Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind Fails To Deliver
Drake is undoubtedly one of the biggest artists in the world.
From Arkansas to Antarctica, the self-proclaimed “6 God” has been a household name since we were still doing the Dougie and wearing Heelys.
In 2018, Vice News estimated that $440 million of Toronto’s tourism income could be attributed to Drake.
His accomplishments and influence on hip-hop and pop are undeniable.
Take Care (2011) and If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late (2015) are two of my favorite Drake projects of the 2010s and they did nothing but enhance my love for his music.
Nowadays though, inconsistency haunts every facet of Drake’s releases, post-2015.
The rappers’ latest album, Honestly, Nevermind, was released on June 17 and it’s by far the weakest of his recent albums.
For too long now, Drake has been complacent. It seems like the highlights on his projects keep dwindling and I don’t entirely blame him for this.
It’s become apparent that Drake can release just about anything and it will go platinum. This combined with the constant berating of Drake, by the “gatekeepers” of hip-hop, for wearing his heart on his sleeve has prompted him to take on a “numbers don’t lie” mentality.
When is enough, enough? Will Drake care again? Sadly, that question was not answered on Honestly, Nevermind. In fact, it only made it worse. So much worse.
On this new record, Drake has decided to take the house and dancehall genre approach that he has experimented with in the past with tracks like Hotline Bling (2015) and Blem (2017).
Being someone who enjoys the former, I came into the album with high hopes.
I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt for taking a risk and making roughly 50 out of 53 minutes worth of another genre that isn’t pop rap.
I say only 50 minutes because the album doesn’t commit to its dancehall promise from start to finish as the closer, Jimmy Cooks, is a southern hip-hop trap banger with 21 Savage.
After sinking my teeth into the other 13 songs, Drakes’ venture into the realm of house music reminds me of when I took karate in elementary school: All talk, no follow-through.
In Falling Back, Drake mindlessly repeats the chorus for the entire second-half of the song.
On Down Hill, Drake’s lack of direction and focus with the lyrics on the track make it painfully obvious that he is merely riffing for four minutes.
These under-written performances wouldn’t be such a thorn on the album’s side if Drizzy just sounded the least bit passionate to cover it up but even that is too much work for him.
I understand that a majority of these songs are supposed to be moody and influence you into calling your ex-girlfriend, but all they ultimately end up doing is leaving you wishing Drake still gave a damn.
Another key aspect of Honestly, Nevermind is the production.
The beats on this record are nothing short of electronic dance and house rhythms.
On tracks like Massive and Calling My Name, the heavy base and warped sounds make for a catchy groove that overshadow Drake’s lackluster delivery but suffer from being long-winded and too brief.
As for the instrumentation on the rest of the songs, they vary from sounding like royalty free background music to being outright goofy and not in a good way.
Whether it’s the Aéropostale-funded Texts Go Green or the cartoonish bed-squeaking noises on Currents, this album failed its primary objective of making you want to dance and instead leads you to scrolling through Instagram.
The only song I entirely enjoyed on the album was Sticky thanks to its ear-grabbing flows from Drake and the production being rich in texture.
You’d think with the star power that Mr. Champagne Papi possesses, he’d assemble a dream team of dancehall and house producers to create the finest of sounds. But that clearly isn’t the case.
Drake has earned every bit of the success he has achieved, no one can take that away from him.
He has every right to enjoy the fruits of his labor and maneuver in the bubble he has created for himself since he decided to stop caring about the naysayers.
However, while this can benefit an artist who has nothing left to prove, it can also indirectly lead them to stop challenging themselves and evolving as time goes on.
Even after listening to the severely disappointing record that Honestly, Nevermind is, there’s a tiny part of me that believes Drake can rise from the ashes like the OVO owl he has proven himself to be during his career.
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