Earlier this week, Drake challenged all the rappers out there on his since-expired Instagram Story. “Dropping the instrumentals this week,” he wrote (as captured by Complex). “I wanna hear who’s barring up.”
Like he did during his It’s All A Blur Tour, Drake made this into a scavenger hunt his aforementioned website. Click on the area pointing toward the door of the animated mansion, which will take you into the “Studio.” Once inside, a version of the For All The Dogs Scary Hours Edition album art is floating above the couch. Click it, and the instrumentals for “The Shoe Fits” will automatically download (for free).
The “El Chico Studio” is where you’ll find “Wick Man” instrumentals. “Red Button” is hidden in “The Lounge,” and “Stories About My Brother” is up in “Bedroom.” We won’t spoil all the fun. Go ahead and try to locate “Evil Ways” featuring J. Cole and “You Broke My Heart” on your own.
Earlier this month, 21 Savage took off on his first-ever European tour. It came after a long battle to gain his citizenship in the United States so that he was even able to leave the country without running the risk of being denied entry when he returned. He was famously arrested by ICE a few years ago which came as a shock to many fans who had no idea he wasn’t originally born in the United States.
Now his first tour across Europe is finally on the way. He began the trek with a debut show in Paris that received rave reviews from fans hyped for his first performance in the city. Now as he’s made a number of other stop across Europe videos of hyped-up crowds at his performances are circulating online. In videos fans have shared entire stadiums turn up to songs like “Rick Flex” and “Bank Account.” The videos are making the rounds online as fans can’t believe how excited the crowds are getting for 21. Check out some of the videos below.
Last year, 21 Savage released a high-profile collab album with Drake called Her Loss. The project was a smash hit and features some massive hit songs like “Rich Flex” and “Spin Bout U.” Recently, it officially passed Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch The Throne to become the most streamed collaborative rap album on all of Spotify.
That came on the back of an impressive showing for the album among the Grammy nominations. It netted four nominations including Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance, and Best Melodic Rap Performance. Savage also scored yet another nomination though. It was also for Best Melodic Rap Performance for his Burna Boy collab “Sittin’ On Top Of The World.” What do you think of some of the clips from 21 Savage’s European tour? Let us know in the comment section below.
Earlier this year, Drake dropped one of the biggest rap records of 2023. For All The Dogs arrived with a ton of hype and a ton of high-profile features and sold tons of copies as a result. But while fans seemed to eat the album up, critics were much more mixed on it. Review conglomerate website Metacritic currently lists the album with a score of 53 out of 100 based on 13 critics who reviewed it.
That’s pretty much exactly in line with what the “internet’s busiest music nerd” Anthony Fantano gave the album. In a review posted shortly after the release of the album Fantano shared his thoughts. He took the chance to highlight plenty of tracks he likes including “Slime You Out,” “8am In Charlotte,” “Rich Baby Daddy,” and “First Person Shooter.” But he ultimately concluded that the project was very middle of the road and awarded it a score of Strong 5. Check out his thoughts on Drake’s newest EP below.
Anthony Fantano Hits Drake With His Second Consecutive 5
Despite claiming that he was going to take a hiatus from releasing new music shortly after the album dropped, he returned with a new EP. Once again, Anthony Fantano covered the project and once again he had mixed feelings. Fantano highlighted “Stories About My Brother” and “The Shoe Fits” as highlights on the short project. But ultimately he gave it the exact same score as the album that preceded it, a Strong 5.
Much like For All The Dogs, Drake brings up plenty of beef on Scary Hours 3. In the short tracklist he takes shots at Pusha T, Joe Budden, Kanye West, 6ix9ine, and more. Some of those were expected, as he’s often beefed with Pusha T over the years and has been back and forth with Joe Budden since the podcaster criticized For All The Dogs himself. What do you think about Anthony Fantano’s score for Drake’s Scary Hours 3 EP? Let us know in the comment section below.
With just a couple of days to go until Thanksgiving, Billboard has released its year-end charts (the music industry, much like all those turkeys, pretty much dies with the holidays, so it is usually best not to count the last month of the year, which Mariah Carey rules with an iron fist anyway). Those charts tabulate all the sales and streams up til the second week of November (including, last year’s December stats), then tell us what we’ve listened to the most collectively (like Spotify Wrapped but for the US as a whole).
