Drake’s rapping and sticky hooks return in collab with 21 Savage. Here are five take-aways from ‘Her Loss’

Independently, Drake is one the three current kings of hip hop and 21 Savage is a titan within his own right. Together they’ve proven that their songs can be a three-minute highlight reel.

Between Drake’s opulent mafioso persona and sticky hooks, and 21 Savage’s grim villainy and sinister bars, the two have formed an intimidating duo over the years. It’s as if their styles have been two puzzle pieces made to fit each other.

Now they’re finally here to show that OVOxSlaughter Gang is more than just flashes with their first collab album, “Her Loss,” released Friday.

Here are five take-aways from the first few listens:

The rollout was perfect

Drake and 21 Savage aren’t really the type of artists to do huge rollouts. But this project had everything: a fake vogue cover, a fake NPR Tiny Desk concert promo and even a fake Howard Stern interview. Do I wish that the Tiny Desk concert actually existed? Yes. Even though it doesn’t, the hype for it was intense.

It’s easy to forget that this project was also pushed back a week after Drake’s longtime producer 40 contracted COVID-19, but it was more than worth the wait. Also, the album cover being a super close-up shot of model Qui Yasuka had the internet in a tizzy trying to figure out if that was real. Notifications flying, group texts chattering, constant clips making you question your reality: the rollout for this project was masterful.

Rapper Drake is still in there

When “Honestly, Nevermind” came out, there was a swell of confusion over what Drake was doing artistically and a curiosity as to what his music would sound like next. “Her Loss” is a reaffirmation that rapper Drake still exists and is still a force when called upon.

Drake bars are always memorable. There was a span of about four years in the 2010s where every Instagram caption was either a Drake or Lana Del Rey lyric and the quotables are back in spades. “Yeah, I got the stripes but f— Adidas” from “Broke Boys”; “They say more money, more problems / Bring on the problems” from “Pu–y & Millions”; and “She a ten tryna rap, it’s good on mute” from “BACKOUTSIDEBOYZ” are all money.

Drake’s penchant for opulence is also very apparent on the project, especially in “Middle of the Ocean,” in which he drops genuinely one of the funniest lines he has ever delivered: “I’m in the Missoni room at the Byblos / The boat was rockin’ too much on some Aaliyah s—.”

This is a Drake album featuring 21 Savage more than a collab

According to Hip Hop by the Numbers, 66 per cent of all the lyrics on “Her Loss” were Drake’s while only 26 per cent were 21 Savage and eight per cent was left for features.

Despite 21 Savage being billed as a full partner in the project, “Her Loss” definitely feels like a Drake project featuring 21 Savage rather than a full collaboration. “Her Loss” is 16-track album and four of the songs are Drake solos. Only one of them is a solo track by 21 Savage and that’s “3AM on Glenwood,” which is done in the image of Drake’s time plus location series.

When Drake and 21 Savage both appear on the same track 21 is playing a bit part. 21 Savage played one of two roles, either to set Drake up on tracks like on “Spin Bout U” or as a feature, as on “Major Distribution,” in which Drake sings over a loungy piano and then raps over a beat switch for the hook before 21 Savage comes in.

The production is brilliant

Speaking of the beat switches, the ones on “Her Loss” are filthy. The operatic vocals flipping to the menacing progression on “Rich Flex,” the reversed beat swapped for the raining keys on “Broke Boys,” the loungy piano of “Major Distribution” stripped for its Tokyo Drift-esque keys and more are really what make this project what it is. One of the harshest criticisms of Drake is that his latest songs are worse iterations than his previous, but with the constant switches in production every minute or so, this is a new, fresh version of the Toronto rapper.

The “One More Time” sample on “Circo Loco” is also a stroke of brilliance. Neither Drake nor 21 Savage has really showed a disco or French house inclination in their music so to hear that reach across the aisle is pretty astonishing. The ticking hi-hats, booming 808s and slowed sample create a really interesting dichotomy for a person who’s a Daft Punk fan as the song sounds both slowed and sped up at the same time.

R&B Drake is played out

What was once revolutionary has become the norm. “Hours in Silence” and “I Guess It’s F— Me” are the two weakest songs on “Her Loss” and it’s because Drake’s R&B sound is showing its age at this point. The ground-down tempo and Drake’s sung vocals have been a mainstay in his career lately and still have great use as tools within his songs, like the intro to “Major Distributions” or the “One More Time” interpolation on “Circo Loco,” but as straight up tracks R&B Drake is tiresome. The sound, the melodies and the subject matter are all things we’ve heard before in better iterations.

SHARE: