Regardless of how you feel about the overall quality of some of Drake’s most recent releases, it is undeniable how hard this guy works when it comes to making new Hip Hop music. He has been so prolific with his releases in recent years that it feels like he has to be recording new songs whenever he has free time. One thing that is certain is that Drake will always stay relevant in Hip Hop because he is always saturating the market with new projects, and every project has at least a couple of big hits that end up making an impact. Over the last several years, Drake has been dropping new music at an insanely high rate, especially for someone of his status. Since 2015, he has released two projects a year every year besides 2016, 2017, and 2020. Overall, that is a total of 15 releases in 9 years, with many of those releases containing over 18 songs. I do wonder if one of the reasons for the reactions to his music when it comes out in recent years is because of how prolific he has been with his output. He ends up putting out so much music that people take it for granted. It is also easy to see that his heart was not into some of these projects, greatly reducing their overall power and making it seem like his passion is not there anymore. Now, as most music fans know, the public’s reaction to Drake’s latest album, For All The Dogs, was lukewarm at best(as a pretty big Drake fan, I was massively disappointed in it. If you have not read my article or watched my video about how I feel about For All The Dogs yet, please go check them out after reading this). Although his statements on Instagram contradict this, I honestly believe that Drake felt the heat from how negative the reaction to For All The Dogs was. I think that this is the reason Drake has already decided to drop his new EP For All The Dogs: Scary Hours Edition. If this short collection of tracks has a lot more quality as a whole than For All The Dogs did, people will likely sort of forget how they felt about that album when it came out due to recency bias. With that being said, here is how I feel about Drake’s new EP For All The Dogs: Scary Hours Edition. Please let me know in the comments below what your favorite songs are from this project, and also comment on how you feel about it as a whole.
Ok, Drake is already off to an excellent start on this EP with the song ‘Red Button.’ When he said that we were getting the old Drake on For All The Dogs, this is what we wanted and expected. If the whole EP is like this and Drake raps with this much fervor on every track, I know that I and so many Drake fans will be very satisfied. The instrumental for this song is very understated. It consists of a melody provided by a heavenly vocal sample complemented by chimes and a guitar riff; this relaxing melody is put on a soft drum beat with an old-school feel mainly provided by snares. Drake raps with a level of ferocity on this track that we have not heard in so long; this is as animated and focused as he has sounded in years. Everything about his vocals on this song is great. From his flow to his tone to his lyricism, his performance is so direct and bold. On ‘Red Button,’ Drake calls out his peers and states that he knows he is the greatest in his generation. He also exhibits his disdain for Kanye West, trying to truly reignite the on-and-off beef they have had for years. Drake continues to rap his ass off on a calm instrumental with the song ‘Stories About My Brother.’ This is another very simple instrumental, putting the focus on Drake’s excellent performance. The instrumental for this track has a Saturday Morning Jazzy R&B feeling to it. This is the kind of instrumental one would expect to hear someone like Norah Jones or Corinne Bailey Rae sing on. The melody for this track is very blue and melancholy, provided by what sounds like a French horn, a funky bass line, and some light piano notes in the back to brighten things up. Similar to the preceding song, the beat for this song is very faded, giving it an old-school underground feeling that makes me think of artists like Aesop Rock or Atmosphere. As I stated above, Drake’s vocal performance on this song is great. He raps with a variety of flows that keep the listener on their toes, and the poignant yet subdued nature in his delivery fits the instrumental so well. ‘Stories About My Brother’ is a braggadocious track where Drake raps about where he and his guys came from and how he knows they are at the top of the mountain now. ‘The Shoe Fits’ continues the trend of mellow and faint instrumentals that we got on the last few tracks. The instrumental for this one actually leans a bit into the early 2000s R&B sound that was pretty prevalent throughout For All The Dogs. The melody for this track is provided by a warm and bright synth sample that is complemented by a distorted guitar that comes in and out. This melody is put on a tranquil beat that goes nicely with the soothing feeling of the melody. Instead of singing on this track, Drake raps with the same amount of zealousness that we got on the first two tracks of this EP. Like those tracks, the way that he constantly switches up his flow gives this song so much life, and the conversational nature in which he raps in ‘The Shoe Fits’ makes the bars on this track hit even harder. In ‘The Shoe Fits,’ Drake addresses the critics(like myself)who called him out because For All The Dogs was not as similar to his older music as he said it was going to be. He states that the older version of him is dead, and what we are getting now is the best we will get in that regard.
