Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
It’s Valentine’s Day in African America, and while lovers and friends have spent a pretty penny getting flowers, cards and balloons for their lovers and friends, Drake and PartyNextDoor (PND) dropped an album for the people titled, “$ome $exy $Songs 4 U ($$$4U).” This release is mostly significant in that it’s the first real release from Drake in the midst of his taking a legendary “L” in the nearly yearlong back-and-forth with Kendrick Lamar, who is fresh off five Grammy wins for “Not Like Us” (including the two most coveted song awards) and a meme-worthy Super Bowl performance where tens of thousands of attendees sang “A-minooooooooor” in unison for the 133 million of us watching at home (who also sang it in unison). The front half of Black History Month has not been kind to Drake.
With that said, he and PND dropped a record that is sure to have people talking…kind of. But I’m going to get back to that (for the record). “$$$4U” is a 21-track offering; Drake has six solo records on the project — he and PND feature on the rest of the tracks with a few guest spots from Yebba, Chino Pacas and Pim. I’ve listened to this album a few times at this point and have some thoughts and opinions. Let’s go.
1. Big picture, I know this is a PND and Drake album, but this is about as Drake of an album as we’ve ever seen.
I’m not the biggest PND fan, though I’m also not not a fan if that makes sense. I’m ambivalent, I suppose. With that said, all I really hear on this album is Drake Drake-ing. Singing about things Drake always sings about (you know, that continual lack of growth thing, even as a nearly 40-year-old). Like, I hear PND on that album, but I also think that I’d not notice if he wasn’t. Maybe that says something about me, but eh. I can literally talk about this album without ever mentioning PND.
2. I would think this album would satisfy Drake’s core base.
Considering this is a Super Drake album, I would imagine that Drake’s core fanbase is in heaven. Drake singing about love and love lost, haters, being miserable and melodies and slow rumbling basslines and musical flourishes and yada yada yada. When I hear this album, I swear I hear every other Drake album I’ve ever listened to. While I often find that to be frustrating from an artist I’ve always viewed as big enough and talented enough to truly experiment with his sound and music, in general, it seems that most fans and casual listeners are just fine with his continued run of music that won’t be worth talking about in a few months.
3. “Gimme A Hug” is the only true bop on this album.
I don’t mean this as a shot, but it’s the only record that I heard that picks up the BPMs and that is the closest iteration of the thing that Drake does best, and that Kendrick likes most. It’s a club-ready record with Drake spitting bars that the 20- and 30-somethings can yell to one another in unison and the DJs can drop the fader and have the party-goers do the heavy lifting. Plus, the beat switches allow DJs to run the entire record, and party-goers to do the call-and-response thing before yelling at the top of their lungs scream-singing to an Aaron Hall sample of “I Miss You,” whose video is seared into my memory from way back in 1994. I like “Gimme A Hug.”
4. This album is a slog to get through.
Yo, a nearly 74-minute album in 2025? Why, guys? I’m still trying to make it through Chris Brown’s “Indigo,” which clocked in at over two hours and came out in 2019. Now look, perhaps if I was more of a Drake fan, perhaps (like Mal from “New Rory & Mal,”) this isn’t ENOUGH Drake. But good gracious I got tired of listening by the 50-minute mark. Like, it’s almost Too Much $exy 4 U., especially since it’s so slow and most songs sound the same.
5. I really mostly listened to see what Drake might say about his situation.
Look, we’re all kind of over the beef at this point; Drake should be on the “moving on and upward” part of the loss. But the truth is, the same reason a record-breaking amount of people checked in to see Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show when the narrative was that he had neither enough songs nor fans to support his selection as the performer is the reason I pulled up this album when I woke up. I wanted to see how Drake might acknowledge what has to be the most annoying year of his professional career. He did in parts; he mentioned folks counting him out and took a shot at Joe Budden and little things here and there but nothing worth most of our time. It was worth the listen one good time, but I think I’m probably tapped out on this long album.
6. Let me say this here: I don’t think Drake is “done.” I also don’t know what “done” Drake looks like.
It’s so interesting how his beef with Kendrick has sent so many people into corners. I guess that’s the nature of humanity, but I firmly believe that Kendrick won the battle (and trampled all over Drake’s cool). However, I know that Drake has a tremendous amount of fans who love him and many who still don’t think he lost because they somehow don’t believe that Kendrick makes music that anybody listens to (whispers except for “Not Like Us,” which everybody kind of listened to). I do wonder what’s next for Drake, though. I think his problem is getting from under the Drake narrative that, at this point, will always include a mention of Kendrick. There’s no conversation about Drake at the moment that doesn’t have to speak at length about Kendrick.
For Kendrick, Drake is part of the story, but he won’t be the whole story, if that makes sense. Five years from now, I expect Kendrick to have released another concept album that makes people argue about whether he’s a good rapper and artist, and Drake will release another album that sounds like this “$$$4U,” and whatever album he releases next that sounds like…“$$$4U.” Drake will always be one of, if not the, most successful rapper in the game, but I wonder if he can get back to that without writers and critics focusing on his lack of growth and Kendrick.
7. Drake still dominates a conversation, which is a good sign for him.
I realize that some of the curiosity and, frankly, anticipation of the album isn’t just Drake but Drake’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. He might not say it, but people with eyes and ears know better. With that said, Drake and PND’s project is the first thing I saw on my social media feed when I woke up. I saw quotes and people talking about its release. Drake is still an event artist, for now. I guess we’ll see what happens from here. But Drake still matters as he should. The beef and its outcomes didn’t diminish that, even if it dulled the shine of Drake’s cool, which was his superpower.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).