While country music, pop, and the rap-R&B of SZA dominated as a whole, the top hip-hop track of the year (at No. 5 overall) was Metro Boomin’s take on a mid-2000s classic. “Creepin’” featuring The Weeknd and 21 Savage covers Mario Winans’ 2004 hit “I Don’t Wanna Know,” which itself sampled the Fugees’ 1996 song “Ready or Not,” which in turn sampled Enya’s 1987 song “Boadicea.” Released on January 27 as a single from Metro’s then-latest album Heroes & Villains“Creepin’” peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 on February 6. It currently has over 1 billion streams on Spotify and 86 million cumulative views on YouTube across its visualizer, official music video, and audio stream (not including the seemingly dozens of bootleg streams).
Of course, if you don’t want to count that as the “top rap song” of 2023 since it only features a rap verse from 21 Savage, the next qualifying track also includes 21 Savage. “Rich Flex,” from Drake and 21’s joint album Her Loss also ranked near the top of the year-end list, coming in at No. 14. Sorry, Pusha T stans and Drake haters (same difference, right?) — it doesn’t look like The Boy has lost his touch just yet.
Other top tracks include “All My Life” by Lil Durk feat. J. Cole, “Just Wanna Rock” by Lil Uzi Vert, and “Fukumean” by Gunna. Also, Ice Spice really did prove to be the reigning princess of rap, appearing no fewer than four times on the list — the most of any female rapper.
The holidays are upon us, and there’s no greater gift than the gift of music. This holiday season, you can give the Drake fan in your life all sorts of goodies and treats.
Uproxx has put together a nifty little guide for Drizzy fans, for those who simply can’t have too much of the prolific rapper. At the time of writing, no Black Friday deals have been announced, but fans can purchase some fun items just in time for jolly season (and some of the options below might just get price cuts as Black Friday approaches).
Dave’s-giving Party Pack from Dave’s Hot Chicken
Drake fans who wish to get the festivities started early with the Dave’s Hot Turkey Party Pack from Dave’s Hot Chicken — a chain in which Drake is an investor. The Dave’s-giving party pack comes with Winter Sports-Themed Bibs, a Floral Centerpiece Cutout featuring Dave’s heads as tulips, photobooth props, and much more. Guests of Southern California- and Detroit-area Dave’s stores can add this pack to orders of sliders, tenders, or fries for $10 more, or purchase for an additional $12. Granted, this merch isn’t directly related to Drake, but makes for a fun addition to Drake memorabilia.
Items are available in select stores only.
Tickets to Drake’s It’s All A Blur — The Big What? Tour
Drake and J. Cole will kick off 2024 with their North American It’s All A Blur — The Big What? Tour. While they won’t be hitting too many major cities, Drake does plan to touch on the cities he missed on the first go-around of the tour. This is ideal for Drake fans who also didn’t get to make the first iteration of It’s All A Blur.
Drake and Kendra Samir’s Titles Ruin Everything poetry book
Drake and longtime collaborator Kendra Samir released a poetry book called Titles Ruin Everything, a collection of words and lines Drake previously described as a “stream of consciousness.” While Drake’s most recent music has prompted some mixed reactions, the poetry book makes for a lovely addition to one’s coffee table.
The book is available for purchase through Drake’s official merchandiser, Drake Related.
Drake’s Views hoodie and sweatpants
Keep it cozy with loungewear embedded with the logo from Drake’s 2016 album, Views — which many fans hail as the quintessential Drake project.
Manifest positive energy into your home with the Good Thoughts candle. Crafted with orange and fir balsam and paired with rose and sandalwood provides a spiritual experience within the house.
Kick it like Drake in these stylish new NOCTA Glides, which he designed as a partnership with Nike. These may be a bit more pricey than some of the aforementioned items, but they’ll run you cheaper than some of the tickets for the It’s All A Blur shows. Granted, you may have to fight some Ticketmaster-esque crowds.
The Glides are available for purchase through NOCTA.
