A labyrinthine body of work with legacy on the mind…
06 · 10 · 2023
Drake is prodigious with his output. His eighth studio album follows last year’s dual release: ‘Honestly, Nevermind’, and collaborative effort ‘Her Loss‘ made with 21 Savage. Preceded by the SZA-assisted ‘Slime You Out’, ‘For All The Dogs’ was teased back in January, thought to be out in the summer and eventually moved from a September release date. After a smokescreen of anticipation, it’s arrival was announced with an IG caption and an image of Drake smiling like a Cheshire cat adorned with colourful clips.
Crafted alongside regular collaborators Noah “40” Shebib, Oliver El-Khatib, and Noel Cadastr, ‘For All The Dogs’ comes packed with guest features by 21 Savage, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Chief Keef, Lil Yachty and more. There’s a degree of fan service here; 23 tracks long and clocking in at just under 90 minutes, it’s as if Drake is covering all bases, responding to the schismatic reaction to a series of diminishing releases. ‘For All The Dogs’ comes at a point when the Toronto rapper is at a mid-thirties crossroads: Can he get away with delivering scorned, sadboy laments – like on syrupy reprieve ‘Bahamas Promises’ – ad infinitum, or is it high-time he delivered a seasoned rap special, the kind first promised on ‘Nothing Was The Same’.
He does a bit of both. Drake frames ‘For All The Dogs’ through the prism of a pirate radio station show, which adds a degree of voyeuristic intimacy to the experience. There’s smoky coos, chatter, static and dizzying detours. Production roves between sterilised studio sheen and an earthy fusion of soul samples and boom-bap drums. There’s a sequenced consistency at play here: the gospel-rap of ‘Amen’ is a highlight, pairing Teezo’s idiosyncratic punk croon with Drake’s search for deliverance; in women, in God, in himself. ‘8am In Charlotte’ – released with a six-minute visual starring his son Adonis – sees the rapper unleash pointed missives over soft chords and a looped chipmunk choir. It’s less about which rap rival he’s throwing shots at (we all know who the primary target is…), and more a personal dictum and a winding confessional about legacy: a reorienting of his priorities.
Drake is best when extracting relational misadventures though finger-on-the-pulse internet colloquials. ‘BBL Love – Interlude’, featuring a bizarre and rare Sade voiceover, sees him all misty-eyed and mercurial over curvature; ‘First Person Shooter’ with J. Cole and the new age-trap of ‘IDGAF’ with California rapper Yeat is all shit-talking pomp and posturing. Drake punctuates the languid flow of the album with ‘Rich Baby Daddy’, a Baltimore club tribute, pooling together a ‘Dog Days Are Over’ reference and an invigorating Sexyy Red cameo; the Spanglish reggaeton heat of ‘Gently’ is also Drake at his sinuous, shapeshifting best. These are welcome deviations on a sprawling, at times humdrum experience, where Drake is ostensibly mindful – and borderline paranoid – about his place in the rap game. On first listen, this isn’t his certified rap classic but it does signal a turning point. Now, if only Drake could could distill the best parts of his repertoire into a coherent whole…
7/10
Words: Shahzaib Hussain
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