{"id":719,"date":"2023-10-10T19:03:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T19:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2023\/10\/drake-for-all-the-dogs-review\/"},"modified":"2023-10-10T19:03:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T19:03:25","slug":"drake-for-all-the-dogs-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2023\/10\/drake-for-all-the-dogs-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Drake, \u2018For All the Dogs\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Toronto official\u2019s fifth release in three years is, yet again, an uninspired, lengthy slog about Drake hating his exes. Do we care at this point?<\/p>\n

Dominating a decade can be enough for some artists. In Drake\u2019s case, he\u2019s engaged in dominating two. Thirteen years since his debut album, the Canadian\u2019s still repping for the undisputed Big Three. He\u2019s had various phases in his career, withstood every change in trend, and survived career-damaging rap beefs. Even at 36 years old, the poster-boy persona remains. To maintain that persona, Drake\u2019s never taken true time away from the game\u2014it\u2019s a repeated pattern of \u201cI got one more in me.\u201d So here comes another album, completed while on tour amidst delays and postponing shows to finish the job. Alarm bells are ringing already.<\/p>\n

The bells then turn to sirens, greeted with the same old story once pressing play\u2014an illusion of half-baked music packaged as sleepers.<\/p>\n

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Four of Drake\u2019s last six albums have included 20 tracks or more. For All the Dogs<\/em> is another extended effort, spanning 85 minutes and 23 tracks. The listener fatigue settled in years ago, but it\u2019s more transparent than ever now; Drake cannot maintain our attention for this long. His niche for being a vulnerable, heartached singer-rapper has run its course. Now a saturated department in hip hop, Drake no longer has the grip on the batton. As a result, we\u2019re granted the driest subject matter of his career, churning aimless verbiage towards women from past relationships, something we already heard on Her Loss<\/a><\/em>, last year\u2019s collaborative album with 21 Savage.<\/p>\n

Contrary to some critiques, Drake doesn\u2019t have to drastically grow his subject matter. He can still rap about relationships, on the condition that he fixates his songwriting towards insightful observations, not constant bitter digs that border abuse.<\/p>\n

Drake has always been a capable rapper; it\u2019s one of the few shining legs he had left to stand on. For All the Dogs<\/em> kicks that crutch away to grant the worst bars of his career. From track to track, Drake insists on writing, recording and mixing a horror-show of bad punchlines. \u201cSo many cheques owed, I feel Czechoslovakian\u201d, \u201cHe gon\u2019 find out that it\u2019s on-site like W-W-W\u201d and \u201cYou tried to grease me but we\u2019re not in Mykonos\u201d are just a few lines from dozens of struggle bars. They don\u2019t stop. It wouldn\u2019t be far-fetched to think it\u2019s an inside joke between Drake and his recording team. For rap consumers that only listen to Drake, this will not be noticed let alone be a concern. But for hip hop fans whom listen beyond the beat, For All the Dogs<\/em> is a constant eyeroll.<\/p>\n

When Drake\u2019s not rapping terribly, he\u2019s singing verses void of melody. Over the last three albums, Drake\u2019s applied a new technique to his singing, dragging syllables to conjure up the same frustrating excuse of a melody. It\u2019s the main reason why For All the Dogs<\/em> isn\u2019t catchy. The days of a fire hook like \u201cHold On, We\u2019re Going Home\u201d are long gone, replaced with long verses dragged across four minutes to fill the space where a real hook should be. You\u2019re left scouring for the long-lasting hits, a staple of every Drake album regardless of how bad it can be holistically. Even a poorly curated album like Scorpion<\/a><\/em> had hits to perk it up. The closest we get is \u201cRich Baby Daddy\u201d, crowned by the fun-spirited Sexyy Red and club production than Drake\u2019s contributions.<\/p>\n

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