Drake’s newest album is toxic, boring, and nothing like its title would suggest.
For All the Dogs, Drake’s eighth studio album, was released at midnight on October 6th, 2023.
Hours later, Drake announced that he would be taking an indefinite hiatus from music to focus on his own health, citing stomach issues he has been silently dealing with for years.
This announcement no doubt came as a shock to many fans. Since his late-2000s mixtape days and his 2010 debut album Thank Me Later, Drake has refused to slow down, relentlessly churning out hits for over a decade while other rap superstars like Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar took lengthy sabbaticals for one reason or another. And while breaks birthed some of these artists’s finest work, Drake’s consistency produced the most hits. His art may have suffered, but his numbers certainly did not.
Finally, though, it seems it’s Drake’s turn to focus on himself. And based on the desultory nature of his newest record, it seems he couldn’t wait to be done.
Based on the trajectory established by his last three albums, For All The Dogs was poised to be a banger-filled, star-studded triumph that would allow Drake to go out with a bang. 2021’s Certified Lover Boy was a classic Drake record, featuring plenty of R&B crooning alongside a few braggadocios hip-hop tracks. His followup, Honestly, Nevermind, was a summer dance record that saw Drake reminiscing over past relationships and giving us an insight into his romantic shortcomings. Finally, last year’s Her Loss was a high-energy trap record that saw Drake coming out the other side of this heartbreak, having fun and making some energetic hits with close friend and collaborator 21 Savage.
These 4 records paint a clear picture of Drake’s journey: he was a Certified Lover Boy, but Honestly, Nevermind, it was Her Loss. It seemed that Drake’s next record, one he made For All The Dogs, would build on this momentum and continue to deliver bangers that would no doubt top Spotify’s RapCaviar playlist for months to come. Instead, it’s gone completely the other direction, forgoing the high-energy hits in favor of lengthy R&B tracks exploring even more of Drake’s 40-year-old-man romantic woes. This is not what “the dogs” wanted.
The album opens with “Virginia Beach,” a lengthy mid-tempo track built around a Frank Ocean sample and a simple trap beat. The gorgeous sample fades in and plays through a couple times before Drake comes in and soils it with a signature spoken-word intro that’s as pouty as it is toxic. The holier-than-thou victim complex Drake proudly displays throughout this song (and indeed most of the record) should be no surprise to frequent listeners of his (see also: “Hotline Bling,” “Feel No Ways,” and “Race My Mind”). His condescension rears its ugly head on every album, and even leaks into the next several tracks, most notably “Calling For You,” a song which bridges its two sections together with a lengthy skit wherein a whiny female character complains about ridiculously trivial issues, trying to make the point that her man is incapable of spoiling her on vacation the way Drake likely could. It’s gross and hard to listen to, not only because this character is the most entitled brat imaginable, but also because the skit is so heavy-handed in its reinforcement of the only point the album has successfully made so far: Drake likes to spoil women and hold it over them. The following track, “Fear of Heights,” doubles down on this point one final time before abruptly shifting gears, bringing in an abrasive trap beat on which Drake finally changes the subject. He gets his usual braggadocios bars and directionless disses in, giving the record a much-needed injection of energy.
Drake attempts to continue this momentum on “Daylight” but fails to reach the heights of the previous track. His bars fall flat and he runs out of gas around the 2 minute mark, at which point he hands the reins over to his five-year-old son Adonis, whose appearance is amusing if a little out of place. For a toddler, he’s not bad, but Drake’s next two guests have a few years of experience on him and contribute substantially better verses. First, J. Cole features on “First Person Shooter,” a triumphant track with contagious flows and exceptional production. It’s far and away one of the best songs on the record, and it’s immediately followed by “IDGAF,” a Yeat throwaway that Drake was allowed to add a minute-long intro and a mediocre verse to. Upon release, the song was immediately mocked online for the disparity between Yeat and Drake’s demeanors on the track. Drake’s voice sounds laughably boyish in Yeat’s world of dark synth melodies and aggressively manipulated vocals. Yeat’s verse, on the other hand, sounds right at home, delivering plenty of fun lines and interesting inflections.
As the BNYX-produced instrumental of “IDGAF” fades into the distance, so does any energy this record had to offer. The next half-hour is a blur of mediocre R&B tracks, littered with few noteworthy moments. There’s the lead single, “Slime You Out,” which only generates any interest in its five-minute runtime through a stellar SZA guest verse, and the “Screw The World” interlude on which Houston legend DJ Screw is posthumously sampled. There are even guest appearances from Chief Keef and PARTYNEXTDOOR in the mix, but frankly most of the cuts in this thirty-minute run should have been left on the cutting room floor. The album only begins to pique anyone’s interest again on “8am in Charlotte,” the latest addition to Drake’s long-running “timestamp” series that has birthed classics like “4pm in Calabasas” and “5am in Toronto.” “Charlotte” features production from underground legend Conductor Williams, who departs ever so slightly from his usual style to give Drake the perfect canvas to paint on. The soulful samples and simple drums back three decent verses from Drake, on which he discusses his luxury lifestyle at length and addresses his new beef with NBA Youngboy. The rhymes found on “Charlotte” are pretty par for the course from Drake, but compared to some of the other cuts on For All The Dogs, this one looks like a smash hit.
After “Charlotte,” however, comes “BBL Love,” an interlude built around perhaps the worst premise and hook of past decade. “They say love’s like a BBL,” Drake croons, “You won’t know if it’s real until you feel one.” He delivers these cringe-worthy lines with a misplaced sense of pride in his voice and a choir singing along before repeating “can I feel it” until he has decisively driven away anyone listening to this pointless interlude. One mediocre verse and a stream-bait Bad Bunny song later, Drake arrives at the album’s final highlight: “Rich Baby Daddy.” This uptempo track features a second appearance from SZA and heavy contributions from St. Louis native Sexyy Red, who has had a breakout year in 2023. Red’s instructional hook is sure to get crowds moving to the infectious beat while good storytelling from Drake and a gorgeous performance from SZA tie it all together to create one of the year’s most fun tracks. On the back end of the song, the drums drop out and the melody switches up as Drizzy croons about one woman or another, interpolating Florence and the Machine’s “Dog Days Are Over” in the process.
Drake then recruits Lil Yachty for the next track, “Another Late Night,” which is fun but fails to make a lasting impression. Two whiny tracks over sparse R&B beats wrap up the album, with Drake refusing to discuss anything other than toxic situationships, even in the record’s dying embers. On that sour, disappointing note, Drake hangs up the mic, content to let this record be the taste left in listener’s mouths for the duration of his sabbatical.
For All the Dogs is a record that proudly displays Drake’s biggest flaws as a person and an artist while refusing to capitalize on his strengths. By and large, it’s cripplingly boring and paints Drake in a terrible light. Of course he should be focusing on his health, but if he had to take a break from music to do so, he should have gone on hiatus earlier. This record only served to keep him from focusing on what’s important longer, hurting himself and his discography in the process. Hopefully, Drake can return from his sabbatical with some new material, a healthy relationship, and an exciting new album.
Photo Credits from: OVO Sounds and Republic Records
