Review: Drake’s “Scorpion” Album is Some of His Best Work

Drake’s recent, Billboard-topping three-album release inspired us to spin the block on a classic

Drake’s “Scorpion” Album, released on June 29, 2018, is the perfect album that encompasses emotion and rap in one album. This is Drake’s fifth studio album by Cash Money Records, Republic Records and Young Money Entertainment. Scorpion is a double album, which means there are two discs, consisting of 25 tracks. The first disc is mainly hip-hop, while the second disc is more R&B and pop. It was executively produced by Drake alongside his manager Oliver El-Khatib. Scorpion has features from Jay-Z and Ty Dolla Sign, as well as posthumous appearances from Michael Jackson and Static Major.

The first disc starts off with songs Survival and Nonstop, where both tracks went viral for their beats. Skipping a couple songs, the best song off of Side A (Disc 1), would be Talk Up featuring Jay-Z and Is There More. While Side A is great, Side B is unmatched. Starting off strong, one of Drake’s best songs Peak hits listeners with emotion and a display of love. Drake is talking about a woman who piqued his interest from the first time they met, but later on disappointed him with the way she behaved. The song unravels how when she revealed her true self, it was a huge disappointment to Drake, who sounded like he was in love with said girl. “That’s just a view from a cheap seat. Girl that never could be me. I found my peace, I’m about to say my peace, you might not agree with me,” Drake recites. Then follows said line with, “You gon make me turn up on you.” I believe this song is about someone showing you one version of themselves, showing another, and you being so in disbelief about this true version of themselves.

Next song, another hit. Summer Games is about a short-lived love, that was one of his greatest loves. “You said ‘I love you’ too fast, so much for that, cause summer just started and we're already done,” Drake repeats. I think the reason why this song is so great is because of how real it is. A lot of people meet someone and truly believe they are in love but as time goes on, it reveals to itself that they are not, and things end quicker than they think. Now if you are listening to these two songs and think they are great, Jaded will take you away. It is a slow R&B tune, where Drake is expressing how he wants to be around for this girl at all times, but she only wants him for reasons that don’t serve him at all. “Yes I’m hurting, yes I’m jaded,” Drake repeats and follows up with, “You played me, you played me you played me low down dirty shameful crazy.” As the chorus goes on, you can truly hear how sad Drake is. In his tone, the lyrics, the follow up, the adlibs, everything about this song makes it perfect.

Nice For What, Finesse and Ratchet Happy Birthday went double platinum in almost every public space, and while they’re not my favorite they are still great songs. Skipping the next few songs, we got his song with Michael Jackson. Don’t Matter To Me, is definitely in the top five songs on this 25-song album. This song has all adlibs by Michael Jackson where he is singing high-pitched notes, when Drake is singing in his regular toned voice saying, “I can’t recover from our last conversation, you called me weak and you tested my manhood as we yelled at each other.” This song adds to the ambience and overall disappointment Drake is expressing in this album.

You notice this even heavier in the last two songs, Final Fantasy and March 14. Final Fantasy has two sides to it, one rap and after a minute and a half switches to R&B. “You got options but I’ve been chosen, to deal with you when you like the way you like it,” Drake repeats twice. The R&B verse is the same few lines over and over again, but because it is so slow it feels a lot longer. Drake does a great job of showing emotion in his songs as soon as the beats slow down, which is what he does again with the final track of Scorpion, March 14. Personally, this is my favorite song on the album. This song is half rap, half R&B and it starts off with Drake talking about how he lived up to everything he was trying to avoid everything he had as a kid. Drake is talking about how he was born into a household where his parents were separated and he questioned who loved him more, his mom or dad. It was a difficult time for him growing up as he keeps saying, and he goes on to say that he unintentionally did the same thing to his son, Adonis. Drake had a son with a former pornstar, now artist/painter Sophie Brussaux, and named him Adonis Graham.

Drake was disappointed with the way he had his son because he wasn’t in love with his son’s mother, and says in the song, “We only met two times, two times,” to express his feelings. He follows up with how he doesn’t want his son to feel the feelings he felt; wondering which parent loves him more or who did what to whom. The rap portion is deep but even when it switches to the R&B part, Drake continues on saying, “No one to cry on, I’m all alone, No one to guide me,” which adds onto how he feels like he made a mistake because knowledge was missing. This message can be related to anyone who feels like they have made mistakes and didn’t have the right guidance. This whole album and its lyricism can be related to anyone who listens closely, and this is some of Drake’s best work. It can be played in an upbeat or down mood, and understood by most. Drake writes a lot of his own music, and this is the best testament to that.