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.
Drake’s Scary Hours 3, which he released as a deluxe version of For All The Dogs on Friday, is expected to move 110-130k copies in the first seven days, according to Hits Daily Double. Notably, this figure marks the entirety of For All the Dogs: Scary Hours Edition and the new songs alone likely count for a smaller fraction of the total tally.
With that figure, Drake will have a chance to return to the number 1 spot on the Billboard 200. He’ll be competing with Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) and Dolly Parton’s Rockstar, which are both projected to fall in a similar range for sales. On the new project, Drake references competing with Swift on the song, “Red Button.” He raps: “Taylor Swift the only n***a 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/Leave your label devastated even when you pad the stats period I never hated.”
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MAY 01: Drake poses with the awards for Top Artist, Top Male Artist. Top Billboard 200 Album for “Scorpion,” in the press room during the 2019 Billboard Music Awards at M.G.M. Grand Garden Arena on May 01, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images for dcp)
They aren’t the only notable lyrics on the project. With “Stories About My Brother,” Drake calls out Joe Budden amid their ongoing feud. He raps: “And n***as bound to slip eventually, like they sent permission/Imagine us getting our validation from a ex-musician searching for recognition/Same story every time, they heckling, repetition/I’m top of the mountain, these n***as still down at base camp, they planning they expedition.”
Additionally, Drake teams up with J. Cole for a new song on the deluxe version of For All The Dogs. That collaboration comes as the two are set to embark on a tour together in January. Be on the lookout for further updates on Drake on HotNewHipHop.
Joe Budden responded to Drake dissing him on his new project, Scary Hours 3, by refusing to comment on the songs. When asked about his thoughts on the release during the latest episode of his podcast, Budden remarked that he had nothing to say.
“Not a peep,” he admitted, as caught by Complex. “Not one word about it, not one word. Here to listen to y’all. I have absolutely nothing to say… I’m gonna keep my thoughts to myself.” Despite pressure from his co-hosts, he refused to budge. As for Drake’s bar referencing Budden, he raps on “Stories About My Brother”: “And n***as bound to slip eventually, like they sent permission/Imagine us getting our validation from a ex-musician searching for recognition/Same story every time, they heckling, repetition/I’m top of the mountain, these n***as still down at base camp, they planning they expedition.”
ELMONT, NEW YORK – JUNE 04: Joe Budden and N.L.E. Choppa attend Hot 97 Summer Jam at UBS Arena on June 04, 2023 in Elmont, New York. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
Drake released the third edition of Scary Hours on Friday, adding six new songs as a deluxe version of For All the Dogs. Among the tracks is a new collaboration with J. Cole, with whom he is gearing up to go on tour. Check out Budden’s response to Drake’s diss below.
Drake and Budden have been feuding since the release of For All The Dogs. At the time, the podcast host accused Drake of “rapping for the children.” In response, Drake called out Budden on several occasions on social media. At one point, he wrote to Budden: “You left it behind to do what you are doing in this clip cause this is what actually pays your bills. For any artist watching this just remember you are watching a failure give their opinion on his idea of a recipe for success…a quitter give their opinion on how to achieve longevity.”
Drake dropped his new album, Scary Hours 3, today — leaving fans wondering if he had thrown any new shots toward Pusha T, as the two have had a documented feud that spans over a decade.
Things don’t seem to have died down and Drake does, quoting one of Pusha’s former diss tracks toward him on his new song, “Wick Man.”
Here’s a timeline of the disses that have happened between the two rappers, for those who might need a refresher.
Back in 2012, Pusha T dissed Drake on his song “Exodus 23:1,” with the latter offering a response on “Tuscan Leather” the next year.
However, things didn’t end there. In 2016, Pusha used “HGTV Freestyle” to accuse Drake of using a ghostwriter on his songs.
By 2018, things seemed to reach a peak when it comes to tension between the two. Not even 24 hours after Pusha dropped his Daytona album, Drake put out a “Duppy Freestyle” to point out that his nemesis’ career is faded.
