In 2018, one of the easiest things to do is hate on Drake, it’s in fashion right now, he’s successful, he’s everywhere and he has a religious fanbase so naturally he’s a target for mockery and after the bloated messes of Views and More Life, I struggled to care about listening to whatever he had in store next. With Scorpion, Drake continues his legacy, with a boring and uninteresting album which proves that while hating on Drake is easy, he makes it really hard not to.
This album is 25 tracks which essentially just means that fans will have to break their ‘next song’ button in order to fish for the interesting songs in the sea of uninspired and emotionless whiffs that is Scorpion. This album plays the same way as every other Drake album before it, 1 good song for every 5 boring ones and this can be seen right off the bat as the first 3 tracks employ essentially the same sentiment, Drake talking about how hard he works over a boring beat. Then ‘Emotionless’ comes in with it’s Kanye-esque sample use and Drake’s emotionally charged lyrics making for a solid track that will no doubt hear some radio play.
It’s funny, I just realised in the writing of this review that the tracks I actually enjoy from Scorpion tend to have more to do with the interesting production courtesy of No I.D and OVO 40 rather than Drake’s rapping or lyrics which tend to lie into two categories, A) ‘Social media = bad’ or B) ‘Drake = sad’. A great example of this is in ‘Summer Games’ probably my favourite track on here and while the lyrics are once again, nothing special, the production is psychedelic, hypnotic and fantastic. With the pulsating synths not dissimilar to a Tame Impala song and the tribal drums reminiscent of Kanye’s 808’s & Heartbreak, this song very much breaks the monotony going into the second half of this album.
Now I could make a whole post dedicated to how unimaginative, repetitious and flat-out dull Drake’s lyrics are but I think the song ‘Happy Ratchet Birthday’ sums it up pretty nicely as it is by far the worst song on Scorpion and in the running for one of his worst song’s ever. Please, just go listen to it as he repeats the same nonsensical lines for 3 minutes and 27 seconds which is a pretty apt description of the album as a whole.
Scorpion is full of the same lyrics and the same sentiments about social media and relationships that he has been saying for years and Drake himself is finally beginning to sound bored of his own music. There are so many more interesting and talented hip-hop artists currently working and it’s sad that Drake remains one of the largest channels for people getting into the genre. Outside of the 90-minute runtime, the only lasting impact that Drake can provide on Scorpion is the sheer amount of corny lyrics that teenagers can use for their captions on Instagram.
4/10
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