6 Nov 2022

After a bunch of easily forgettable albums of 2022, there finally some real culture tracks to bump. We've been delivered from the mid

There are some songs on Her Loss, Drake and 21's latest album that functions as a sort of collaboration, that sound like logical extensions of those on 2009's So Far Gone. Drake half-croons through his web of rumors and self-mythology on "Hours in Silence," to name one song, which is based on a much livelier Memphis rap song that sounds like it's being replayed underwater. He also makes cryptic remarks about his ex-girlfriends' finstas and villains lifted from mob movies, all of which are equally important to him. Similar to how he once did with Lil Wayne, he gives a more charismatic rapper from the South some time before repeatedly singing that something is "my fault." These lyrics beg for a "of course not" response from a past love interest that would clear him, but it never materializes.

When 21 takes a brief detour into that song, the Atlanta rapper comes close to pulling off a Drake imitation, making the threat presented by armed foes sound almost amorous ("They seeking for myyyy faaaaace"). The textural and lyrical contrast that made "Jimmy Cooks," the well-liked "Bound 2"-style hedge added onto the end of Drake's mostly dance-focused album from earlier this year, sell "Jimmy Cooks," is neutralized by Her Loss, much to its detriment, and "21" is reduced to a secondary role. There are bursts of Drake at or near his impish best and moments of thoughtful writing, but the record loses momentum in the middle and the self-conscious misanthropy scans as forced rather than joyous, as if the id could be focus-grouped.

Bottom line Album is lit No Skips... a classic

Rogers Niringiye