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[allthingsfuckingconsidered-blog]

Scorpion / One Year Later  

To say that Drake has captured mainstream media attention to heights that only dreams are made of is an understatement.  Born Aubrey Graham to Dennis and Sandra Graham in Ontario Drake’s musical roots can be traced directly to his paternal lineage. It was while performing at Club Bluenote in Toronto that Dennis and Sandi first met.   Flash forward to 2018 Drake is one of the worlds biggest stars and anytime he decides to release new music he moves the needle and stops hip hop and sub genres promptly in their tracks.  January 19, 2018 “Scary Hours” the EP was released to digital platforms confirming what many of us had assumed from photos of him in the studio on his instagram page @champagnepapi that Drake had new music to soon share with the world.  At the stroke of midnight we received two new records “God’s Plan” a light hearted song that would end up charting and earn him his fourth Grammy the following year.  Also on the EP was “Diplomatic Immunity” which was straight bars, no hook.  Drake addressed his rumored quick relationship with Jennifer Lopez as well as his light beef with former rapper turned podcast giant Joe Budden.  The video for God’s Plan took off and was one of the years most viewed videos on YouTube it unfortunately drew the ire of some who felt it was all a publicity stunt namely Peter Rosenberg of Hot 97 (click here) .  Skip to April and Drake releases “Nice For What” a ladies anthem with a New Orleans bounce to it with a video featuring some of Hollywood’s leading ladies (Tracie Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Rashida Jones, Tiffany Haddish, Zoe Saldana and Tara Shahidi to name a few.  It was officially Drake SZN.  Shortly thereafter via instagram tons of celebrities started posting pictures of satin jackets with the title Scorpion on the back and we had our album title.  Now this story is very much Drake’s but there are so many moving parts we must address to understand the final version of Scorpion that we received on June 29th.  Good Music headed by Kanye West which features Drake’s current number one nemesis and Bar Gawd Pusha T were also slated to release a plethora of music during the month of June.  The first shot fired (double entendres) from the G.O.O.D. camp happened to come from Terrence Thornton aka King Push.  “It was written like Nas but it came from Quentin”  from the song Infrared a direct reference to Drake’s alleged ghostwriter Quentin Miller who was credited as a writer on 4 of the standard version of the albums 17 songs (19 total on the physical cd release).  Now remember Meek throwing the ghostwriter allegation out and DJ Drama’s ex wife exposing him as the leak for the reference tracks do to her alimony payment not arriving in her bank account on time put serious chinks in Drizzy’s armor he had no choice but to step up and go toe to toe with Meek.  In the end Drake came out victorious in his war with Meek but there was an underlying beef that was still lying in the weeds.  Drake and Push have been trading barbs since Pusha released “Exodus 23:1″ on May 23rd 2012.  Drake sent subs and some direct shots Pusha’s way after a botched performance with 2 Chainz that didn’t go over too well Drake brought out Titty Boi and stated “that’s how the fuck you bring 2 Chainz out!” also then giving the crowd an inpromptu freestyle “If you was doin' 16s when I was 16, and your shit flopped and you switched teams, don' t talk to me, my nigga!” Ouch, well let’s do the math Drake was born October of 1986 which means he would’ve been 16 in the year 2002 August of that year the debut album by Virginia brothers and rhyme duo The Clipse “Lord Willin” was released featuring arguably one of the most infectious beats in hip hop history (click here).  Yes the same group that featured Pusha T and his older brother Malice who eventually gave his life to the Lord and now is an ordained minister that goes by No Malice.  The duo was under the label Star Trak which is headed by super producers The Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo) who happened to be old neighborhood friends of the Thornton brothers.  So if we are paying attention Drake was 16 when Lord Willin was released.  Pusha would eventually end up on G.O.O.D. Music sometime between 2009 or 2010 the dates still aren't clear.  So in this freestyle without saying his name it was a direct shot at King Push not bad for a former child actor from Canada right? (Don’t sleep Degrassi is a good fucking show! you can watch it here) Ok back to current times sorry I got a bit carried away.  I was in the shower with Pusha’s “Daytona” album playing on my beats pill when I heard the shot thrown at Drake also keep in mind the song that directly precedes “Infrared” on the album is titled “What Would Meek Do?” I swear to you this stuff can’t be made up.  I remember getting out the shower drying off, getting dressed for a doctor’s appointment thanks to my employer (bleh).  I remember texting my cousin asking did you listen to the Pusha album and did you hear that direct fucking dart he sent towards Drake.  We both were under the belief that there was no way he could tip toe around the situation he had to come right for him say his name or give direct references.  I’m sure we’ve all heard “Two Birds, One Stone” where Drake threw subtle jabs at Pusha but nothing direct funny thing is Kid Cudi caught the most direct shot “you were the man on the moon now you just go through your phases” which of course are direct innuendos to the title of Cudi’s debut album and his struggles with mental health.  But his El Chapo bar as nice as it was within the cadence just didn’t hit like the Cudi bar did.  