Over the past twelve months, I’ve been in awe of Kendrick Lamar and how brilliantly he planned his attack on Drake, how he dealt with everything Drake threw at him and everything the “fans” threw at him too. While I give Kendrick a lot of credit for the way he moved and what he created, I also think that good luck and good fortune played a part, as did Drake’s general catastrophic, toxic personality. Kendrick wouldn’t have come out of this year looking so great if Drake hadn’t fumbled so badly and refused to just go away and take a break. Speaking of, Drake thought it would be a great idea to put out an album four days after Kendrick’s Super Bowl Halftime performance. Drake’s Some Sexy Songs 4 U is supposed to be Drizzy turning the page on the rap battle which he lost so badly. Instead, the album is so bad, it’s bringing out the best in music critics. Some excerpts from THR’s music critic Jonny Coleman:
It would be amazing to see Drake rebound with a banger of an album after getting ethered for a year straight by an objectively better rapper, Kendrick Lamar. Too bad that’s not what has happened with the artist’s latest offering, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U. Drizzy’s new Valentine’s Day record recasts the Toronto rapper as a lover, not a fighter. Notably, on a track titled “GIMME A HUG,” he declares the feud with Lamar over (“F–k a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit”), even though that’s not really how these things work.
PartyNextDoor, OVO stalwart and generally unremarkable, plays second fiddle on this long, bloated, 21-song snoozer. In Drake’s world, it’s quantity over quality. You don’t have to make great music; you just have to make a lot of music. It makes you wonder what was left on the cutting room floor — if there was any editing whatsoever.
The intention seems to have been to make a record to sleep with someone to. In practice, it’s more like a record to put you to sleep. There aren’t really any highlights, and not too many lowlights, either; the album is just consistently beige, like so much of Drake’s output and aura.
This isn’t the first time Drake has had to come back from a rap battle shellacking. Pusha T notably revealed his secret child on “The Story of Adidon.” And he’s locked horns with dozens of other rappers over the past decade, from Joe Budden to Rick Ross to Diddy. His CV of beef is a who’s who of mostly middle-aged MCs. Every time Drake has been humbled, he pivots back to his safe space — the “I’m just a softy loverboy, not a gangster” persona — to project that he doesn’t take things personally. And maybe he doesn’t. Maybe it’s all kayfabe. But to what end, other than racking up more Spotify stats? At times, his penchant for getting publicly humiliated verges on kink.
There isn’t much rapping to speak of on the new album. It’s mostly R&B crooning and warbling, set to very low BPMs, with little variety. Moreover, every single track is dripping with AutoTune. It’s 2025; are we still pretending this is a stylistic choice and not merely a means of covering up an aesthetically flawed voice? Even the beats, sometimes the strongest aspect of Drake’s oeuvre, feel like they were programmed by AI here.
Lyrically, things are hardly more impressive. On album closer “GREEDY”, Drake asserts, “Not surprised by nothing, I just take it in stride/On the bright side, everyone on my side.” Judging by the response to Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show — when it seemed like all 133 million people watching were screaming along to “Not Like Us,” an all-time drubbing of Drizzy — that’s not an accurate statement.
“F–k a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit” while he’s literally suing UMG over Kendrick’s disses. Anyway, this review is *chef’s kiss* – I’ve seen much of the same all over social media, from people who actually sort of f–k with Drake and his music, and even they’re like… no, this album is ass. I also think this is sort of an underrated assessment of Drake: “At times, his penchant for getting publicly humiliated verges on kink.” Is that actually IT? Is that the thing? I kept wondering why Drake was acting like he couldn’t form a real strategy to battle Kendrick, but maybe he just likes being humiliated. Something to think about. Also: This is supposed to be fun party songs for the ladies, but the only people praising it are sad-sack dudes who have been crying about “Not Like Us” for months. It’s part of the toxic-bro culture war too – Drake is like the Joe Rogan of music, if that makes any sense.
Photos courtesy of Drake’s IG.
