One of the most popular music creators of this generation just released a new album and although many listened to it out of interest, it wasn’t necessarily the best album Drake has ever made. For all the Dogs, the eighth studio album recorded by Canadian rapper Drake, was released on October 6, 2023 and had over 109 million streams on the first day of its release.. Even though it was extremely popular, doesn’t mean it was the most liked album as many thought songs were “too slow” or not like the “old Drake”. My personal experience with this album went in a different path to these claims as I thought many of the songs were upbeat and had a great rhythm. My favorite song on the album is “Calling for You” which features a very well known rapper, 21 Savage.
The album features 22 tracks which is very common for a modern day rap album. A special thing about this album was the features that it had on a few of the songs. Eight of the songs on the album had features from some of the most popular artists in this modern day. I personally think this added to the album and gave a lot more energy to the songs. Especially one song “IDGAF” which features arguably the fastest growing rapper at the time and it gives a lot of exciting energy to the song. To compare these features to some previous features like 21 Savage on Drake’s 2022 album, Her Loss. And some other artists like Travis Scott and Lil Yachty that were in previous albums like certified lover boy which is Drake’s most streamed album ever. Overall the features of this album weren’t as good as the past which adds to why a lot of listeners disliked the vibe they got from the album.
There were many positives however, one of the things I really liked about the album was the switch in flow from song to song.It seemed to me that some songs like “”Daylight” and “IDGAF” had a lot of energy and were very upbeat, while some other songs like “Calling For You” and “Virginia Beach” were less exciting than these two.
This switch in flow added a lot of texture and made the album more fun to listen to. A lot of fans agreed and they also noted the change between beats was what made the album unique to Drake and the way he produces his music.
After having some questionable albums with Honestly Nevermind and Scorpion Drake was able to have a couple bounce back albums with his most recent two. An awesome positive point of the album was Drake’s ability to switch between a melodic flow and a straight rapping side. This gave a lot of added suspense during the first listen of all of the songs in order, which is how I listened to it.
The last positive about this album is the fact that Drake includes up and coming artists and uses them as features on a big time album. This gave a different mood to the overall album because some of his other past albums like “More life” and “Take Care” had minimal features and it seemed like the album started to fade out as it got to the end. Overall “For all the Dogs” had a lot of things to be happy about but that didn’t necessarily subside the negatives that people had about this different style creation by Drake.
They’re were a lot of negatives that people had about the album. One of the negatives first would be the modernized nature of this album because most people would have rather preferred an album with Drake’s older style compared to this new style. The main reason most people disliked this album was mostly because it had no real storyline or plot to it. This made the album really different to listen to and in my personal experience it didn’t give the album any added meaning because the songs had no story to go along with them. To conclude the negatives was just the style of the music that had features. A lot of people enjoyed the year feature but many didn’t like the other features that the album presented and it felt like that took away from the “old drake ” vibe that listeners love.
Overall, in my opinion I would rate this album at a 6/10 because I thought it was pretty solid. Most people though would probably rate it lower than this just because they believe it wasn’t as good as some of Drake’s most prevalent albums from past years. Most consumers would agree with me on the positives and negatives of the album but to leave you with one final thought, it would just be about how Drake is going to be able to follow this. Because two years ago he had a decline with his album Honestly Nevermind and then followed well with her loss. So it will be very interesting to see how the celebrity can respond to just an okay album.
