On October 7, we received Drake’s 8th studio album, For All The Dogs, and to say the album was highly-anticipated would be an understatement. After months of promo featuring hand drawn pictures by Drake’s son, Adonis, viral moments from the It’s All A Blur tour with 21 Savage, and an unexpected album delay, Drake listeners were on the edge of their seats for the rapper’s newest record, and like any other project from the major artist, the album has been the topic of conversation on social media. However, these conversation points have been polarizing to say the least.
On one side of the coin, listeners are loving the project and are already choosing their favorite lines for their future Instagram captions. On the other side of the coin, listeners are bored of the rapper’s content and see this as the downfall of the high-streaming artist. A topic that often comes up regarding seasoned and highly-acclaimed artists is the question of “are they still trying?” and Drake is no exception to this dreaded question. Many are saying that as Drake’s reign as the record-breaking rapper continues and he ages with the rap game, his music has become less interesting and is regressing in content, lyrics, and effort. And after seeing the artist’s progress over the past few years and witnessing the aftermath of the album’s release, I hate to say that the criticisms may be true.
A standout factor of For All The Dogs is Drake’s choice of featured artists. Of course, he has his known collaborators like 21 Savage and PARTYNEXTDOOR and even reunites with J Cole on the hard-hitting track “First Person Shooter,” but he also has a class of newer collaborators like Yeat, Teezo Touchdown, Bad Bunny, and others. Now, I always applaud artists who can collaborate with others outside of their typical style and who can not only showcase their personal talent, but who can also bring out the best in their chosen collaborators. We have seen this on tracks like “Love Galore” with SZA and Travis Scott, “Family Ties” with Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem, or even “Slide” with Calvin Harris, Frank Ocean, Quavo, and Offset. However, on For All The Dogs, these collaborations felt awkward in areas and almost like clickbait for listeners.
For example, on “All The Parties” featuring Chicago rapper Chief Keef, the drill music superstar had a 15-second verse that was easily overshadowed by the remaining 3 minutes of the track. On the other hand, the track “IDGAF” featuring Yeat feels like a Yeat “throw-away” that Drake sandwiched himself into for 30 seconds. The song “Rich Baby Daddy” featuring Sexyy Red and SZA seems like a song created specifically for the Sexyy Red feature but doesn’t deliver as well as intended, is a bit too long, and quite frankly, is kind of annoying. I don’t blame Drake for utilizing the starpower of industry newcomers. Drake is known for staying with the trends and trying new approaches to music. The issue arises when the addition of features to the tracks do nothing for the track or even when Drake tries to merge into the newcomer’s style and misses the mark, sounding like a feature on his own project. The features on For All The Dogs feel well-intentioned but clumsy and underutilized.
When it comes to the theme of For All The Dogs, Drake has made it very clear that this album is truly for all the dogs. For years, Drake has been known as the singing and rapping artist that the ladies love and the men secretly want to be. However, For All The Dogs feels like an absolute rejection of that persona as the songs on this album come across as misogynistic and hyper-focused on the “bros.” Misogyny and toxic masculinity are not new in hip hop, but they are new for Drake, and it feels inauthentic. From his alleged Rihanna diss on “Fear of Heights” to his constant reference to women as b*tches and cats on nearly every song, it appears that as Drake becomes larger in stardom and more removed from a moderate lifestyle, he feels more inclined to exploring this aspect of a personality he’s never unlocked until fairly recently.
All in all, I think it’s safe to say that For All The Dogs is not a strong release from the Toronto rapper. Hip hop media personality and Slaughterhouse rapper Joe Budden candidly reviewed the album saying that Drake’s music isn’t maturing, and despite Drake’s poor reaction to the review, Joe Budden made a fair point. However, I think it is less about the music not maturing and more about the rapper feeling unmotivated and uninspired. For All The Dogs had glimpses of the Drake that we know and love on songs like “8am in Charlotte” and “Away From Home,” but what do those tracks have in common? They are the introspective Drake staples that purely showcase his rap prowess and remind us why he is one of the world’s highest streaming artists. On his radio show just hours after the album’s release, Drake shared that he’s had stomach issues for years and is stepping away from the music industry to focus on his health, and this might be best for the artist. A break to focus on his health, both physical and mental, might be what Drake needs to feel hungry again. He’s been churning out albums for the past decade on a pretty consistent basis. A hiatus seems like the perfect thing to give him time to feel inspired again and hopefully, come back better.