How does Drake come back from this? That’s a pretty obvious question that’s been lingering since Kendrick Lamar handed him an epic loss in the biggest rap battle in 20 years. When so many fans now see you as the guy who just took the most high-profile L in the history of the genre, do you back off, plan what’s next, make the world miss you a bit? Or do you go full throttle into your next project, career nadir-be-damned, and believe that your die-hards can push you back to the promised land?
It seems that Aubrey has chosen a version of the latter.
On Tuesday, Drake unloaded a massive folder of previously unreleased content, which he uploaded to the website 100gig and announced via Instagram. There are a handful of new songs featuring big names: Latto guests on “Housekeeping Knows”; “It’s Up” has Young Thug and 21 Savage; “Blue Green Red” is unassisted. There’s a “Hotline Bling”-themed folder taking you behind the scenes of the 2015 hit’s popular music video. There’s also a folder dedicated to the making of Her Loss, Drake’s 2022 collaborative project with Savage. Another folder is dedicated to Honestly, Nevermind.
It may not be exactly what anyone expected from Drake in the wake of his feud, and it remains to be seen how it will land with the general public. It’s an interesting rollout no doubt; it nods to what he’s done and bigger things to come. But Drake’s is in a bit of an uphill battle. That much is hard to deny. The idea of a rapper ending another rapper’s career is pervasive, even if it can be somewhat overstated. Ice Cube and “No Vaseline” get a lot of credit for ending N.W.A when the group was already on life support thanks to Jerry Heller’s dealings. 50 Cent is considered to be the man who toppled Ja Rule, but it’s not a stretch to suggest that Ja was already starting to suffer from radio oversaturation in the early ’00s. Nicki Minaj and Cardi B’s animosity didn’t knock either off of rap’s A-list. Jay-Z and Nas went toe-to-toe and both emerged with their careers in arguably better places.
Drake isn’t Ja Rule. He can still deliver hits. Always has. But hits don’t mean everything. What Drake’s seemingly lost here is a sense of inevitability. If this were 300, the Kendrick beef would be the moment we saw a God king could bleed. There’s no scientific study on it yet, but in the early going, songs he’s appeared on haven’t done particularly well — at least according to Drake standards.
His guest spot on Sexyy Red’s “U My Everything” peaked at No. 44 on the Hot 100, and it’s holding steady at the 80 mark today. Drake’s Camila Cabello collab, “Hot Uptown,” debuted at No. 62 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart before dropping out of all together a week later. The other one — which, to be fair, was more of an interlude — didn’t hit the chart at all. It’s early, but his two guest spots on Gordo’s DIAMANTE (“Sideways,” “Healing”) have also failed to make much of an impact. They’re good songs. Maybe they’ll be slow-burners. But ask yourself: when did Drake start making slow-burners? The “Drake Stimulus Package” is a narrative for a reason. These guest spots clearly aren’t living up to it. But Drake has time to redeem himself. Recently, he and PartyNextDoor announced a joint album for this fall. But will that remove the stain of the battle?
The bad blood between Drake and Kendrick had been simmering for years before it boiled over back in May, but at their battle’s practical climax, Drake went quiet as commentators picked apart every bar of Kendrick’s songs and “Not Like Us” arguably became the biggest diss record ever. Maybe 100 gigs isn’t going to make anyone forget the rest of 2024, but it fulfills its dual purposes. On one hand, the archival footage reminds folks of what Drake’s done. On the other, the new songs on the site — as well as the effort he made to make the site at all — shows he’s not standing still.
How this all plays out for his career in the long term? We’ll just have to see if more hits are enough.
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