It's been 13 years It’s been weeks since Kendrick Lamar released “Not Like Us,” the devastating Drake-bashing song that has now topped the charts for most of the summer. While he’s been relatively quiet since then, Drake seems to be planning a return to the public eye. On Friday, he surprised fans at the Toronto stop of his PartyNextDoor tour, jumping on stage to perform a few songs for a sold-out hometown crowd and to announce an upcoming collaboration project set to drop in the fall. By then, every scrap of Drake’s new music—from his uncredited appearance on Camila Cabello’s “The Best of Drake”—has been made available to the public. C, kisses and hugsThe new album, which features tracks like Sexyy Red's “U My Everything,” Gordo's “Healing” and “Sideways,” carries a lot of anticipation. But more than any single track, Drake's official project alongside his OVO collection is sure to be a litmus test of how damaging the “Not Like Us” criticism, and the hostility in general, will be to Drake's career in the long run.
Kendrick has gone beyond simply turning allegations about younger women into an infectious children’s song on “Not Like Us,” making a compelling case that much of Drizzy’s rap career is inauthentic. It’s a particularly thorny position for Drake, whose every move now seems to easily confirm his claims to being a culture vulture. That’s why Snowd4y’s Toronto-centric “Wah Gwan Delilah” in June—which Drake performed to the crowd at a Party show—makes a fair amount of strategic sense. While there’s certainly a case for Drake experimenting with different regional sounds throughout his career, he’s been a consistent representation of Toronto, and drawing on that now is a reasonable way to counter the idea that he’s relying on taking from others.
Still, having the summer’s biggest hit be an abusive song—one where you’re called a child molester and a colonizer over a DJ Mustard beat, no less—is a tough position to come back from, even for Drake, who has proven throughout his career that he’s a different kind of star, with more range and flexibility than most. Still, public opinion in the streaming era is fleeting, and Drake has so far played his part quietly enough to have a meaningful chance at a comeback.
But Drake doesn’t try to put himself on the defensive any more than he did on the disastrous “The Heart Part 6.” Instead, while the rap world danced on his grave, Drake mostly tended to have a sense of humor about it. On “U My Everything,” he struck a sarcastic tone, half-admitting to plastic surgery while singing Metro Boomin’s parody of “BBL Drizzy”—a rap creation clearly designed to take down Drake. Similarly, “Wah Gwan Delilah” is a lighthearted take on “Plain White T,” with Drake delivering the rarest, loudest notes of his Toronto accent: “I’m so touched.” He sings in a low voice like a young Toronto punk.
However, there are unconfirmed reports that Drake is blocking TDE artists from performing in Toronto, as Schoolboy Q and more recently SiR have pointed out on social media. However, the move is petty, as one’s feelings about it seem to largely depend on one’s feelings about Drake in the first place, which has apparently been the case since “Not Like Us.” For die-hard rap fans who haven’t taken Drake particularly seriously, it’s hard to imagine that he could do anything to get them to reconsider their greatest voices of all time, but in the absence of any real defeat, Drake’s position as a songwriter may remain intact.
He’ll still need to successfully change public perception. The Great Rap Civil War of 2024 has placed a massive target on Drake’s back, and as much as he may relish the role of antihero, he risks coming across as generally unpopular. Last month, after Lil Yachty called out Kai Sinat during a stream and sent him a track allegedly titled “Supersoak” featuring Drake, there was a quick backlash after Yachty revealed on a podcast that he leaked the song because the original sample, from creator Mr. Hotspot, had been unapproved because he had religious objections to engaging in secular music. Many saw Yachty’s leak of the song anyway as proof that Yachty, and through the channel Drake, was untrustworthy.
Today’s audience has proven that they care about the finer details of their favorite artist’s work. For better or worse, a rapper’s personal morals are now just as important as his music. That’s why Kendrick’s attacks on “Not Like Us” proved so effective. The more people in the rap world express their distrust of Drake, the harder it is for listeners to continue supporting him. That’s why the project with PartyNextDoor is such a powerful statement. Party’s latest album p4Drake has quietly made his mark, and his current tour spans 12 countries and 32 dates, already selling out in a climate where bigger names seem hard to fill. Sonically, Party also has what you might recognize as a distinctly Toronto sound. The slick production style it thrives on feels like an original sound for the six. It’s the cultural specificity of “Not Like Us” that adds to its impact, and by linking up with Party, Drake makes his strongest claim to a cultural specificity of his own. Plus, having a beloved musician in your corner, your artist from your city, helps to dispel some of the claims of cultural colonization while providing a much-needed boost to public sentiment.
Even with his clever comeback, Drake remains one of the most streamed artists in the world. As the dust settles after “Not Like Us,” he’s likely not going anywhere, but he certainly won’t be the same either.
