After losing a historic rap battle against Kendrick Lamar, Drake lost a significant amount of support. A week after Kendrick’s five Grammy victories for his Drake diss track, “Not Like Us,” he performed it for the entire country at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show.
Trying to bounce back from this defeat is no easy feat, but Drake was up for the challenge with his first project since 2023, “$ome $exy $ongs 4 U,” a collaborative R&B album with fellow Toronto artist PARTYNEXTDOOR.
I had extremely low expectations for "$ome $exy $ongs 4 U," considering Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR’s collaborative tracks in the past, such as “Members Only” and “Preach,” have usually been some of my least favorite songs on their respective albums.
Admittedly, while I don’t have much experience with PARTYNEXTDOOR’s solo catalog, the handful of songs that I had heard from him before this album have always failed to interest me.
Somehow, this album fell short of my low expectations. “$ome $exy $ongs 4 U” is a boring, sleepy, and lifeless R&B project and maybe even Drake's worst project to date. The beats are unbelievably forgettable, the vocals are drowned in horrible autotune, and Drake’s lyrics are frankly embarrassing for a man pushing 40 years old.
There are hardly any redeemable qualities in this album. People who find joy in “$ome $exy $ongs 4 U” are either hardcore Drake fans who will call any music from Drake—regardless of the quality—a “classic,” or they have never listened to R&B in their life.
I beg anyone who enjoys this album to listen to real R&B, like The Weeknd’s “Trilogy” or Daniel Caesar's “Freudian,” as they will find a shocking difference in quality.
Even with all the terrible aspects of this project, the worst part of this album is the length. There is no need for 21 tracks, especially when the majority of them sound the exact same. The album goes on for one hour and 13 minutes, leaving plenty of time for the listener to fall asleep to the immensely tedious songs.
While I wouldn’t say there are any good songs on "$ome $exy $ongs 4 U,” “NOKIA” is the only decent exception. The beat has personality and energy, and the Nokia ringtone sample within the instrumental is quite entertaining. It’s no surprise that this track is the biggest commercial hit on the album.
Two other tracks worth mentioning are “DIE TRYING” and “GIMME A HUG,” both receiving a lot of attention. “DIE TRYING” is a laughably lazy attempt at an acoustic pop hit. While I appreciate the risk, the execution is absolutely awful, as the melodies are uninteresting and the singing is horrendous.
“GIMME A HUG” is better than “DIE TRYING,” but by no means is it a good song, as it sounds like the most generic Drake rap song to ever exist. Although it stands out because it is one of two songs on "$ome $exy $ongs 4 U” with any form of energy whatsoever, this track would leave zero impact if it were placed on any other Drake album (besides “Honestly, Nevermind”).
Lyrically, “GIMME A HUG” is embarrassing. It captures Drake praising himself with lines like “Drizzy, you amazin’, you the inspiration.” Additionally, it completely ignores his loss in the rap battle against Kendrick Lamar by saying he doesn't care about the beef and is just “tryna get the party lit.”
Moving on from the beef is one thing, but saying it doesn’t matter because you want to “get the party lit” is another thing. Drake is just completely ignoring the fact that he lost, attempting to move on in the corniest way possible, showing zero maturity. This line sounds like something a middle schooler would say.
As if this disaster of an album couldn’t get any worse, Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR released maybe the worst song of both of their respective careers, “MEET YOUR PADRE.” Not only is the singing from these two horrendous and overdone with ridiculous autotune, but the fake Spanish accent Drake attempts on this song is straight-up offensive. This song is so bad that I genuinely had trouble making it to the end of the track.
“This might be the worst song I’ve ever heard,” junior Drew Lufrano said. “I wish I never heard this garbage. What was [Drake] thinking?”
The other 17 songs not mentioned are the musical equivalent of watching paint dry for an hour. There are no standout melodies, no interesting instrumentals, and no impressive vocal performances. Actually, I think I’d rather watch paint dry than listen to this snoozefest of an album again.
Junior Nate Axelrod was also appalled by the music he heard on "$ome $exy $ongs 4 U,” claiming this project is “nowhere near [Drake’s] best work,” and is “some of the worst music [he’s] heard in a while, especially following a high profile rap beef.”
Contrasting Nate’s opinion on this project, junior Josh Tseitlin said he believes that this album “will be album of the year … loved the whole thing.” However, Josh is also a hardcore Drake fan, so his opinion may be a little biased.
Losing the beef to Kendrick Lamar seems to have significantly affected Drake’s ability to make good music. Less than three years ago, Drake proved that he could make catchy hits and memorable songs through his collaborative album with 21 Savage, “Her Loss.” Those days of Drake feel like ages ago now.
While technically this is not just a Drake album, PARTYNEXTDOOR’s presence on most tracks feels more like a feature on a Drake song than it does a balanced collaborative effort. However, hearing more of PARTYNEXTDOOR wouldn’t really make a difference in this album's quality, as both of their performances are equally bad.
"$ome $exy $ongs 4 U” is a disgrace to the R&B genre. I hope these two never team up to make a sequel.
