When Drake isn’t making six-leg parlays or DMing Kick streamers, I like to think he just spends his time in his Canadian mansion digging through YouTube’s hip-hop archives and passing around SoundCloud links with Chubbs and OB Obrien. (Sidenote: I don’t think I’ve seen proof of OB Obrien’s existence in at least three years, I’m gonna head up to the 6 and go on a frantic search for him like Jack Lemmon looking for his son in Missing.) There’s a lot to comb through and discuss on his new Parker-style revenge trilogy—Iceman, Habibti, Maid of Honour—but one of my takeaways is that he’s still an untraditional sort of rap nerd, willing to engage with sounds that don’t get a ton of respect.
For instance, “Rusty Intro,” off Habibti, is an Auto-Tuned acoustic guitar ballad that on the surface might seem like it was born out of Drake’s beer-swigging hangouts with Morgan Wallen, though it actually feels like his take on the heartbroken blues of stripped-down pain rap ballads like NoCap’s “Drown in My Styrofoam” and Rod Wave’s “Chip on My Shoulder.” (To be fair, Morgan basically makes pain rap himself, just with Nashville marketing.) I like the idea of it more than the way it actually sounds. Drake’s writing is too vague to match the urgency of either of those sadboy classics, though it does get at the central idea of his modern music: “How would they describe me as a man?” His obsession with the way his masculinity is framed is what seems to drive him the most these days—especially the way he moved in his beef with Kendrick—and also why he’s turned into the least compelling version of himself. Coming to his rescue on “Rusty Intro,” though, is Florida fast music specialist DJ Frisco954, who straps a rocket to the second half of the track. It’s a trip to see such a hyperregional sound arrive in the mainstream consciousness. Only a true head would know that the best way to listen to pain rap is fast, but making a good song is more than just knowing ball.