“I had a microphone of yours, but then the signature faded / I think that pretty much resembles what’s been happenin’ lately,” Drake said.
Pusha quickly snapped back by revealing that Drake had a son and dubbed him a “deadbeat” on “The Story Of Adidon.”
Later that year, Drake and Pusha T both do separate interview appearances where they discuss the reveal of Drake’s kid. By the end of 2019, Drake also sat down with Rap Radar, where he called his feud with Pusha his “first loss in the competitive sport of rapping.”
For many, many years now, one of the prime knocks against Drake — arguably hip-hop’s biggest superstar for at least the past decade — has been that he doesn’t rap enough. Every time he drops a new album, the complaint can be found on social media; this is cool, but why doesn’t he just RAP?
This is an understandable sentiment; after all, while Drake’s jump to mainstream attention came with the leak of his R&B-leaning “Brand New” and its simp-tastic follow-up “Best I Ever Had,” he was only in the position for such a tremendous breakout because of his freestyles and rapper’s-rapper projects like Room For Improvement and Comeback Season.
It’s equally understandable why Drake’s always tried to toe the line between serving those two largely separate fanbases. Sure, the fellas supported him early and his rap fan bonafides are undeniable (he’s a sponsor of Ultimate Rap League battles, for crying out loud), but his biggest commercial successes are largely due to support from the ladies.
That was a big part of the reason for the outcry against his most recent album, For All The Dogs. Despite its title suggesting music catering to the rough-and-tumble part of his fanbase that loves his intricately constructed bars, what he dropped instead was a mawkish collection of wounded crooning aimed squarely at MRAs and the women who despise them but date them anyway.
However, Drake’s often at his best when his back is up against the wall. Metabolizing the critiques of his latest, he went back to the lab, synthesizing his responses to those reactions into his third Scary Hours EP, released as For All The Dogs: Scary Hours, and doing exactly the thing so many of us have wanted him to do for so long: RAP.
Rap he does, selecting beats speaking clearly to his backpacker origins (Alchemist, what up!) and doubling down on the warm reception to his J. Cole collaboration “First Person Shooter” with another epic team-up, this one infused with the pass-the-mic chemistry exhibited by fan-favorite rap duos like Jadakiss and Styles and Clipse.
Since it’s such a short project, rather than doing a full-length review, I thought I’d just list my impressions of each of these tracks and why they hit the mark where the previous project didn’t.
“Red Button”
You know Drake is in that mode when he reminds fans of the short-lived backronym for his name. “Do Right And Kill Everything” Aubrey goes off for nearly two minutes and thirty seconds with no hooks, harkening back to his Nothing Was The Same intros. Keeping a rhyme pattern going for that long can be a challenge and the fact that Drake sounds so effortless at it just goes to show how much practice he’s put into his craft.
“Stories About My Brother”
Drake says “enough about me” throughout this track, but it’s still mainly a collection of boats about his status and wealth in comparison to his rivals and enemies. Mobster Drake is probably the least believable version of the superstar, but the number of metaphors he comes up with for putting out a hit on someone is borderline awe-inspiring. My favorite: “My brother put some holes in your top, you a Air Force.”
“The Shoe Fits”
This is the closest song on the EP to carrying over the spiteful spirit of the original album. For six full minutes, Drake recounts his experiences with a woman with a jealous boyfriend who spends his time hating on Drake from afar, only to ultimately lose his girl to one of the most washed-up NBA players in the league right now. You’re probably better off taking Drake’s advice at the beginning of the track and hitting skip.
“Wick Man”
Calling yourself a lipstick is … as questionable as a lot of what Drake’s said in recent years and your traction for the Pusha T jabs will vary depending on where you stood when they were openly beefing. But as an extended metaphorical threat of violence, it’s pretty well constructed despite its incredibility. Fans making the same goofy soccer joke about the song might wanna check their sources, though.
