After collaborating on many songs together for years, such as “Sneakin’” in 2016 and “Jimmy Cooks” in 2022, Drake and 21 Savage finally released their new album “Her Loss” on Nov. 4.
The artists promoted the album for the past month with interviews and magazine covers. However, fans found out shortly after that the Drake x 21 Savage Vogue cover and Howard Stern interview were actually just fake promotions to hype up the album.
“Her Loss” was primarily produced by the two artists, but Lil Yachty, Tay Keith and Metro Boomin also received production credits on some of the tracks. For the number of well-known artists and producers working on the album, many fans were surprised by the mediocrity of it.
People also discovered problematic lyrics within some of the songs. During “Circo Loco,” which samples Daft Punk’s “One More Time,” Drake starts off the song with lyrics people are arguing about all over social media.
He raps, “This bitch lie ’bout gettin’ shots, but she still a stallion,” which some people feel is making a misogynistic joke about a woman getting injections or about when Megan Thee Stallion got shot by Tory Lanez in 2020. Most people feel that the lyrics are aimed at Stallion, because Drake continues with, “Shorty say she graduated, she ain’t learn еnough / Play your album, track one, ‘kay, I heard enough.”
Stallion recently received a degree from Texas Southern University in 2021 and is a well-known rapper in the music industry, which means that all three verses could be directly related to her. Drake’s stab at Stallion is completely unnecessary, considering the fact that they had no prior known altercations.
However, Drake didn’t just stop at calling out Stallion. He also randomly mentioned Serena Williams’ husband and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. During “Middle of the Ocean,” Drake says, “Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie / He claim we don’t got a problem / but no, boo, it is like you comin’ for sushi / We might pop on ‘em at will like Suzuki.”
Ohanian and Drake also have no known issues with each other, which makes it strange that Drake decided to call him out. Ohanian responded by making a joke about it on Twitter by tweeting “The reason I stay winning is because I’m relentless about being the absolute best at whatever I do – including being the best groupie for my wife & daughter.” People following the Twitter thread began mocking Drake by posting pictures of him cheering on Williams at a few of her matches.
Many fans were also upset about 21 Savage’s lack of presence on the album. “Her Loss” started off strong with the song “Rich Flex,” which had the same energy as previous songs they worked on together. Yet, after the first few tracks, the rest of the album were mostly centered around Drake.
Drake had four songs by himself, whereas 21 Savage only had one. Even on the songs that included both of them, 21 Savage was limited to a few verses.
“Midnights” by Taylor Swift is still holding the top 10 on the Billboard 100 even after “Her Loss” was released, which further proves that this album was extremely second-rate.
3/5 stars
ihasandj@ramapo.edu
Photo courtesy of musicisentrophy, Wikipedia.
