For All The Dogs Review: The Dog Days Are Over As Quickly As They Began

For All The Dogs Review: The Dog Days Are Over As Quickly As They Began

By Dylan Barbee



Image provided by @champagnepapi on Instagram 

Release Date: October 6, 2023

Through the 2010s, Drake was known as “The Boy.” The Canadian rapper was Lil Wayne’s successor in his 20s whose music put Toronto, Canada on the map through his early albums that were filled with clever lyricism, melancholic messages and his genius infusion of rap and R&B sounds. 

However, the times have changed and Drake is not a boy anymore but a 36-year-old father who is at the top of the music industry. He has dropped four projects in the past three years compared to his veteran peers, J Cole and Kendrick Lamar, who only drop once every 5 years or so. Now I’m not saying that is a bad thing. Drake’s past couple of albums like Certified Lover Boy, Honestly Nevermind, and Her Loss have aged well despite many fans not favoring them at first. Personally, I liked them all on the first listen. But For All the Dogs was different when it came to my first couple of listens. 

The streaming titan’s recent release falls short stylistically compared to his past albums and feels like Drake’s ambition was running on an empty tank that desperately needed to be refilled. That being said, there are still some songs that will go down as classics in Drake’s discography on this project. 

Despite For All The Dogs being marketed as an album that will have “the old Drake'' in the artist’s published poetry book earlier this year, it consists of 23 songs that play across a one hour and 25-minute runtime that contains little to no sparks of nostalgia when it comes to Drake’s old self. This marketing strategy, as well as Drake filling his concert setlists with his older songs from albums like Take Care and If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, just seemed like a tactic to get people more excited for the release of the album while on his “It’s All A Blur” tour. I’m fine if the project has no old Drake on it because, to be honest, neither did Her Loss but by marketing this album as one filled with the old him, Drake set up an expectation that was never fulfilled.

Speaking of Drake’s tour, the quality of the album makes it very evident that he made this on the road. For All the Dogs feels very rushed and includes features like 21 Savage, Sexyy Red, and Lil Yachty, who had all made concert appearances on Drake’s tour. For All the Dogs is an incohesive album with little to no vision in terms of its surface level and petty message of praying on your ex’s downfall and praising the “dogs." 

The album immediately piques listeners’ interests though with a Frank Ocean sample that plays throughout the intro track “Virginia Beach.” Over the Ocean sample, Drake raps about an ex who asked if he could have treated her better to which Drake says no to in a petty fashion. “Virginia Beach” is a solid song but ranks very low compared to Drake’s previous intro tracks within his discography. 

Compared to other artists trying to keep up with the times, I feel like Drake does a great job experimenting with the sounds of the new generation of hip-hop. For example, on the BNYX-produced song “IDGAF,'' Drake does a solid job at adjusting his delivery style for a short 45 seconds on the Yeat featured song. It might as well have been a Yeat song considering how much the rising star contributed to the song compared to Drake. However, there are instances throughout For All The Dogs that fall short when it comes to the Canadian artist implementing himself into trendy sounds. On songs like “Fear of Heights” and “Daylight,” Drake can’t quite encapsulate the intensity of the rage rap genre compared to how artists like Playboi Carti can. It just seems like Drake has no passion when it comes to experimenting and implementing himself in the current sounds of hip-hop. It sounds like he feels forced to make these kinds of songs just to be talked about by young listeners rather than carving his own lane in the musical industry as he did during the 2010s.

When it comes to working with artists, Drake is somewhat able to match the quality of his features. Despite “Calling for You” sounding like a throwaway song from 21 Savage and Drake’s 2022 collab album Her Loss, it was still a great listen with great individual performances from both artists. It was just hard to get past that long dialogue that dragged out in the middle of the song where a woman is complaining about not flying in first class and eating the same oxtail and jerk chicken meal while on vacation. “Rich Baby Daddy” was an entertaining listen that featured both SZA and Sexyy Red over a vibrant and dance-worthy hypnotic beat. “Members Only” was the only time I felt some remnants of old Drake, primarily because it’s been since Views that we’ve heard PARTYNEXTDOOR on a Drake album. And of course, I can’t forget about the memorable song “First Person Shooter.” Two of hip-hop’s living legends, Drake and J Cole, go back and forth trading bars with one another making it an entertaining listen. The best feature on this project was definitely Teezo Touchdown with his beautifully melodic chorus on “Amen” which is a gospel rap song where Drake talks about the luxurious things he would surround a lover with if they were together. “And you my baby so I gotta put you in a crib, Same neighborhood where Ashton Kutcher lives,” Drake raps. 

