By Bailei Burgess-Simmons
Staff Writer
On Oct. 6, Drake released his highly anticipated eighth studio album, “For All The Dogs.” The album cover, which depicts a goat drawn by the rapper’s son, combined with the general assumption that this new project would be some of his best work, made the wait for the album an eager one.
However, what we got was nothing short of forgettable. While I initially planned to rank the album in order of the songs I liked most to least, it proved to be difficult considering most of the songs felt unoriginal and half-done.
Rather than re-enter the debate about the greatest artists of our generation, Drake has left critics with nothing to discuss besides how — with the last three consecutive albums — his music has failed to mature with him.
The album opened with “Virginia Beach,” sampling Frank Ocean’s unreleased 2012 single, “Wiseman.” As any die-hard fan of Frank Ocean would be, I was filled with glee upon hearing his vocals open the song.
However, that excitement was cut short when Drake jumped on the track. The sample made zero sense. Contextually, it seemed Drake had never even listened to the original song, as he failed to match the vibe of “Wiseman” in any way.
Instead of emotional depth and some honest self-reflection, it was just one more song of Drake whining about women and how rich he is.
This proved to be the theme for the entire 23-track album. Similar to several of his predating projects, this album carried shallow themes of misogyny, materialism and immaturity, leading me back to my original point that Drake’s sound is stagnant.
At the height of Drake’s career, he was known for his clever bars, the fusion of Hip-Hop and R&B and the “loverboy” themes of his songs. But more recently, he has failed to match the quality of earlier albums like “Take Care,” “Nothing was the same” and “If you’re reading this it’s too late.”
As opposed to honing in and focusing on an album with 10-12 refined tracks, Drake gave us 23 songs, most of which were repetitive and skippable, emphasizing the aforementioned problems.
As if to make up for the very unoriginal project, “For All The Dogs” also consisted of a star-studded feature list, spanning a vast audience. The album included guest appearances from Bad Bunny, J. Cole, Chief Keef, Sexyy Red, Snoop Dogg, 21 Savage, Lil Yachty, Sade, Teezo Touchdown, SZA (twice), Yeat and PARTYNEXTDOOR.
In theory, collaboration this diverse should have ensured a supreme album. But Drake found himself outmatched and outperformed by many of the artists featured on the album — most notably in the songs “Slime you out” featuring SZA and “First Person Shooter” featuring J. Cole.
Where he wasn’t outmatched, I found that the featured artists were unnecessary and did nothing to improve the songs, as seen in “Another Late Night” featuring Lil Yachty.
Despite being a veteran in the rap game, Drake has been lapped several times over by younger artists with a greater emphasis on creating unique and quality music as opposed to the generic, trendy, caption-worthy work of Drake’s most recent projects.
Travis Scott’s “Utopia,” Kendrick Lamar’s “Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers” and Tyler the Creator’s “Call Me if You Get You Lost” are all fully developed and beautifully constructed albums that are more in line with the quality of music Drake should be producing at this stage in his career.
All in all, “For All The Dogs” was a disappointment. Many anticipated that this album would be our much-needed return to the old Drake. While he kept similar themes, he focused too much on recreating as opposed to evolving his sound with a more seasoned touch.
It is my hope that with his next project, Drake will make better use of his features, take his time to focus on quality content and create a more refined project that better aligns with his legacy.