“Evil Ways” Feat. J. Cole
“Evil Ways” isn’t just the best track on Scary Hours 3, it’s also a better, more enjoyable conversation between the two rap titans than “First Person Shooter,” mainly because they’re both on topic and it sounds like they recorded it together (longtime readers will also know I’m just a sucker for trading bars). Around the 2:30 mark, I started hoping either Kendrick or Phonte would show up just to take it over the top but even without a surprise feature, I imagine this one will stay in rotation for me way longer than any of Drake and Cole’s prior collaborations. Also, shout out to Bushido Blade, an underrated late ’90s fighting game that gave me endless hours of entertainment for the brevity of its matches.
“You Broke My Heart”
Ugh. Even when Drake intentionally focuses on dropping Scribble Jam-worthy punchlines and reclaiming his hold on his corner of the “best rappers alive” triumvirate, he can’t resist one lazy lean back into the sadboy hum-singing about hating his ex that’s made him into a self-parody on his last three solo albums. We get it, man, girls have cooties or whatever. Go to therapy!
Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne is not the same “K. De Bruyne” that appears as a producer on “Wick Man” from Drake’s new Scary Hours 3. The Belgian international took to social media to initially joke about the moment before confirming that it was someone else. “Drake needed an assist,” De Bruyne said on X before adding “All jokes aside, it’s not me! Huge fan though!”. Furthermore, De Bruyne appeared to post a picture of himself with Drake taken several years ago. However, it’s nice to see De Bruyne getting into the spirit of the fan hysteria.
Fans had expressed mass confusion after seeing the credit on the new EP. However, with no other names to connect it to, fans just assumed that the midfielder had done a surprise collab with Drake. “Even when he’s not playing, he still assists,” one fan noted on social media. It’s currently unknown who the actual K. De Bruyne who appears on the album is.
It’s been a rough couple of seasons for De Bruyne, who has been dealing with a recurring hamstring injury. He was ruled out of most of City’s 2023/24 campaign after aggravating the injury in the team’s season opener against Burnley. Ruled out for four to five months, De Bruyne is not expected to return until January at the earliest. In the meantime, City find themselves at the top of the Premier League, with 29 points from 12 games. Liverpool is just one point behind them. However, City are likely hoping that De Bruyne can return for some key games in January, such as a matchup with Newcastle on the 13th.
However, it’s been a busy day of news in the Premier League. Everton was deducted 10 points for financial violations, dropping them from 14 points to 4 points. Furthermore, this meant the Liverpool-based side fell from 14th to 19th in the league table. It is the largest points deduction to occur in the history of the Premier League, which was formalized in 1992.
Drake dropped his eagerly-anticipated new EP Scary Hours 3 recently, delivering six new tracks to his fans. The release came only weeks after the hitmaker unveiled his latest full-length album For All The Dogs, and fans were under the impression that he’d be taking some time off. They were quickly proven wrong, however, and jumped to theorize as to why Drake changed his mind.
Back at the beginning of October, Joe Budden shared his thought on For All The Dogs during an episode of his podcast. He had some harsh words for the LP, revealing that he thought Drake missed the mark. “I miss the Drake that was rapping for the rappers,” he explained.
Famously, Drake fired back with a lengthy Instagram comment, dragging Budden for his critique. This resulted in a bit of back and forth, subliminal dissing, and more. While some thought Budden went too hard on the Toronto native, others think his criticism was just what Drake needed, and inspired him to drop Scary Hours 3.
The EP’s getting praised on social media for its straightforward bars, which are just what Budden said he felt like For All The Dogs was missing. Of course, he also took some shots at the personality on his track “Stories About My Brothers,” painting a similar picture of Budden that he did in his aforementioned Instagram rant. “Imagine us getting our validation from an ex-musician searching for recognition/ Same story every time, they heckle in repetition/ I’m top of the mountain, these n***as still down at base camp, they planning they expedition,” he spits.
Twitter Users Credit Joe Budden For Drake’s New Project
What do you think of social media users thanking Joe Budden for Drake’s new EP, Scary Hours 3? Do you think Joe Budden’s criticism inspired him? Share your thoughts in the comments section down below, and keep an eye on HNHH for more updates.
We got 6 open letter rap tracks cause Joe Budden told that man to stop fuckin with 25 year olds. Joe might not be the hero we want but is instead the hero we deserve.
