![]() ![]() Twitter user Graydon Gordian knew what was good. Instead, it was the challenge from a tweet. But the reason he did it wasn’t because of his title, apparently. The man has even had Kawhi Leonard appear in a music video at this point. He’s mentioned LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant in songs. I mean, it seems like a rite of passage for NBA champions. And so many of us were waiting for him to get name-dropped in a Drake song. Next time, I hope Drake finds the motivation to take that step himself.Drake name-dropped a ton of professional athletes and sports references in his new album, Certified Lover Boy. There were plenty to choose from. There’s a seriously great album to be found in Certified Lover Boy, provided you know where to listen and have the wherewithal to excavate it from too much dutiful formula. I’ve come to deeply resent that particular segment of Drake’s audience over the years, and given the numbingly pro forma nature of material like this, it’s hard not to wonder if, on some subconscious level, Drake resents them too. That last question is rhetorical: I know who it’s for. Listening to this is excruciating and practically made me scream: Who fucking cares, dude?! You’re almost 35 years old and still rapping about your iPhone? Who is this for? The Most Shocking College Football Coach Firing in Recent MemoryĪnd then the third verse hits, and suddenly we’re subjected to Drake pedantically lecturing this woman about why she’s not good enough for him: She sends terse replies to his texts she misspells words when she’s been drinking he’s dissatisfied with the selfies she’s sent him she compares unfavorably to his friend’s wife. ![]() The New Mission: Impossible Marks the Triumphant Return of Cinema’s Greatest Special Effect Republicans Called It an “Outrage” for Its Lesbian Sex Scenes. I Saw the Grim Child-Trafficking Movie That’s Filling Theaters. (“Could at least keep it a buck like Antetokounmpo/ I made north of the border like Vito Rizzouto/ Throwin’ parties in Miami, they lovin’ us mucho/ With the ho ratio, I’m like David Caruso,” name-checking the reigning NBA Finals MVP, a late Canadian crime boss, and CSI: Miami in the same figurative breath.) The album’s most stunning stretch, the one-two punch of “Fountains” into “Get Along Better,” includes no rapping at all, the first track a dreamy, polyrhythmic trance that finds Drake duetting with Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems, the second a roiling soul burner with a throwback 12/8 rhythmic feel, featuring the great Ty Dolla Sign. “Knife Talk,” featuring Project Pat and 21 Savage and produced by Metro Boomin, is an invigorating detour into trap fundamentalism, all hypnotic and seductive menace “7am on Bridle Path” is a diss track that’s already being close-read by fans but also features some of Drake’s strongest bars on the album. Halfway through the track the beat flips, perfectly, to a sped-up sample of the Gabriel Hardeman Delegation’s “Until I Found the Lord (My Soul Couldn’t Rest).” “Champagne Poetry” is Drake at his best, a guy that rhymes his ass off over beats whose sumptuous tastefulness perfectly offsets the incessant grievance of the lyrics.īut then something rather wondrous happens: The second half of Certified Lover Boy, coming out of the lovely interlude “Yebba’s Heartbreak,” is startlingly excellent, a run of tracks that feel more ambitious and inspired than almost anything else that’s come before. The album opens with “Champagne Poetry,” the first part of which features Drake rapping over a sample of Masego’s “Navajo” (Masego is credited as a co-producer on the track), which itself features Singers Unlimited’s 1971 a cappella recording of the Beatles’ “Michelle.” “Lived so much for others don’t remember how I feel/ Friends that hide places and friends that I hide still/ Still managed to moonwalk straight through a minefield,” raps our protagonist. Much of Certified Lover Boy finds Drake working with his longtime collaborator, the exorbitantly talented producer Noah “40” Shebib, who’s in top form here. Send me updates about Slate special offers. ![]()
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