There are a lot of career lows for Drake as an artist on For All The Dogs, with plenty of lyrics that may cause listeners to scratch their heads and some songs that feel dragged out and uninspired. “They say love is like a BBL, you won’t know if it’s real until you feel one,” Drake sings on BBL Love (Interlude). Despite bars like these being comedic and well-performed, they’re just pointless and questionable. Drake’s son Adonis even has a verse at the end of “Daylight” which just makes it seem like Drake is all for his music becoming meme-worthy on the internet. On “Gently” featuring Bad Bunny, Drake awkwardly speaks Spanglish at the beginning of the song making it an underwhelming sequel to their 2018 collab “MIA.” Luckily, on “Gently” the upbeat Latin production scheme allows Bad Bunny to flourish. Other songs like “Away from Home” and “7969 Santa” at times feel dragged out and will probably take a while to grow on me. 

Despite For All the Dogs being filled with a lack of creativity at times, there are still plenty of moments where Drake reinforces himself as one of the best rappers to touch a microphone. The fact that Drake was able to perform one of his best lyrical performances yet on a Conductor William’s beat on “8am in Charlotte” proves that Drake can successfully broaden to the mainstream music scene the underground styles that Griselda has created. “8am in Charlotte” is one of Drake’s greatest achievements yet when it comes to trying to adapt to unfamiliar styles within his own music. 

I feel like the second half of the album is where Drake provides more emotionally vulnerable tracks through melodic rapping and diverse production choices. This is the obvious highlight of For All the Dogs. Songs like “Bahamas Promises,” “Polar Opposites,” and “Tried Our Best,” have a raw vibe to them as Drake vents passionately about failed situationships. Undoubtedly, the best song on For All The Dogs is “Drew a Picasso” where Drake provides a catchy flow in the verses begging for an ex to come back to him after seeing her with her new man. The futuristic late-night drive production theme is addicting as it contains hi-hats that allow Drake to break out into impressive flows throughout the track. “Steez sayin’ that you miss me and I won’t say it to you, but I miss you more, Said we got each other back and then you put the knife in it like the kitchen drawer,” Drake raps on “Drew a Picasso."

Although For All The Dogs was bound to have its highlights considering the fact that it is a Drake album, I still feel that Drake’s creative choices on this project lacked ambition. From the false marketing of the album to the dragged-out songs with at times lazy lyrics, this isn’t the “old Drake.” It’s not even the same Drake we heard a year ago on Her Loss. Drake seems to be confused about which audiences he wants to appeal to on this project, which is why I think it is messy and fails to create any sort of consistent storyline despite the few underdeveloped concepts of “BARK Radio” through audio snippets at the end of a few songs. At times it seems like some of these songs are leftovers from Certified Lover Boy and Her Loss or were really rushed through while the artist was on his summer tour. 

I do respect Drake’s willingness to try new things when it comes to his music like making rage rap songs or placing himself on a Yeat song. However, Drake is at his best when he is Drake. For All The Dogs is one of Drake’s weakest releases in his discography. Regardless of this, even when Drake underperforms he still provides songs that listeners will add to their playlists. If the soon-to-be 37-year-old rapper feels like he has finally burnt out after his four-album run in the past three years, I think he deserves a break away from the music. This will give Drake time to rediscover himself as an artist and deliver a well-thought-out and cohesive concept album. But who knows, maybe this album will grow on me more in the next coming months. Drake tends to have that effect on listeners who revisit his music. 

Rating: 7.2/10