Drake – Scorpion

By: Sydney Davis

Within the past year Drake has garnered a lot of hype, rumor, and speculation around his name. Around the time of his announcement of the Scorpion album release, Pusha T dropped the bomb of Drake being a father on his song “The Story of Adidon”. Due to these rumors hoping to be addressed, the anticipation of the album grew. Once he released the track list to the album it sent fans through the roof due to having an A & B-side totaling 25 songs. He even scored a feature from the late Michael Jackson on the single “Don’t Matter to Me”.

The first singles before the album was released were “God’s Plan”, “Nice for What”, and “I’m Upset”. These received major radio airplay, so that everyone learned all the lyrics. I liked the songs initially due to the catchiness, but after hearing them so much I grew tired of them. The infamous “In My Feelings” challenge killed that single for me before I even really listened to it. Once I did listen to it, I was not impressed.

I actually listened to the album all the way through on a road trip, and it got me through the whole trip. When trying to find an album that is cohesive, this is not the album you should look for. When trying to find one of Drake’s best albums, this album is not the one you should look for. This album has catchy singles to vibe out to, and that’s its strongest point. It just has no structure when you try to listen to the album straight through or side by side.

With the large track list, it seems like Drake is trying to overcompensate by putting out so much music. There are some pretty solid tracks on the album that would have been better suited on a smaller album. Tracks like “Survival”, “Emotionless”, “Sandra’s Rose”, and “8 out of 10” are underrated and get loss in the major singles. The more rap infused A side shows stronger lyricism than the catchy R&B side that gets you turnt and “in your feelings” (get it?). Most of the B-side, besides the singles, just seem like filler tracks he would throw in another stronger album.

Overall, Drake’s hype was not met through this album. While you do have some strong tracks, collectively the tracks do not bring the heat that you would expect from all the talk of this album. If he were to cut down the track list, reselect the songs, and reorganize the order for the album then it would be better to digest as a piece of art. This album as is would be abstract art. Basically, you can see where Drake was going with the album, you may like certain things individually, but hearing it altogether causes a jumbled mess that leaves you confused.

Rating: 6.5/10

Favorite Tracks: “Emotionless”, “Mob Ties”, “Blue Tint”