Now keep in mind if you’ve been following all of this in real time on your own time you would’ve heard two responses from Pusha about “Two Birds, One Stone”.  His first stance was “he aint talking about me” Pusha would later recant this statement by saying that “Infrared” was a response to Drake throwing the shot on “Two Birds, One Stone”.  Wait what?  Yes rappers are walking, talking, living, breathing contradictions.  So here we go back to May 25th 2018 the release date for Daytona.  I had gotten back from my doctor’s appointment was scrolling my twitter timeline to find out The Boy had dropped a new song on Soundcloud “Duppy Freestyle”  which is by far my favorite Drake diss of his career.  Truth be told I have to admit I can’t really consider this a full diss to Pusha because there was not really anything Drake said that was detrimental to Push most of the heavy lifting came at the expense of Kanye who Drake felt had played him.  Drake had arrived in Montana to help Kanye work on his album that would follow Daytona a week later.  Drake’s right hand man and OVO Sound in house producer and basically the man responsible for Drake’s sound OVO 40 showed up a day early and told Drake the energy was off.  Per Drake’s telling of the events on HBO’s “The Shop” produced by LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter; Kanye convinced Drake to tell him the release date of his album Drake also shared some very personal details about having recently learned he had a son by former adult film star Sophie Brussaux .  Now for myself I had heard this rumor on the podcast “The Read” cohosted by Kid Fury and Crissle West as early as May of 2017.  It wasn’t the first time Drake had been accused of fathering a child but this would be the first time his camp didn’t vehemently deny the allegations (where there’s smoke, there’s fire).  Fast forward March 2018 a night that gamers will remember as the night Drake, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Pittsburgh Steelers wideout Juju Smith Schuster played Fortnite on Twitch and set a streaming record.  It was during a break in the live stream that Drake had found out via results of a DNA test that was indeed a father.  Ok so this information found it’s way to the ear of Terrence Thornton aka Pusha T, remember where I referenced above that DJ Drama’s wife spilled the beans on Drake’s reference tracks yes pillow talk is a dangerous game guys but we will cover that a bit later.  So Duppy is out and twitter is going crazy as a fan of hip hop and being the chief reason for the song Pusha T heard and it asked Drake to send the invoice over he referenced at the end of the song.  Ok so we wait........ for a response that is, but in the interim we got “I’m Upset’. Keep in mind it’s Memorial Day weekend and we all kept refreshing and in my mind I said to myself Pusha is going to respond after we’ve all had our barbecue and are getting ready to return to work and then...... nothing or so we thought.  Leaving work Tuesday I was sent a link “The Story of Adidon” wait what?  Pillow talking ladies and gentleman, pillow talking Pusha shot back at Drake and brought baby Adonis into the war as well as Dennis and Sandi.  Y’all remember the face y’all made while listening?  I do lol!  So Drake went quiet, we knew Scorpion was coming June 29th.  But what were we getting?  Drake poked his head out to respond to the artwork for Pusha’s response via his iOS notepad and that was it save for him pressing the emergency button.  Wednesday June 13th Drake gathered his Degrassi : The New Generation alumni together on their old stomping grounds for the video to “I’m Upset”  Remember how I referenced Degrassi earlier in this piece? Ding ding this was the video that made me sit in front of the tv for hours watching old episodes.  Drake had survived the coup de grace from Pusha with some help from his adolescent friends just remember whatever it takes, I know I can make it through!  So the two weeks before the album’s release promotion kicks into high gear billboards with lyrics from the forthcoming album also a billboard that referenced “A Side” and “B Side”. If you remember the promotion leading up to the album Views the artwork for the singles, Pop Style and One Dance were similar one in white cursive script on a black background the other in black cursive script on a white background had people thinking Views would be a double album some went as far as to say there was a white disc and a black disc.  Contrary to these thoughts Views was one succinct album though it featured 20 songs they were all part of a single composition, interestingly enough Views is the album that initiated the rift between Drake and Joe Budden but nonetheless let’s continue shall we?  Mal of the Joe Budden podcast dropped the info that Scorpion would in fact be a double album with “A Side” being the more aggressive rap offering whereas “B Side” would be more of Drakes more melodic records.  As I refreshed and refreshed OVO 40′s instagram for more info all we could do is wait.  Eventually we got the album artwork which is very basic if we are being completely honest but its honest just a black and white headshot of Drake with his signature and the word Scorpion which I would assume is in his own handwriting.  Thursday June 28th the track list was revealed and hours later the features - Jay Z, , Ty Dolla $ign, the late great Static Major and the late iconic Michael Jackson (current social climate notwithstanding) also included concert audio from his Young Money family Nicki Minaj, the City Girls, Lil Wayne audio  and an instagram clip of Plies. The trackless resulted in one of the funniest tweets about Michael Jackson considering the fact that the Jackson family patriarch Joseph Jackson had just passed away earlier that week. “How’d Drake get Mike on his album......Joe Jackson died got to heaven and told Mike to get back to work” 

