Some $exy $ongs 4 U, the long awaited and anticipated project resulting from a culmination of collaborative efforts from rap music superstar Drake and Toronto’s PartyNextDoor finally dropped February 14th, popularly known as Valentine’s Day, a day synonymous with bombshell of surprises from loved ones as they either shower you with love or drop a bag of disappointment on your noggin that goes straight to your cortex and lobes.
Perhaps the two artistes dropping this record on that day was the single club members and subscription holders’ saving grace as it provided the world with something bigger to talk about, as opposed to a man-made and manufactured day where capitalism wrings the living daylights out of you either by pinching at your wallet, or wringing out your heart strings.
The title, ‘Some Sexy Songs 4 U’, sounds like the title to a playlist. For those who aren’t familiar, a playlist is a loosely put together track list or list of recordings with the intention of broadcasting. Something about the title screams mid, for a collaborative project that we had been waiting for, for what seems like a decade now, its a little underwhelming. But hey, maybe that’s just the cover, perhaps the plot thickens and makes for a memorable piece of art, lets dive in – but before we do, it’s important to mention that in as much as the title of the project is underwhelming, it also inadvertently raises the bar of expectation sky high, because some sexy songs for me?
My mind is already expecting a sexball of emotions with major Al-B-Sure, Ginuwine-vibes, niggas-singing-in-the-rain-tears on cheeks-and-hands-stretching-and-reaching-out-type shit, because I mean, its sexy songs for me innit. Give me SEXY like never before then. PartyNextDoor coming from a hip hop/RnB world can easily give us love themes in a rhythm and blues hue, but for Drake being a rapper who just likes to tow the line of rapper/singer, it really makes you wonder how authentically he can convey sex, which is what we’ve been blatantly promised from the title.
The record opens with “CN Tower”, a reference to the Canadian National Tower, a national icon as being one of the significant and recognizable landmarks and piece of architecture in the Canadian skyline. According to Destination Toronto, the CN Tower is an engineering marvel that for decades reigned supreme as the tallest tower in the world and is still the tallest freestanding structure in the Western Hemisphere.
As the opening song on this record starts, it feels sexy but not really, we’re confronted with words conveying a longing for attention as Drake draws a parallel between the red color of the “CN Tower” and the text message left on read he sent to the subject of his desire, fostering an interesting juxtaposition which is reverable in the bounds of rhythm and blues. The concept of “CN Tower” is extremely alluring, the rapper goes on a streak of paralleling his emotions and feelings to the changing colors of the tower, from red to blue then green, the last two colors showing envy from ill-wishers and blue portraying the blues he’s experiencing from the ending of the relationship.
On the overall it paints a perspective of a man trying to make things right with his lover after presumably a lot of word of mouth and people getting in the way, but in reality, it feels like the city is pretty when its dead just like a flower, some relationships are equally as pretty when they are in past tense and just as dead as well. This song feels like a man trying to finesse his way back in an incredibly ingenuine way. It’s a bitter pill drenched in honey, but still bitter as fuck at the core. Talk about sexy.
If you’re a Drake fan, and you think this is a great project, I think it’s important to also ask the following question, are you a true fan of Drake music or you’re a fan of Drake. Because typically, if you’re a fan of someone, you develop this imaginary cataract in your eye that makes everything about that person seem great. The project has a few good songs, and the rest are either cringe, mid or bland, he made an assortment of a project and brought Party along for the ride to copilot, but it’s been blatantly made clear who the star of the show is, and that’s Drake.
The biggest song off this project, and the only hit record to come from it thus far is “NOKIA”, which is a Drake song that Party’s presence is not on. Even though “NOKIA” is arguably one of the good songs from this record being that its catchy, its snappy and its snarky making for a perfect summer record, its impossible to escape the blatant familiarity it bears to Kendrick’s “squabble up”.
What I learnt from this project is I don’t particularly like it when Drake sings. It’s never been enjoyable to watch someone imitate the singing of a person who actually has the capability to sing, attempting to hit the right notes and all that. It’s never been a pretty sight in everyday life and it sure isn’t when Drake does it too. I don’t mind when he sings to his best ability because it sounds natural and authentic, his voice is not terrible when he does that but despite all of that he is not a singer.
So it’s off-putting when he gives us a whole record where for a good portion he’s doing something he’s not particularly good at. And ruining some songs by trying to sing like he’s Brent Faiyaz or something. Drake seemingly has this terrible habit of turning songs with a good start into something you don’t listen to all the way to the end. On ‘Her Loss’ he did it with “Hours In Silence”, and on this project its evident on “Moth Balls” and “Crying in Chanel“. For the most part “Crying in Chanel” is a good song, till Drake decides to go extra on the vocals.
Its unfortunate to have to say, some songs on this record should have never been recorded, let alone released into the world. “Meet your Padre” sounds incredibly misplaced and distasteful, there’s absolutely nothing enjoyable about the song. Drake’s verses are super cringe to listen to perhaps because the lack of authencity in his voice is too apparent and blatant, and even though Party’s verse on this song gives it a nicer and tolerable finish, the song in itself already had a poor start thanks to the Champagne Papi, it should have never made the album. Or, he should have changed the whole concept of the song, and let Party’s raspy and hoarse vocals ride it.
One could easily argue that the tracklist could have been better, and perhaps this is because of the assortment issue. The good songs on this record either start out good and lose you somewhere in the middle to the end, or have a terrible start and a better finish. Either way, it means there’s a discouraging limit to the number of good songs on this project, but perhaps when you add all the halves together you get a whole number, unfortunately its just not wholesome still. Something about you, has a good start, and a nice finish but something about how drake sings that something about you part is off putting, that part could have been removed from the song, and we wouldn’t miss a damn thing.
Perhaps Drake should have let Party take the lead creatively and conceptually on this record. Part of the reason why Drake has managed to be so popular beyond the hip hop world is due to his ability to tip toe the boundaries of genres, borrowing from different sounds, with his heart on his sleeve portraying an array of soft emotions that make his music somewhat relatable, but on this record he should have allowed PartyNextDoor to contribute more not just vocally but largely conceptually especially considering the type of record he was attempting to make.
All the necessary ingredients were already there; great sonic production, great vocals from Party and that authentic underground Toronto-Caribbean RnB vibe once again from PartyNextDoor that inadvertently was going to make this a one of one project. And perhaps if Drake didn’t have so much of that main character energy, this would have been a fusion of hip hop and RnB like we haven’t seen before. Perhaps if he had treated Party the same way he did The Weeknd, this could’ve been as groundbreaking as Take Care was.
But unfortunately this isn’t 2016 anymore, and whatever originality Party had back then when he stepped onto the scene that made him different with singles like “Come and see me”, and “NOT NICE” took a backseat as Rihanna and Drake’s “Work” overtook the charts.
