Drake really went through with it. At arguably the lowest moment of his career, he dropped a new album. The release of Drake and longtime sidekick PartyNextDoor's long-promised but just-announced collaborative LP $ome $exy $ongs 4 U is obviously tied to Valentine's Day, but it also arrives in the wake of Kendrick Lamar's neverending media blitz. In the past two weeks, Kendrick won an armload of Grammys and gleefully dissed Drake at his Super Bowl Halftime Show. Kendrick's "Not Like Us" is widely projected to return to #1 next week. Drake's humiliating lawsuit against Universal Music Group, his own label, is ongoing, and Drake himself is on an Australia/New Zealand tour that feels a little bit like exile. But here's $ome $exy $ongs anyway.
Thanks to the context of its release, it's basically impossible to listen to $ome $exy $ongs 4 U without trying to psychologically analyze what's going on with the album release. On first listen, $ome $exy $ongs feels like a play to some of the bases -- women, R&B fans, Canadians -- who might not have abandoned ship on Drake in the past year. As with all of Drake's collaborative records, Drake himself takes up most of the space, even if the objectively funny title comes from a PartyNextDoor lyric. It's more of an R&B record than a rap one, though Drake has always blurred the line between both of those things. And it's not about Kendrick Lamar, though the man's shadow hangs heavy over everything.
At 21 tracks and 73 minutes, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U is extremely long, and you have to imagine that it'll do big streaming numbers even with everything that's been happening. It's mostly sleek, architectural R&B songs about the women in the two artists' lives, with occasional forays into different genres -- club, sexy drill, one of those awkward Spanglish half-steps into the realm of regional Mexican music. There's literally a song called "Gimme A Hug" where Drake raps about finding solace at a strip club, over an Aaron Hall sample. Also, Drake namechecks both Tate McRae and Brat summer on "Small Town Fame." I can't say that anything is clicking with me, but maybe I'm not the intended audience here.
In any case, it'll be fascinating to see how the world receives this record. Last night, before the album came out, there was a lot of online chatter about familiar-looking album art. The back cover, with its dollar signs and cartoon rabbits, recalls Freddie Gibbs' 2022 LP $oul $old $eparately, and Gibbs himself says that he's "flattered." Meanwhile, the Canadian rapper John River is accusing PartyNextDoor of stealing the Monroe Towers album-cover idea from his "Hope City II" video and threatening to blackball River. The cover art looks cool, anyway. If you're curious about the album, stream it below.
$ome $exy $ongs 4 U is out now on OVO/Republic/UMG.
