When I started my blog, I was anxious for my favorite artists to release albums because I knew I had to do a fantastic job writing about them. Kanye West was my first favorite artist to drop an album for me to review and I made sure to make it perfect. And it was so great that Mike Dean retweeted it. Anyways, up until recently, Drake had been my co favorite artist; along with Kanye West, but now he’s been kind of knocked down to tied for second with Travis Scott. The reason for that is because Drake has been making music so often it is starting to sound old, and the same. I hate to say it, and I never thought I’d say it. But it’s the cold hard facts. His songs are still great, because he is extremely talented at making music but I’ve always wanted him to relax, take some time, and then drop an album. That’s hard to do, though, when there’s money to be made.
I’ll go ahead and announce that, for the first time, I’m a little concerned about not feeling a Drake album, because after “Duppy Freestyle” and the entire Pusha T drama, Drake dropped “I’m Upset”, the first single off Scorpion and I was hella underwhelmed by it. Mix that with the fact that all I’ve been listening to for the past month has been DAYTONA, ye, or KIDS SEE GHOSTS and you can understand why I’m concerned. Drake has to make Scorpion as good as those are.
Drake gave us the track list early today and “Gods Plan” and “Nice For What” are on the album, too, and they’ve already been out for so long. Not going to lie, from those three songs (“I’m Upset” included), Scorpion isn’t going in the right direction. I like “Gods Plan” but I played it enough times for me to not need it on the album, you know. The features look top notch, though. There aren’t many, but Jay – Z, Michael Jackson, Static Major, and Ty Dolla $ign are all credited to be featured on Scorpion.
I’m writing this intro, as usual, before the album is out. There’s still a few more hours to midnight, but I’ll say this: I’ll admit if Scorpion isn’t up to expectations and I’ll have no problem saying it. Drake, the 6 God, has never let us down, though and those cryptic Scorpion billboards around my city, Toronto, are reassuring because he’s talking shit. Drake knows he has no other choice but to make Scorpion a classic. It’s 2018, the time is now. So let’s see. I believe.
SCORPION IS OUT. It’s a 2 part album: Side A is mostly rap and has 12 songs. Side B is mostly Drake’s R&B side and has 13 songs. All together it runs for an hour and a half. I’m going to have to write separate reviews so I can avoid making this one 10,000 words long.
I’m saying this about the entire album, not just Side A: I’ve been known for over reacting and I guess that intro was an example of myself over reacting. I should’ve known better than to question Drake but that was on my mind and I needed to let it out. I’m not a liar, just prone to over reacting when I’m worried.
SIDE A
Drake begins Side A of Scorpion with “Survival”; a fitting title for the first song on his album. Drake raps about what he’s been going through in life and he raps about how it makes him feel. He doesn’t mention it in the song, but after Drake vs Pusha, Drake was really in survival mode because, for this album, people expected the most from him. It was literally do or die (for his career, at least). “Survival” is a song that reminds me of “Charged Up”; a quiet sounding song with loud lyrics. The beat is so easy going and relaxing, but Drake, you know, isn’t easy going when he’s trying to survive, and he most definitely can’t relax.
“Nonstop” is the second song from Side A. As I’m sure you can imagine, the song is about continuing to go off, continuing to kill whatever you do, continuing to prove to yourself and the doubters that you can’t be touched. Drake has been doing this nonstop since he dropped “5AM In Toronto” back in 2013, and was already a star before he made “5AM In Toronto”; what a friggin run, eh… eh?? This beat is more upbeat than the first song but still has that same villainous vibe.
If it was any other rapper’s album; or maybe it’s just me, but when I saw “Elevate”, the third song, I thought it’d be about getting high. Of course “getting high” is a metaphor, like “Way Up”. It’s ironic because this is a song that sounds like you’d want to get high while listening to it. Just like Drake has been doing, you need to Elevate yourself, you need to get higher, you need to be way up. When you think you’re where/what you need to be, remember, you can be even more.
Being “Emotionless” is something that sucks, but when so many things have been done to you, when you know you’re the truth but everyone thinks you’re a lie, when you’re under appreciated, it’s easy to lose your emotions and not care about anything or anyone. This is the fourth song and Drake talks about the reasons he’d had to become emotionless, there’s just a bunch of phoniness in the world, and showing emotion is one way people can take advantage of you. Something Drake surely understands. He raps about his son, finally addressing him, by saying “I wasn’t hiding my kid from the world, I was hiding the world from my kid.” Does that make sense? I wonder what makes people think Drake is obligated to tell us he has a son. He’s not the only one to keep things quiet. No words needed.
“Gods Plan” and “I’m Upset” are the 5th and 6th songs on Scorpion, and you already know about them so I wont waste time. I’ll say that even though I didn’t like “I’m Upset” when I first heard it, it sounds much better flowing with the album.
I feel like “8 Out Of 10”, the 7th song, is Drake’s minor response to Kanye and Pusha. Before it got way out of control, the beef was pronounced DEAD. Drake says it’s lucky for them that he accepted that he has to keep up being the good guy. “8 Out Of 10” is an interesting name for the song. Drake said “If it’s an 8, we like to make it 10” so I figure he could be talking about himself only making 10’s or that when someone (maybe the two he’s talking about) wants him to help on a 8 level song, he can make it a 10 level song. Drake, the multi-talented superstar, knows he has that ability.
Based off “8 Out Of 10”, and the next couple songs: “Mob Ties”, “Can’t Take A Joke”, this is the part of the Side A when Drake starts to take shots at his opps. He’s got real life guys who will blast for him and it’s not a joke, (see: “Live Up To My Name” performed by BAKA, but written by Drake.) Drake says it’s too late for making amends; too late for the lovey dovey shit, too late for saying “we brothers”, he’s sick of these niggas. It’s also not a joke.
This post is getting very lengthy. Forgive me for this but I’m all about real time, honest, writing, and this is my blog: I’m writing this paragraph at 01:39 (I switched to 24hour clock). I woke up this morning and started writing the rest of the review while listening to Side A of Scorpion but I couldn’t finish writing it before I went to work. I was also running out of things to say. I played it a couple more times while I was at work and I realized that I’d rather listen to DAYTONA, ye, and KIDS SEE GHOSTS. Scorpion is 25 songs and an hour and a half long. I don’t have the attention span, or time to listen to it over and over again. So I wont finish the writing about all the songs and I’ll wrap up by saying this: Drake continues to rap, he raps about his son, the struggles, the success, the fake people he has to deal with. He is a genius artist, and an excellent rapper / singer; he drops too many songs, though. I’m going to make a Scorpion playlist with the songs I’d keep on to make it a solid playlist album. Like More Life. Ironically, I’d give Scorpion an 8/10; 25 songs is too many, it’s hard to make 25/25 sensational songs. Try 7?
Everything I Am 
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