Record Review: Drake – “For All the Dogs”: Definitely a dog

The biggest rapper in the world is struggling, as usual, to defend his fun.

There are only two artists bigger than Canadian rapper and singer Aubrey Drake Graham in the global music industry in 2023 – Puerto Rican phenomenon Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift.

That fact lurks audibly at the bottom of Drake’s eighth studio album since 2010. “For All the Dogs” — said to be a sort of acoustic companion to the poetry collection “Titles Ruin Everything,” released this summer — consists of 23 songs over the course of the hour. In just less than an hour and a half. However, the record suffers from more than just its bloated playing time.

The 36-year-old probably doesn’t have much of a chance of filling all 84 minutes with meaningful music and lyrics. Because of this, he is not only extremely vindictive and petty, with an insatiable need for affirmation and self-affirmation, but without the ability to package self-praise and flex his muscles as a womanizer in a particularly convincing way.

The bright spots happen, not least when guests are given plenty of room to shine, as on Teezo’s peppy Touchdown featuring “Amen” and “Rich Baby Daddy,” lifted from opposite sides by Sexxy Red and SZA.

However, he hits the Motters hard on his own on “8 AM in Charlotte,” which vibrates with unusual poetic excess (“I got these cats tucking their tails in the fourth-quarter sales / I used to see the tears falling over huge meals / The restaurant is devoid of echoes Faint Lauryn Hill.”

But more often than not, these songs feel like a chore, whether our man is complaining about a ruined vacation in the Bahamas (“Bahamas Promises”), or trying to connect with the younger heirs to the throne (“IDGAF,” “Last Late Night”). ) Or he sings passive-aggressively about deceitful and ungrateful women in semi-forgotten poems.

Drake could if he wanted to, but we knew that precisely before. When he now announces a break of at least a year from music to take better care of his health, it’s all too easy to pamper him – and at the same time hopefully he’ll know his limits better when future releases are put together.

Best Song: “8 AM in Charlotte”