Generally, I’m excited for new Drake music when it drops. I mean, albeit corny and sappy mostly, I’m never mad at how he wears his heart on his sleeve and, at this point, probably having a little fun with the persona he’s developed with his music (see his latest duck lips selfie). And even though I have this fuzzy side of me where I want to hear a tragic story of disappointment and heartbreak that ends in finally getting through it in some way—either by a rebound or swimming in gualas—when I really think about it, I’ve never actually felt that way. I’ve never been so tormented by someone that my mission was to make them look foolish for not wanting to deal with me anymore. A lot of times in Drake’s music, he’s still giving power to the people that fucked him over instead of actually getting past them. After this past weekend, add another one to Drake’s getting revenge saga after an old, K-Ci & JoJo-sampling, unreleased cut mysteriously leaked. Unofficially titled “How About Now”, he’s a bit more catty than usual.
The song sounds like it was probably meant for Take Care, given its sample choice, and it starts with a woman leaving Drake a message about how he switched up on her, leading him to go on a usual rant about how he wasn’t valued during the relationship. Of course, this motivated him to get back at her; regular Drake shit. Something about this one is extra low, though. It’s probably having to hear him revel in the fact that he’s doing well and his ex-girl is “stuck right now” or maybe him blaming her for his drinking problem, which was supposedly caused by her wanting to listen to Ludacris over whatever songs of his he was playing for her at the time (Lol), among other things. It's a broken record at this point.
The song's leaker--a 17-year-old from Marietta, Georgia--suggested that the song may be from Drake's upcoming album, Views From The 6, but hopefully that's just a ploy to get people talking. While most of Drake's best songs come when he's letting it all out ("The Resistance", "Look What You've Done", "From Time"), that same approach rears its bratty head when he threatens to have everyone who hated on him in high school go through security clearance at his class reunion ("Pound Cake") or when he feels a rush from people not being on his perceived level ("Wu Tang Forever"). For talking shit purposes, it's worked until now and will probably always appeal to a part of the ego that makes insecure people feel vengeful but at some point--probably sooner than later--the narrative is gonna get really old for an artist that's otherwise more gifted than most of the pack. The biggest ongoing struggle as a Drake fan is getting the feeling that he’s either selling himself or listeners short. Probably both.