once they had been brazenly beefing. However as an prolonged metaphorical menace of violence, it’s fairly nicely constructed regardless of its incredibility. Followers making the identical goofy soccer joke concerning the track would possibly wanna check their sources, although.
“Evil Methods” Feat. J. Cole
“Evil Methods” isn’t simply one of the best observe on Scary Hours 3, it’s additionally a greater, extra pleasurable dialog between the 2 rap titans than “First Individual Shooter,” primarily as a result of they’re each on subject and it appears like they recorded it collectively (longtime readers may even know I’m only a sucker for buying and selling bars). Across the 2:30 mark, I began hoping both Kendrick or Phonte would present up simply to take it excessive however even and not using a shock characteristic, I think about this one will keep in rotation for me approach longer than any of Drake and Cole’s prior collaborations. Additionally, shout out to Bushido Blade, an underrated late ’90s preventing sport that gave me infinite hours of leisure for the brevity of its matches.
“You Broke My Coronary heart”
Ugh. Even when Drake deliberately focuses on dropping Scribble Jam-worthy punchlines and reclaiming his maintain on his nook of the “greatest rappers alive” triumvirate, he can’t resist one lazy lean again into the sadboy hum-singing about hating his ex that’s made him right into a self-parody on his final three solo albums. We get it, man, ladies have cooties or no matter. Go to remedy!
