On Nov. 6, Drake had the world on notice after dropping “Her Loss,” his highly anticipated collaborative album with Atlanta’s 21 Savage.
And I mean the world.
In 2018, Drake became the most streamed artist in Spotify history, and in August of 2022 proved that he had “more slaps than the Beatles,” shattering the Fab Four’s record of most top five hits on Billboard Hot 100. In just two months, “Her Loss” eclipsed one billion streams, further cementing him as one of the most prolific hitmakers of our time. He is a global icon, but with great influence comes great responsibility for both his art and actions.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge Drake fan. Even when he became a punchline for the entire Hip Hop industry for being “corny” or “soft,” I was always there to support and advocate for Champagne Papi. He cared about the women he was with, always tried to squash beef with other rappers, and regularly opened up about the sorrows of heartbreak in his music. Drake’s sensitivity set him apart from his far more vulgar peers and made him easy to root for.
I clearly wasn’t alone in this feeling. Year after year, Drake gained popularity. He started expanding his music, leading the rap industry into new genres. I still feel like he is one of the main reasons why rappers singing in their tracks became more acceptable. Now, even serious rappers with traditional styles are singing their hearts out (listen to YG’s Toxic for reference). While I was expecting more of Drake’s sensitive persona on his latest project, I was instead greeted by a striking level of immaturity for a veteran rapper approaching 40. I realized that the Drake presented on this album was not the Drake we had seen over the last decade.
It all starts with the album’s cover, which is a closeup of a black woman’s face. There’s nothing overtly wrong with her appearance, but she definitely does not have a supermodel look. Her hairstyle is messy, she has a bandage on her face, and there’s a noticeable gap in her teeth. This image comes off as comically messy, and in relation to the title of the album, it is clear that the joke is on her, and anyone she resembles. Throughout the album, Drake comes for women, specifically black women, with a vengeance.
On the album’s ninth track, “Circo Loco”, Drake takes jabs at Megan Thee Stallion, rapping “This bitch lie ‘bout gettin’ shots, but she still a stallion.” The phrase “gettin’ shots” simultaneously insinuates that Megan’s body is the result of a BBL despite her continuously expressing that her body is “natural” and accuses her of lying about being assaulted by rapper Tory Lanez. In another verse of the same song, Drake speaks on Megan’s newly earned college degree. In it he invalidates her achievement and questions her intelligence, implying that even with an education, she still “ain’t learn enough”. His words are an unprovoked and unwarranted put-down of the Houston-born rapper.
Megan fired back at Drake’s verses on Twitter, demanding him to, “Stop using my shooting for clout.” She adds that rappers like Drake are “ready to boycott bout shoes and clothes but dog pile on a Black woman when she say one of y’all homeboys abused her.” Thee Stallion brings up an excellent point: rappers have historically devalued and demeaned black women, in and out of the industry, a sentiment she even expresses in her music. It had seemed for a while that Drake was outside of this group, but Her Loss shows a different side of him. Megan has repeatedly opened up about Lanez’s abuse, even providing photo evidence of her stitches from the gunshot wound she sustained. For someone like Drake to inflict doubt on the validity of Megan’s experience, especially at a time when she was pressing charges against Lanez, is almost too much of a coincidence to call it such. And now that Lanez has been found guilty, his slander feels even more unnecessary and hurtful. And, as I have said many times before, Drake has an international reach. So, he is internationally calling Megan Thee Stallion a liar, internationally invaliding her trauma, and internationally speaking on her body.
But he didn’t stop with the Hot Girl Coach. His next target is yet another successful black woman: Serena Williams. Back in 2015, Drake and Serena were rumored to be an item due to alleged photos of them kissing surfacing, but their romance seemed to have fizzed out soon after when both stars began relationships with other people. Even in 2020, the tennis star and rapper still seemed to be cordial with each other, and Williams even offered him advice over his short-lived feud with rapper Meek Mill. And why wouldn’t they be cordial with one another? Both Drake and Williams have gone on to excel in their respective fields and have even become parents. There is no reason for Drake to throw shots at her unless Adonis and Alexis Jr. are on rival junior basketball teams … but, that is exactly what he does.
Drake decides to be more blunt than he was with Megan, calling out Serena by name and taking a jab by demeaning her husband Alexis Ohanian. In the track “Middle of the Ocean,” Drake says, “Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie / He claim we don’t got a problem but / No, boo, it is like you comin’ for sushi” about six-time Wimbledon winner and the Reddit co-founder. Unless there’s a personal situation that the public doesn’t know about, there is virtually no reason to disrespect Serena and her husband in this way. It is yet another unnecessary quip projected on a global scale.
The pattern of putting down black women like Megan Thee Stallion and Serena Williams, and even the subject of the album cover personally offends me as a black woman. I also feel somewhat betrayed. How is the same man who congratulated women going to college on “Make Me Proud” in 2011, calling Megan Thee Stallion dumb after she worked hard to get her degree? How could the guy who thinks so little of black women, or really just women in general, make a political stance against the overturning of Roe v Wade on the same album? I am enraged by the way he is speaking about women who look like me, and yes, I do take what he says personally. All in all, I guess Drake was right about one thing. He can say, “Her Loss” to me for his album because I will no longer be supporting an artist who wants the world to know that people like me are all stupid and superficial.
Featured graphic by Emma Chang