Drake and Taylor Swift are two of the most dominant artists for the generation, maybe even of all time. Their albums, singles, and tours are almost always a global success. All we need to do is go back to when both of them dropped their most recent records. The first of the two to drop this year was Taylor with her redux of her 2010 record, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). Just a couple of months later, she redid one of her most popular LPs, 1989, as well. It has been out for less than a month, and three songs are in the top five on her Spotify account.
Then, we shift our focus over to The Boy. It seems every record is highly anticipated. That was the case with For All The Dogs. The same thing applies to the Canadian rapper’s top five. “IDGAF” with Yeat, “First Person Shooter” featuring J. Cole,” and “Rich Baby Daddy” alongside SZA and Sexyy Red, are hot right now. In fact, the first two tracks were topping the Billboard Hot 100, nabbing Cole’s first number one song.
Now, both megastars can revel in more awards and records. The Billboard Music Awards took place last night (November 19) and Taylor made more history. After winning 10 out of her 20 nominations, she is now in lockstep with Drake. Both are now at a whopping 39 awards. Taylor took the time to thank her Swifties for the honors. According to Billboard, here is some of her speech. “I feel like the luckiest person in the world to have you in my corner and caring about the music that I make. So thank you — thank you, thank you, thank you 10 million times — for this.”
What are your initial thoughts on Drake and Taylor Swift now being tied with each other for the most Billboard Music Awards? Does this solidify Taylor as the greatest pop artist of all time, or just this generation? Whose music do you enjoy more? We would like to hear what you have to say about all of this. With that in mind, be sure to leave all of your hottest takes in the comments section below. Additionally, always keep it locked in with HNHH for all of the latest breaking news around Drake and Taylor Swift. Furthermore, stay with us for everything else going on around the music world.
Drake‘s collection of offbeat and personal tattoos is a subject of endless fascination for his fans. From getting his son’s name on his neck to his mother’s initials just under his eye, Drake keeps adding to the set, paying homage to his favorite people, places, and things.
His latest tattoo, according to eagle-eyed fans on social media, is of the word “miskeen,” and it’s just over his right eyebrow. Naturally, those who aren’t familiar with the term might wonder what it means.
Drake has “miskeen” tattooed on his forehead so help him God he wants an Habesha girl so bad pic.twitter.com/zFctrjtol1
“Miskeen” is an Arabic word which means, according to several sources, “poor” or “hopeless.” Its usage in Toronto slang stems from the strong presence of East African cultures in the city, including Ethiopians, Eritreans, and Somalians (it roughly translates to the same use in Amharic, the language of the Habesha people from Ethiopia and Eritrea, hench the above tweet). Modern use has taken this loan word and applied it to mean someone who is not down with street culture (like a mark or buster in Los Angeles). Drake’s tattoo could be a reference to its original use as well; his whole vibe has always been sort of forlorn and heartbroken, and on his recent albums he’s seemed even more so (with a dash of bitterness and spite thrown in).
Whatever Drake means by adding this tattoo to his face, it’ll only add to the endless speculation and discussion of his many inscrutable attributes.
Drake hit up the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics In-season tournament matchup and delivered commentary from his courtisde seat. Joining the TSN broadcast, The Boy jokes about former Raptors coach Nick Nurse no longer coaching the team and more.
“First of all, this guy’s not Nick Nurse,” Drake said. “I haven’t been here in a while. I don’t know where we’re at. The court is a completely different color. Payton Pritchard’s out there looking like a crypto scammer. This is crazy. What’s going on, boys?”
You can hear it below.
“Payton Pritchard’s out there looking like a crypto scammer”
Drake’s Scary Hours 3, a reload of the For All The Dogs album, will be in a tight battle for the No. 1 spot on this week’s Billboard charts. According to HitsDailyDouble, the album will move between 110,000 and 130,000 equivalent album units.
Competition for The Boy comes from Taylor Swift, projected to sell between 110,000 and 120,000 units for the rerelease of 1989, and Dolly Parton, who is at 95,000 units for her Rockstar album.
During Scary Hours 3, Drake saluted Swift’s dominance in the game on “Red Button.”
“Taylor Swift the only n-gga that I ever rated Only one could make me drop the album just a little later Rest of y’all, I treat you like you never made it.”
