After almost exactly ten years, Drake has topped one of his mentor's biggest achievements. Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III famously shipped platinum sales on it's first week of release in June 2008, and Scorpion reportedly crossed the platinum milestone the very day it was released - 29 June, 2018. The former was a critically acclaimed, industry-adored masterwork that found one of the best active rappers of the time proving his worth and permanently cementing his legacy in the rap game, but the stakes are different this time. For years, Drake has struggled to match the quality of music he had at the creative peak of his career, yet still manages to increasingly break records like this every year. Not all can be attributed to the standard of the music, however, and now that the streaming era has fully enclosed it's grip upon the industry, and the goal being to load as many songs as possible into a project to pull in more streams, Drake's strategy to pull big numbers is the very strategy that has been causing his albums to suffer. This tactic is nothing new, of course, Drake himself being one of the first to capitalize on it in 2016 with Views - but fortunately, Scorpion manages to avoid some of the musical misfires his last studio album shot itself in the foot with, ending up marginally better as a result.
Drake has opted to split Scorpion directly in half, splitting the album across two discs, dubbed Side A and Side B - one he mainly raps on, and one he mainly sings on, respectively. It's an interesting direction to take, one that caters to both sides of his audience simultaneously, which in theory is a decent idea - the argument always being that if a listener doesn't like one particular aspect of an artist, they now simply don't have to listen to it. The entire album exists within a moody, dark atmosphere, although Drake's priority appears to be the R&B side, or Disc 2, which clocks in 7 minutes longer than the hip-hop side and features perhaps Drake's most prestigious collaboration to this day - original vocals from Michael Jackson, apparently recorded circa 1983. Across the second disc, Drake croons his away over 12 tracks that vary from average to bewildering, although there are occasional flashes of the unlikely R&B talent that he wove so compellingly into his debut album, Thank Me Later. 'Jaded' is an early highlight, his voice sounding light and breezy, bolstered by similarly pleasant Ty Dolla $ign backing vocals, even if his lyrics remain of the exact same "singing songs about women" substance. Although one of the better tracks on the disc, the quality of the remaining 12 songs rarely surpasses this, and 'Jaded' is already hardly riveting by itself. Attempting to go full-fledged R&B artist highlights exactly how Drake doesn't even compete with his contemporaries in the genre - simply riding a synthed-out vibe for 50 minutes and singing songs about women is beginner's level compared to current R&B stars such as SZA, Frank Ocean, and Sampha, who write much more versatile and compelling songs. 'Nice For What' is a great diversion from the otherwise continuous sound of the disc, and ups the energy for a fun and catchy pop track that Drake dances around in effortlessly, finally sounding like he's having fun for the first time on almost the entirety of Scorpion. The album has 12 songs each of rap and R&B, the 25th track being the exception - Scorpion finishes with 'March 14' the only track where Drake attempts to straddle both sounds together. 3 minutes of rapping are followed to 2 minutes of singing, and the first half of the track is one of the best moments on Scorpion - Drake spills open about the birth of his son, showing real depth and regret that he has become a single father, and placed a child in the position that he himself despised so much growing up, but attempts redemption by vowing to commit to his child. Agree with his justifications and admitted actions or not, the song is good, with a quality beat that sounds reminiscent of the best instrumentals from 2013's Nothing Was The Same. The album could have easily ended with this verse, but Drake saw fit to add another two minutes of perplexing singing, sticking unnecessarily stubbornly to the even 50/50 split on Scorpion - vast yet vacant, Drake's vocals try to be grandiose and uplifting, but end up leaving the center of the sound stage gutless and empty. It's an unfortunate ending to an otherwise great Drake song (especially for 2018) but it's simply another demonstration that no matter how hard he tries, he succeeds much more naturally when he raps. Disc 1 offers much more than Disc 2, and it does so with less. At a tight 41 minutes, Drake stumbles only twice across the 12 tracks, offering his most consistent piece of material since his 2015 surprise rap triumph If You're Reading This, It's Too Late. It may lack the unwavering cool or infectious confidence of that project, but it also lacks the mightily embarrassing lyrical failures that plagued