Drake dropped his new album, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U ($$$4U) alongside PartyNextDoor over a month ago, but fans aren’t feeling it and have been all over social media letting everyone know what they think.
The new album dropped on Friday the 14th and one fan on X, couldn’t help but say, “Drake dropping a “sexy-themed” album on Valentine’s Day is such a Drake thing to do”, and we can’t agree more.
In this article, we cover information surrounding the latest album release by the two OVO artists and what fans and critics alike are saying online.
While many concluded that the rap feud is over, it seems that the “6 god” is not done especially now that Kendrick Lamar performed at the Super Bowl.
The Canadian rapper loves high stakes ventures
Drake has never shied away from high-stakes ventures, whether in music, business or even gambling. The Canadian rapper is known for placing massive bets across various sports with some losses making more headlines than his wins.
He has also expressed his love for slot machines and called them his favorite casino games. With his bold approach to risk-taking, it wouldn’t be surprising if he enjoys the kind of massive high-roller casino bonuses featured under a source like Bonus Focus.
However, we bet he has never enjoyed any moment of the rap beef which he lost terribly against the kid from Compton, aka Kendrick Lamar.
The 2024 rap beef was considered another high-stakes venture for the 38-year-old where he had a lot to loose. He put his career on the line when he decided to go head-to-head with one of the most influential hip-hop artists of our generation.
Considering Kendrick’s success over the past few months, it appears that Drizzy has much more to do than dropping what fans described as a “garbage” album.
What fans and critics are saying about Drake and PND’s $$$4U
Drake’s latest collaboration with PartyNextDoor, “$ome $exy $ongs 4 U” is his first major work since he dropped “For All the Dogs” (FATD) in 2023. The album received fans´ mixed reactions on social media where they expressed their opinions.
One user on X blatantly said, “Jokes apart, this is really below the par Kendrick Lamar set.” “Zero Replay value. Why do they sound the same in all of the songs, no creativity,” they added.
Disgruntled listeners reported on Reddit expressing their frustrations, with one user saying that besides 2 or 3 songs, the rest was “Zzz.” Echoing the sentiment, another user commented that the album was “meh.”
The user added that it had some good tracks but was mostly bland and suggested that Drake needs to edit his albums better because, as it stands, it’s “really just samey samey and uninspired for the majority of the run time.”
Another critic didn’t hold back, stating that the music was genuinely some of the most horrible non-gimmick music they’d heard and questioned how people online could defend it.
Adding to the criticism, another person remarked that the album deserved an “A–” grade, indicating it was always going to be low effort and garbage. Yet another disappointed listener expressed a preference for cinematic punishment over the music, saying they’d rather watch “The Matrix 3” than listen to 70 minutes of Drake.
Podcast reviews engaged with fans and started comparing the 21-track project to some of Drake’s collab albums. “What A Time To Be Alive” with Future was branded a classic, “Her Loss” with “21 Savage” was declared the best in terms of lyrics, and $$$4U with PND received the most versatile tag.
Commenting under NFR Podcast’s post, one staunch fan of the 6 mentioned that Reports reveal that “$$$4u really felt like that breath of fresh air for Drake, he got back in that old Drake bag and that’s what I wanted from him, it’s got some of his best R&B performances this decade thus far and it gets better with every listen.”
He concluded with double exclamation marks alongside a 100 emoji. Other than that, most of the fans were quick to label the R&B/Soul album as trash.
Final thoughts
We wonder what Drake must be feeling now when he lost the rap beef, Kendrick Sweeping the Grammy’s with “Not Like Us”, and going ahead to perform it at the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
Having the whole stadium scream the lyrics (“Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-minor”) of the song that gave KDot the victory lap in the hip-hop war while Serena William’s crip walked in the background was quite insane!
As if that wasn’t enough, Kendrick is now the first rapper to cross over 100M monthly listeners in Spotify history thanks to his latest release album “GNX” which is aging like fine wine while denying Drake’s new project the attention it could have gotten if he haven´t chosen to enter a rap beef.
As Mr. Duckworth put it during his halftime performance, Drizzy chose the right time but the wrong person to battle with. It remains to be seen whether Drake will be able to bounce back and regain some of the favor and commercial success he has now lost in the hip-hop world.
