Kendrick Lamar is in Toronto right now. On Thursday night, Kendrick and SZA played the first of their two shows at Toronto's Rogers Centre -- Kendrick's first visit to Drake's hometown since all of last year's high-profile drama. Kendrick reportedly got a huge ovation when he performed "Not Like Us" last night, so that's not ideal for Drake. But reports of Drake's career death have been greatly exaggerated, lawsuit or no lawsuit. Drake's "Nokia," a solo track from his PartyNextDoor collab album $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, is a full-on smash that brings Drake back to the carefree party music that he arguably never should've stopped making. Today, he's got a new track that seems expressly directed at his Toronto base, and its release seems auspiciously timed for when the other guy is in town.
Smiley is a Toronto rapper who's part of Drake's OVO Sound crew, and he and Drake previously teamed up on "Over The Top," a minor hit in 2021. Now, Smiley's got a new album called Don't Box Me In out today, and he's back together with Drake on the new song "2 Mazza." On this one, the two of them lean hard into Toronto slang and accents. I'm not detecting any subliminal shots on this one. Instead, they're just talking about being rich and getting girls over a soul-sample beat co-produced by longtime Drake affiliate Boi-1da. Then again, if there were any disses on this song, I might not detect them, since I don't understand that Canadian talk at all.
In any case, here's Drake on his Toronto-pride shit: "I'm in Barrie, Muskoka, and Brampton, fuck Hollywood and the Hamptons." Ultimately, "2 Mazza" is more interesting as a chess move than as a song. But I'm not from Toronto, so your mileage may vary. Watch the Zong Li-directed video below.
Don't Box Me In is out now on OVO Sound/Santa Anna.
