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“I know it’s summertime, I gotta give you shit,” Drake told a throng of Chicago concertgoers at the opening stop of his It’s All a Blur Tour with 21 Savage. “I don’t know about these guys that go away for three, four, five years, [and] wanna chill out and all that shit. That’s not me,” he added before plugging his upcoming For All the Dogs album, which he first revealed via QR code in newspaper ads announcing his already-polarizing poetry book.
The blogosphere framed the comments as a shot at rival Kendrick Lamar. But they’re also a rare insight into Drake’s artistic psyche. The megastar doesn’t do interviews (unless they’re highly choreographed, like the faux-Vogue and Howard Stern interviews with 21 Savage last year), so fans haven’t heard any rationale for Drake’s recent bevy of releases. There was his sixth solo album, Certified Lover Boy, released in September 2021. He followed that up with his electronic foray Honestly Nevermind in June 2022, and tripled back with Her Loss, a collaborative album with 21 Savage, in November of the same year. And now, the release of For All the Dogs is imminent. There’s also been talk of a What a Time to Be Alive 2, with Future. Drake could easily retire today with a solidified legacy, but he’s been grinding like a new artist.
Maybe it’s a consequence of life as a Young Money alumnus. If he calls his big homie Lil Wayne, the New Orleans rapper will probably tell him he’s in the studio, on the way to the studio, or coming home from the studio. Wayne’s work ethic rubbed off on Drake, who rapped on the 2018 More Life cut “Free Smoke” about a pre-stardom apprenticeship where “I had some different priorities; Weezy had all the authority.” Part of Weezy’s edict during his formative years was undoubtedly a mandate to work as hard as he did when he vaulted himself to music superstardom with a relentless pace of mixtapes, feature verses, and albums. As Wayne told Rolling Stone last month, he’s still in the studio every single day. His work ethic shaped a paradigm for Drake to outpace many of his generational peers release-wise.
