Drake & 21 Savage — Her Loss — Album Review
Hip Hop | Rap
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
Drake is not only notoriously clowned as arguably the least intimidating rap artist of our time, but he is also one that I don’t tend to review very often. Why? I’m can say for sure. However, I felt that his latest collaboration with 21 Savage, an artist I have only enjoyed through feature, up to this point, provided the perfect opportunity for me to get up to speed with both of their styles.
To go a bit more in-depth, Drake was the kind of artist that I actually enjoyed back in his early days. I still remember the Canadian Rapper’s track “Find Your Love” as one of the songs I kept on my IPod Touch as a kid, but as his popularity skyrocketed in the 2010s, his music tended to sound more and more samey. While I do recall reviewing (or at least, nearly reviewing) Scorpion, Drake’s 2018 studio album, I haven’t really touched any of his other material.
As for 21 Savage, I do actually quite enjoy his aesthetic and rap style. However, I never really had chance to sit down and dive into a project of his own. Instead, I’ve only known about his style from the plentiful feature appearances across the hip-hop, rap & RnB catalogue.
This brand new album, titled Her Loss is just as much 21 Savages as it is Drakes (though some of the tracks on here only have Drake involved, and a single track only has 21 involved). Therefore, it’s a 2-for-1 package when it comes to properly diving into the talents of both artists.
This album clearly considers both aesthetics of each artist, and does a pretty admirable job of gluing the two together. One might think of Drake and 21 Savage as a very unlikely duo (I mean, with the grit of 21 Savage, and prim-and-properness of Drake, it’s a polarising combination on paper). However, Her Loss somehow manages to make this work pretty well.
The narrative, and overall flow of the album, I feel was primarily Drakes doing. With the focal theme centring around “hoes” (while the album does cover other focal points, this seems to be the main one). And while this kind of theme would normally shallow out an album, it instead adds the goofiness and character necessary to not take this album too seriously. Thus, I ended up enjoying this album all the more for it.
Which brings me to the next aspect of the album; the aesthetic. The majority of this is more tailored to 21 Savages rap style, and Her Loss is all the better for it. While 21’s lyrics, for the most part, feel perfectly natural on an album like this, it often brings out the best kind of Drake flows as well (one of the case-and-points being the addictive Drake bars on the later half of “Rich Flex”, the opening track).
With all of my praise so far, however, Her Loss isn’t a particularly phenomenal album either. Looking back on the tracklist as I write this review, there is quite a chunk that I had deleted, particularly in the later half of the album. This could’ve been for one reason or another (or perhaps a combination of the two.
The former reason why would be, as the album treads on, it gradually reverted back to the more commercial, Drake type of album (I mean, we have two songs in a row where 21 Savage doesn’t even appear, in the form of “Middle of the Ocean” and “Jumbotron Shit Poppin”).
The latter reason would be that the later tracks, instead of accommodating either of the artist’s styles, just feel like the most bog-standard rap songs in existence. “Jumbotron Shit Poppin” appears again as another culprit, for essentially sounding like Drake trying to channel his inner Playboi Carti, and failing miserably.
So the burning question still stands; how do I really feel about Her Loss? Well, the most honest answer would be that it is neither really bad or really good. Instead, it meets somewhere in the middle. However, there were truly some gems that did pleasnatly surprise me. I only wish there were more of them, considering the long-winding runtime of this album.
Favourite Tracks: Rich Flex | On BS | Privileged Rappers
Least Favourite Tracks: Hours in Silence | Jumbotron Shit Poppin
OVO | Republic Records | UMG Recordings