And then 11 PM CST came which meant it was 12 AM EST I went directly to Tidal on my iPad and Apple Music on my phone to refresh and there it was Drakes double album Scorpion.  His power move all of hip hops true legends have done the double disc Jay - Z “The Blueprint 2″, Tupac “All Eyez On Me” , Nas “Streets Disciple”, The Notorious B.I.G. “Life After Death” , Wu-Tang Clan “Wu-Tang Forever”  Clearly the precedent was set in order to consider himself among the greats Drake felt a double disc was necessary hell even his one time nemesis Chris Brown had give us a double disc worth of content albeit in the streaming era it actually broke down to 3 albums worth of content but schematics. 

I HATE WHEN DRAKE RAPS

DRAKE SINGS TOO MUCH

DRAKE IS A POP ARTIST

DRAKE DOESN’T EVEN WRITE HIS OWN SONGS

DRAKE TOOK AN L

DRAKE DIDN’T START FROM THE BOTTOM

DRAKE IS FINISHED

I LIKE DRAKE’S OLDER STUFF

DRAKE MAKES MUSIC FOR GIRLS

DRAKE THINKS HE’S JAMAICAN

DRAKE IS AN ACTOR

DRAKE CHANGED

ANBODY ELSE > DRAKE......

YEAH YEAH WE KNOW

the aforementioned excerpt comes directly from the iTunes / Apple Music page for Scorpion.  Clearly Aubrey and his camp are well aware of the pundits and their feelings toward Drake and everything he represents.  Having said all of that let’s talk about the music side A opens with Survival in which Drake references his previous issues with Meek Mill and Diddy “I’ve had real Philly niggas try to write my ending” “I’ve had scuffles with Bad Boys” I’ve always said Drake’s biggest strength is being able to live in his own truth and Survival is just another track where he excels at this.  The album then goes up a notch where Drake and Taykeith meet again for one of my favorite songs on the project that is still in my heavy rotation to this day “Nonstop” is as self explanatory as you can get the crazy thing is per Drake this wasn’t on the original iteration of the album it was his feud with Pusha T the month before that birthed this and other songs on the album such as the commercial standout of the album that is found on the album’s B Side “In My Feelings”. Drake told LeBron and Maverick that in the  wake of his back and forth with Terrence he got back in the studio and used the energy to create these songs.  Elevate the albums third song is still a skip for me but it’s the albums 4th track “Emotionless” where Drake finally decides to allow us into his personal life on a deeper level when first referencing his son Adonis “I wasn’t hiding my kid from the world, I was hiding the world from my kid” The Mariah Carey sample that 40 flipped is masterful and it serves as the perfect canvas for this moment.  Emotionless is followed by the albums second single and God’s Plan which originally appeared on January’s “Scary Hours” EP. After these we get Drake’s routine hookup with Boi-1da “8 out of 10″ which features the Plies vocals from IG (word to Plies please bring back “Sweet Pwussy Satday).  I would be remised if I didn’t express that this is where A Side takes a dip to me with “Mob Ties” and “Can’t Take a Joke” neither song has grown on me a year later still they don’t grab my attention.  Sandra’s Rose a dedication to Drake’s mother is where the first volume picks back up for a fantastic crescendo.  Finally Drake get’s to rap over a Preemo beat which he had been campaigning for since the early days of Take Care, if this is the end result I’d love to hear what other instrumentals Preme cooked up for The Boy the collaboration had been in talks since the pre production days of Take Care which is widely viewed as Drake’s opus.   “Talk Up” is the next song up with a gritty Memphis 808 supplied by Three Six Mafia alum DJ Paul which also has a verse from the Brooklyn God Sir Shawn Corey of Carter aka Jay Z.  Honestly listen to this song and tune the vocals out just listen to the 808 kick in the background masterful very reminiscent of early Three Six Mafia / Tear The Club Up Thugs real Memphis shit.  One very important moment of note surrounding this track is Jay’s verse music now lives in real time because of the advent of the internet a verse can be recorded emailed and mixed then released in half a days time thanks to the internet.  Jay recorded this verse within weeks of the release of the album and you can tell by his bar “y’all killed X let Zimmerman live, streets is done”  Xxxtentacion was murdered in Florida June 18th 2018, his funeral service was June 28th 2018 the day before Scorpion was released.  The first part of the album finishes with “Is There More” which features a sample of “More Than A Woman” by the late Aaliyah.  On any standard Drake release this would serve as the conclusion to the album but on Scorpion it only closes out the album’s first half.  Post intermission Scorpion opens with “Peak” which couldn’t be more of a 40 creation if it tried.  This is Drake in his bag the Drake everyone came to know and love on So Far Gone (now available on all streaming platforms).  Honestly most of the content on the B Side much like it’s A Side counterpart could’ve been left on the cutting room floor the standout from this side is definitely the Ty Dolla $ign assisted “Jaded” If you haven’t put this song on repeat and slipped into one of those moments Drake is so masterful at crafting then I question if you are even living.  