One of the most highly anticipated albums of 2023, Drake’s “For All the Dogs” consists of 23 tracks, a total runtime of 1 hour and 25 minutes, featuring multiple artists like J Cole, Lil Yachty, SZA, and many more.
The album’s opening track, “Virginia Beach”, begins with a sample from Frank Ocean’s “Wise Man”. Drake raps more with a R&B flow, reminiscing of his past lover and how the love they shared had more meaning than it seemed. He later realizes the effort into trying to maintain their relationship was not worth it.
The album is mixed with a variety of sounds from Drake. Songs like “Virginia Beach”, “Slime You Out”, “Bahamas Promises”, and “Tried Our Best” show the side of R&B Drake while lyrically expressing his feelings towards his past relationships.
On the other hand, tracks like “Fear of Heights”, “Daylight”, “First Person Shooter”, and “8AM in Charlotte ” shine light on Drake’s rapping abilities and his versatility. Drake’s range of genres from rage-style tracks like “Daylight” and “IDGAF” to boom bap style tracks like “8AM in Charlotte” shows how Drake keeps his relevance in the music game today.
Now this project is not perfect. Tracks like “First Person Shooter” (ft J. Cole) and “IDGAF” (ft Yeat) have been praised more for the feature’s verse rather than Drake’s verse.
In the song “Calling For You” (ft 21 Savage), Drake does what Drake does and opens up the song with a catchy melody paired with the grimey production. It then fades to a rather long voice memo from an unknown female voice, ranting about only being fed oxtail and having to sit economy, not first class. The memo fades away, transitioning into 21 Savage’s verse with a beat switch. Admittedly, 21 Savage delivers a weak verse. Out of the 16 times Drake and 21 Savage have collaborated, this is their most flawed work.
Overall, it seemed like Drake was just trying to have fun with creating this album. He steps outside his comfort zone many times by rapping in Spanish with Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican rapper, in “Gently” and rapping with Atlanta club beats in “Rich Baby Daddy”.
As an avid music listener, this album really was enjoyable to listen to, but as a huge Drake fan, I was slightly disappointed.
Prior to the release of the album, talks of “old Drake” being on the album was every fan’s dream. “Old Drake” is popularly defined as Drake rapping more about realer things in life: success, heartbreak, and facing personal issues. These deep lyrics are paired with more simple sounding beats that really highlight the voice of Drake, which gives his emotions a greater reach to the listeners.
Listening to “For All the Dogs”, the whole album definitely did not feel like “old Drake” had made a comeback. It felt more like “old Drake” had made a quick appearance with songs like “Tried Our Best” and “Drew a Picasso”.
Despite this disappointing setback, this album has a lot of potential to receive the praise it deserves after the album marinates for a couple months later.
Drake has recently announced that he will be taking a break for at least a year to clear up some more time for his son, Adonis, as well as to take a mental break for himself. So whether you love the album or hate it, enjoy it while you can because there will be no new Drake any time soon.