The topic of ‘The Shoe Fits’ is extra ironic considering the sound and style of song we get with ‘Wick Man.’ This track feels even more like older Drake music than any of the three preceding songs which is obviously saying something. Those tracks had the energy of some of the music he originally became famous for, but they did not totally have the sound of that music. ‘Wick Man,’ however, has an instrumental that straight up could have been on Nothing Was The Same or Take Care. This is an R&B-tinted Cloud Rap with a melody and beat that will take the listener to another dimension when it comes on. The melody for this track has an otherworldly quality that sounds like the loading screen from a late 1990s video game, and it is put on a quirky and distorted beat that fits the strange energy of the melody. Drake doesn’t rap with as much force and emphasis on this track as he did on the first three, but he still uses a tough flow that contrasts the melody a bit and really gets his point across. In ‘Wick Man,’ Drake compares his ability to call out and dominate other rappers to John Wick, stating that he is untouchable and that anyone who messes with him will be left in the dust. ‘Evil Ways’ is the only song of the project that contains a feature. Fortunately, it is a majorly important feature, as this song contains J. Cole. Instrumentally, this track feels more like a J. Cole song than a Drake song. ‘Evil Ways’ has the kind of Southern Gospel Trap music sound that the rappers from J. Cole’s Dreamville Records love. In fact, I could definitely see this instrumental being on one of their Revenge of the Dreamers mixtapes. The instrumental for this track is pretty cool, but Drake and J. Cole’s excellent rap performances are what make the song pop. Drake and J. Cole rap back and forth on ‘Evil Ways,’ playing off of each others’ flows and wordplay in a way that only rappers of their caliber can do. On ‘Evil Ways,’ Drake and J. Cole rap about how even though they have been in the game for so long, they know that they are still among the top rappers in the game. They also rap about their disdain for some other rappers on the come up as well as some of their least favorite brands. Drake closes out For All The Dogs: Scary Hours Edition with ‘You Broke My Heart.’ Similar to ‘The Wick Man,’ this song has an instrumental that reminds me a lot of some of Drake’s earlier music. It is reminiscent of some of the music he made before albums like Nothing Was The Same. Instead, this song has the kind of sound that makes me think of the music from his project So Far Gone or one of the Young Money compilation projects. ‘You Broke My Heart’ has the kind of grandiose Trap sound that seems like it came straight out of 2009. If you are a fan of that kind of music, this is a song for you, as the melody is so grand and huge and the beat hits in such a glorious manner. ‘You Broke My Heart’ might have Drake’s best vocal performance on this EP, which is saying something. Not only does Drake rap with a fervor and intensity that makes this track hit extra hard, but he also sings on the track a bit, which switches things up and gives the track texture. In ‘You Broke My Heart,’ Drake calls out an ex for doing him dirty and hurting him in a way he will not forget. ‘You Broke My Heart’ is a great way to end this project, as it is a looming track with an impressive sound that ends For All The Dogs: Scary Hours Edition with a bang.
As I stated in the introduction, although Drake tried to state on Instagram that this is not the case, I do think he was feeling the heat from the negative response to For All The Dogs when it came out. After the more lukewarm response his projects have been getting for the last several years, For All The Dogs was billed as his return to form. Although I do think that project received more hate than it deserved, it did not fulfill the wants or needs of Drake fans or Hip Hop fans in general in the way that they expected. I do think that Drake truly redeemed himself on For All The Dogs: Scary Hours Edition. This EP is as focused and driven as I have seen Drake in years. Instead of focusing on trying to fit into the trends and sounds that are popular today, Drake goes to his roots in For All The Dogs: Scary Hours Edition, demonstrating his passion and fire on a bunch of stripped-back beats and proving that he can still rap with the best of them. Hopefully For All The Dogs: Scary Hours Edition is a sign of things to come from Drake because this side of his artistry is what made so many people fall asleep with his music to begin with. At the very least, we now know that he still has this kind of spirit buried deep, and it is ready to burst out whenever he gets fed up with the discourse around him.
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