Finesse is another powerful moment but other songs like Ratchet Happy Birthday feel completely out of place here.  The commercial standout “In My Feelings” was created out of complete happenstance if memory serves me correct and it initially wasn’t going to be a single for the album but Shiggy’s dance craze was a moment that Drake and his camp just had to capitalize on.  Blue Tint is another song that feels lost on this particular side of the album not that it fits the A Side either which suggest that maybe Drake and Future leave this in the vault for “What A Time To Be Alive 2″ which is coming at some point.  The other songs like “That’s How You Feel” which features tour banter from Nicki Minaj and her DJ is a great song I often wonder though would the song sound more cohesive if you removed the Nicki vocals and add a hook sung by Drake or someone else.  The album eventually builds to Final Fantasy which I assume would absolutely have some sort of a reference to the Squaresoft turned Square Enix video game franchise and the March 14th in which Drake closes the album having a conversation with himself that he hopes his son will discover as he is older and understand.  Though March 14th officially closes the album it is the closing of Is There More that gives us a glimpse into Drake’s future “soon as the album drop I’m outta the deal”. Many had speculated when Drake’s deal with Young Money/Cash Money would cease to exist even going as far back as If You’re Reading This It’s too Late some thinking the title was a nod to Drake’s original contract coming to an end.  As of late Drake has released new music to celebrate the Toronto Raptors first NBA Championship the music is licensed to Frozen Moments LLC under exclusive license to Republic Records a division of UMG Recordings.  Drake is apparently prepping another full length project which was teased for the end of 2018 by Young Money president Mack Maine.  Oh yea remember earlier where I kept telling you guys how bad pillow talk was. Drake months after Scorpion was released appeared on The Shop with LeBron and Maverick and insinuated it was Kanye who told Pusha about Drake having a son.  Days after the episode aired on HBO Pusha T reached out to Joe Budden of all people to appear on his podcast finally revealing that it was Drake’s producer, business partner and friend Noah “OVO 40″ (click here) who had been involved with a woman who had loose ties to people close to Pusha T.  For sometime 40 had been complaining to this woman about his positioning within the business end of things and how he apparently didn’t think he was being compensated fairly.  Noah also disclosed information about Drake and others flying to meet Adonis and to bring him gifts.  There has been no word from Drake’s camp on these allegations or the fact that Drake offered money to people around Pusha T for information about his personal life.  There was also the fact that Rap A Lot Records founder J Prince that Drake had indeed recorded a response to the story of Adidon but it would’ve potentially been damaging for Pusha T and Kanye.  If hip hop history has taught us anything at some point if this is true the hard drive holding those files will come up missing and that song will leak if it in fact exists.  So here we are a full year later and what have we learned well Drake is as teflon as teflon can get had any other rapper experienced what he did in the lead up to Scorpion it could’ve had long last effects.  Ja Rule was one of if not the most played artist on terrestrial radio until 50 Cent started throwing jabs at him on wax next thing you know everyone was screaming G-G-G-G Unit and Ja was an afterthought.  Drake weathered the storm by staying the course sticking to what he does best and and then jumping on one of the hottest songs of summer 2018 “Sicko Mode”. Pusha T came back to cause a ruckus among the OVO camp because quote “that narrative has to die, Kanye didn’t tell me anything it was 40!” Yet Drake remained unbothered he went across the nation on his Aubrey and the 3 Amigos tour squashed long standing beefs with rivals Meek Mill and Chris Brown.  Patched things up with his son’s mother and came to some sort of a cordial understanding and then toured the UK. In the middle of all of this he told us he had a new album coming, gave Nick Nurse the head coach of the Toronto Raptors a shoulder massage during an NBA Playoff game.  Drake partied and celebrated the Raptors title as if he suited up and played actual minutes and then took a million pics with the Larry O’Brien trophy with his friends no less.  The question I pose for you will the music on Scoprion stand the test of time?  Take Care still sounds as good today as it did in November of 2011.  I admit I like Scorpion but I don’t love the album I have my own condensed version of the album where I’ve removed the filler songs in favor of the standouts in my opinion.  I invite you all as readers to revisit Scorpion this weekend and give it a grade based on its replay value, how it holds up today and if you really love/like the album or if you were a prisoner of the moment.