- In “Gimme a Hug,” Drake claims he doesn’t care about “a rap beef; I’m tryna get the party lit.”
- This is the Canadian rapper’s first album since Kendrick Lamar resurfaced their rap beef last March in Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That.”
- Drake mentions other celebrities, including Charli XCX, Beyoncé and Tate McRae, throughout the album.
Drake might be delivering “$ome $exy $ongs 4 U” in celebration of Valentine’s Day, but he’s also sneaking in some thoughts about his lyrical and legal battle over Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us” in the new album, which released Friday.
Halfway through the 21-song album — which marks Drake’s first full collaborative record with PartyNextDoor, the Toronto artist who’s signed to his label OVO Sound — Drake drops “Gimme a Hug,” a track that talks himself up while diminishing his haters.
He starts off the song, which dropped along with the rest of the album on Friday, by calling out the “Drake elimination, fake intimidation” and assuring himself that other rappers are “Using you for promotion,’ truer words have never been spoken.”
Later, in a telling verse, Drake minimizes the disses aimed at him, possibly alluding to Lamar: “They be droppin’ (expletive), but we be droppin’ harder (expletive)/ (Expletive) a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit.”
This is Drake’s first album since his rap beef with Lamar kicked into high gear last March, with the two exchanging bars in tracks like “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle” (Drake), as well as “Meet the Grahams” and “6:16 in LA” (Lamar). “Not Like Us” earned Lamar — already a Pulitzer prize winner — a massive night at the Grammys earlier this month. He won in five categories, including record of the year and song of the year, which are among the night’s “big four” trophies.
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Elsewhere in the song, Drake thanks those who have been loyal to him.
“I appreciate the fans rocking with me/ This is really just a small token,” he raps, calling himself “a visionary.” He also gives a shoutout to “Her Loss” collaborator 21 Savage for sticking by him: “Savage, you the only … checkin’ on me when we really in some (expletive), brother.”
Drake also appears to allude to one of the allegations in his recent federal lawsuit against his and Lamar’s shared music distributor, Universal Music Group. He claimed in the filing that amid an uptick in violence against him following the release of “Not Like Us,” a “group of men” allegedly shot at his Toronto home, hitting the door and “seriously” wounding a security guard.
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In the verse, he says: “Bulletproof doors so heavy, got me rollin’ ’round like a dignitary.”
His foes want him dead, Drake says in a verse, claiming they’re “waiting on the boy’s obituary.” But he aims at them by asking “what … are they gon’ do with it? Have the girls up at 29 on stage twerking with a dictionary?”
He also attempts to blow it all off by bragging about how well he’s doing for himself: “Right now, I got so many villas booked on like I’m billing to ’em.” He also says he’s “really out here, filling up the itinerary ’til I’m six feet in a cemetery.”
Currently, Drake is touring Australia and New Zealand on his Anita Max Win Tour. The rapper was down under when Lamar cheekily performed “Not Like Us” during his Super Bowl halftime show medley.
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“Gimme a Hug” is produced by Gordo, Richard Zestenker, Johannes Klahr, Simon Hessman, Kid Masterpiece and Noel Cadastre.
“Nokia” and “Gimme a Hug” seem to be in the lead as fan favorites so far, with both gaining traction on social media sites like TikTok.
“Lasers” name-drops Beyoncé (with a nod to Destiny’s Child), and “Small Town Fame” references “Brat” hitmaker Charli XCX as well as “Greedy” singer Tate McRae. Drake and PartyNext Door also sample Ice Spice in Track 19, “Glorious.” Hulk Hogan gets a mention in “Gimme a Hug” — as do Lil Durk and Melyssa Ford, who co-hosts a podcast with rapper and media personality Joe Budden, with Drake seemingly taking a dig at the latter.
Though not particularly heavy on guest appearances, the album does have features with Yebba, Chino Pacas and Pim.
Drake’s new album with PartyNextDoor is released by the company Drake sued
The collaboration is released “under exclusive license” to Republic Records, a subsidiary of UMG, the music label Drake has taken to court. In January, Drake sued UMG and accused the company of profiting off his defamation by releasing Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
Drake’s legal team claimed that despite a decade-long relationship, Universal Music Group “intentionally sought to turn Drake into a pariah, a target for harassment, or worse.” They also wrote the company sought to “profit from damaging Drake’s reputation.”
Drake sued for defamation, second-degree harassment via promoting violence against him and deceptive business practices. “Not Like Us,” he alleged, spreads defamatory claims about Drake, including that he engages in sexual relations with minors and sex trafficking and also harbors sex offenders.
Drake and PartyNextDoor’s’$ome $exy $ongs 4 U’ track list
- “CN Tower”
- “Moth Balls”
- “Something About You”
- “Crying in Chanel”
- “Spider-Man Superman”
- “Deeper”
- “Small Town Fame”
- “Pimmie’s Dilemma”
- “Brian Steele”
- “Gimme A Hug”
- “Raining in Houston”
- “Lasers”
- “Meet Your Padre”
- “Nokia”
- “Die Trying”
- “Somebody Loves Me”
- “Celibacy”
- “OMW”
- “Glorious”
- “When He’s Gone”
- “Greedy”
