Can Drake redeem himself with “Her Loss” featuring 21 Savage?
“21, can you do something for me?” This past Friday, November 4th, Drake and 21 Savage dropped their collab album “Her Loss”
In the past 2 years, Drake has dropped three albums, two this year. Certified Lover Boy was released in the summer of 2021 and fans were not impressed; in an attempt to redeem himself Drake dropped a surprise dance/house album titled, Honestly, Nevermind, and fans were even more displeased and confused with the drop. One outlier in the tracklist was“Jimmy Cooks”, which had the trap sound that fans were used to and featured iconic rapper 21 Savage. After Her Loss was announced, fans speculated that Honestly, Nevermind was a precursor to their collaborative album, which may not be far from the truth.
Opening strong with “Rich Flex”, Drake and 21 Savage trade verses before a sudden beat drop near the middle of the song, that gave it new life. Similar to the previous track, “Major Distribution” also goes through a vastly different beat switch to a high-energy sound after a somber introduction by Drake. Heading back to the original sound, Drake and 21 both have their own opportunities to flex their status on listeners during “On BS” and “BackOutsideBoyz”, and going off on rappers who have become lazy since signing label deals on “Privileged Rappers”. Five tracks in, and Drake and 21 are yet to miss.
Fading away from the trap sound for a moment, 21 Savage opens the track “Spin Bout U” out of his comfort zone, rapping over a laid-back beat, but nonetheless still sounds good. “My album is paying the bills, I don’t even need a deluxe.” Keeping with the vibey/melodic sound, Drake and 21 subtly brag on “Hours in Silence,” using all 6 minutes and 39 seconds to solidify that they are two of the best in the game as of now.
In my opinion, after a strong seven track run, “Treacherous Twins” is the first miss from Her loss. Drake’s opening verse and chorus are just alright, and when the beat fades and picks back up with 21 Savage’s verse I believe it was cut too short.
However, Drake and 21 Savage go back to back with some of the highest quality tracks from the album directly following “Treacherous Twins’ effectively making up for the miss. In “Circo Loco” the interpolation of Daft Punk’s “One More Time” added a cool chorus to a song that had already provided great energy on the verses, and as the only feature, Travis Scott had one of the best verses out of everyone on the track “P**** and Millions.”
Aside from tracks like “More M’s” and “Middle of the Ocean”, I believe there wasn’t anything that should be considered too groundbreaking in the latter part of the album. But even if you take this into account the album was still a solid listen from front to back. Her loss has been Drake’s best work since 2017 with More Life mainly because of 21 Savage’s appearances. He complimented Drake well, and if anything he could have been utilized more. Overall, I enjoyed this album a lot, and it is definitely in the running for album of the year alongside Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd.
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The opinions stated in this article do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of the Wingspan staff as a whole.