Views so fiercely. The disc opens with 'Survival' a triumphant intro similar to 'Tuscan Leather' from Nothing Was The Same - although lacking the two fantastic beat switches and climactic ending, it's still a good opener, claiming "My Mount Rushmore is me with four different expressions". Unfortunately this leads directly into this first bore of the album, 'Nonstop' - the aesthetic of the album is immediately dropped for a generic trap beat, where the hi-hats simply tick away to a constant bass line as Drake lethargically stumbles his way through the track - although admittedly, his cadence does pick up by the second half the of track. The worst song of the first disc is undoubtedly 'I'm Upset' - the beat is even worse than the aforementioned track, and Drake's vocals would be more appropriately labelled as chanting as opposed to rapping. Over one of the most boring instrumentals of 2018, Drake (who, reminder, went platinum the day this album dropped) has the audacity to not only complain about child support, but the decision to include the lyrics "SMS, triple X / That's the only time I ever shoot below the neck / Why you keep on shootin' if you know that nigga dead? / That's the only kind of shit that gets you some respect", in light of recent events, is extremely distasteful, even if this isn't what the lyrics referred to, and leaves a sour taste in my mouth. However, these moments are the only two on the first disc that falter below consistency, and the other 10 tracks are all at least better than anything Drake released on both Views and 2017's mess More Life. 'Elevate' is one of Scorpion's finest moments - the spacey vibe of the album works at it's best here, with pitched up background vocals adding finely to the eerie vibe of track, and Drake's delivery feels alive and exciting - "I wanna thank God for workin' way harder than Satan / He's playin' favorites, it feels amazin' (yeah)" Drake reflects. Other highlights include 'Sandra's Rose', produced by none other than the legendary boom-bap creationist DJ Premier. Although his signature scratching and vocal samples didn't make their way off the cutting room floor, (a shame, considering Premier's talent at weaving beats together with these elements) the instrumental is still a great one without them, fitting perfectly with the braggadocios flexing Drake calmly writes on this track. "N****s want a classic, that's just ten of these", "Every title doin' numbers like I'm Miss Adele", and "I walk in godly form amongst the mortal men". 'Mob Ties' is one of the better piano ballads I've heard this year, and Drake's sung chorus sounds genuinely soulful and stretches his singing vocals to their best. 'God's Plan' is a track I had originally discarded in favour of the more lyrical 'Diplomatic Immunity' when released back in January, but in the greater context of Scorpion's first disc the song fits very well, serving the same role that 'Nice For What' does on the second disc and brightens the mood for a welcome intermission from the more subdued atmosphere. The singing might be not sound very inspired, but the instrumental is light and cheerful, and the low stakes allow the simple lyricism to be enjoyable. I could compliment every other track on the first disc in some way or another (although 'Talk Up' featuring Jay-Z sounds unfortunately demo quality). After three years of material that was average at best, and completely forgettable at worst, the first disc of Scorpion finally offers some redemption for Drake; or at least for Drake as a rapper. It's certainly not of the same caliber of If You're Reading This, but it's still several steps further ahead of anything he's released since then. As for the second disc, Drake's attempt is valiant, but ultimately disposable. These songs feel more of a creative outlet for Drake than they do songs intended to be judged and criticized directly alongside his hip-hop output, but for fans of Drake's R&B-isms they'll certainly be listenable. For this reviewer, however, they're simply too uninspired and indistinguishable from each other to leave a lasting effect. They have their intermittent moments - I enjoyed the Nicki Minaj-assisted 'That's How You Feel' and 'Finesse' is great simply because of it's chilled, ambient instrumental, but the existence of the infinitely baffling 'Ratchet Happy Birthday' is enough to dissuade me from putting this half of the album on at all. When combined into a 90-minute haul, Scorpion begins to drag just before the halfway point, and loses steam entirely by the final quarter (picking up again only for the first half of 'March 14') but the first disc's comparative strength to the second means that the fat can be trimmed off and Drake's first decent project in years be left remaining. Side A: 75/100 Side B: 55/100 65/100 |
201820162015Scores0-30 = Bad
31-49 = Sub-par 50-60 = Average 61-70 = Decent 71-80 = Good 81-89 = Great 90-99 = Incredible 100 = Perfect Archives
September 2018
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