Drake’s Scary Hours 3 makes it clear that he’s got no shortage of rap beefs, but still, this weekend’s new release isn’t all negative. Currently, the internet is discussing the Canadian’s bars aimed at the likes of Joe Budden, Kanye West, and Pusha T. Drizzy and the podcaster have been trading shots since the latter had a negative reaction to October’s For All The Dogs, while the Yeezy founder’s inconsistent energy seems to be a source of contention for his “Forever” collaborator. As for Pusha, that feud goes way back to the birth of Drake’s son, Adonis, which was exposed by Push through a scorching diss track.
On a more positive note, Taylor Swift is one recording artist who got plenty of love from the 37-year-old. “Taylor Swift the only ni**a that I ever rated,” Drake raps on “Red Button.” He continues, “Only one could make me drop the album just a little later / Rest of y’all, I treat you like you never made it.” As Variety notes, this seems to reference the previously delayed debut of Her Loss, which came after the sweeping success of the country-turned-pop star’s Midnights LP.
Champagne Papi and 21 Sav’s collaborative effort was initially due out on October 28, though they held off until November 4. Unfortunately for them, “Anti-Hero” by Swift help onto the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 that week, though they ultimately claimed the top billing on the album chart.
If you didn’t manage to catch Drake when he was on the road with 21 Sav this past summer, you’ll be happy to know that he and J. Cole are heading out on the road in early 2024 to bring Scary Hours 3 and their other recent arrivals to the stage. After seeing how excited fans are for the upcoming shows, the “First Person Shooter” collaborators have decided to add 10 new dates to their lineup. Read more about that at the link below, and check back later for more hip-hop/pop culture news updates.
That Drake sure is a rascal. We all know that a new Drake project usually means a new collection of slights against his critics, enemies — real or imagined, and any number of former paramours who’ve wronged him in some way. His latest release, For All The Dogs: Scary Hours Edition, is no different, bringing with it a slew of disses for former flames and current nemeses.
So, who does Drake diss on Scary Hours 3?
Well, in the song “Stories About My Brother,” Drake certainly responds to Joe Budden‘s lukewarm reception of the original For All The Dogs. “Imagine us gettin’ our validation from an ex-musician searchin’ for recognition,” he raps, which is most probably a reference to Budden’s former career as a rapper. Budden has since turned to being a volatile podcast host, slinging hot takes in the hopes of viral fame (to his credit and the chagrin of Budden haters everywhere, it mostly works).
Then, on “Wick Man,” Drake quotes Pusha T‘s 2018 diss track “The Story Of Adidon,” which effectively turned the audience against him in their beef at the time, but hasn’t seemed to do much for his rival’s fortunes since. “Man, I remember n****s was jokin’ ’bout some tick, tick / And now that rapper broke as f*ck / That boy a statistic.”
So, Drake’s streak of petty posturing continues. Since it doesn’t look like he’ll actually be taking that break anytime soon after announcing an extended tour with J. Cole, perhaps his targets will take the opportunity to fire back.
On his new EP, For All The Dogs: Scary Hours Edition, Drake has a song called “Stories About My Brother” in which he raps several lines describing the various attributes of someone he calls his brother. Some examples include: “My brother make your ace disappear like a sleight of hand” and “My brother put some holes in your top, you a Air Force.” Naturally, this might have some fans wondering whether Drake has an actual brother.
As far as public record goes, though, Drake has always been an only child — the sole son of Dennis Graham, a drummer from Memphis, and Sandra “Sandi” Graham, a Canadian teacher and florist. Drake was raised by Sandra in Toronto, spending summers with his father in Memphis.
Any references to a brother are most likely metaphorical; Drake refers to his close friends as his brothers to highlight their bond, strengthening the examples of having friends who’d do anything for you (including, apparently, shooting at people) by comparing their closeness to that of blood brotherhood. Of course, the violent threats are likely metaphorical and hyperbolic, as well.
(@TH3_GOD_) 
(@SaVichTakes) 
