Hi everyone, Onethony Twotano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of these new Drake albums, Maid of Honour and Habibti.

Rapper, singer, songwriter Drake. Yes, he has some new music out, and I have just reviewed some of it, with a full video devoted to his most recent and 9th album, Iceman, which I have a lot of thoughts on. I think it is the worst of his core projects, meaning most disappointing insofar as what we understand a "normal" Drake album to be— not some weird side quest, collab, mixtape, anything like that. The record, in my view, is nothing but mediocre beats, one-note songs, sketchy ideas lumped together with these haphazard beat switches, much of it serving as the foundation for every dated retort and catty vendetta piece he's been dying to put out there into the world since he lost the beef to Kendrick Lamar in 2024.

But despite Drake prioritizing his bitter and hurt feelings over care, artistry, and substance on this record, him and his team clearly went into this new album cycle with at least somewhat of a plan, because they do kill it at the one thing they continue to know how to pull off flawlessly, and that's numbers. The OVO camp and fandom may sometimes fall flat on their faces when it comes to history, writing, and musicality, but at least it's high honors when it comes to math. We know that.

And a key part of guaranteeing that top spot on the first day streaming numbers was releasing as many songs as possible— more songs than a single album or deluxe edition of an album could hold. Which is saying a lot, because this is coming from a man who previously released 90-minute projects such as CLB and Scorpion.

And so Drake decided to drop two more albums in addition to Iceman: Maid of Honour and Habibti, records whose first several days of streaming numbers have definitely paled in comparison to that of Iceman's. But honestly, these albums are where we are actually beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel for Drake. I mean, no doubt these past 2 years have been very difficult and stressful for the boy, and it's actually been sad to see the ways in which Drake has had to rationalize, blame-shift, and finger-point in reaction to losing the beef to Kendrick. And it's clearly driven him and his fandom to the point where they are entirely consumed by this 2-year-old battle.

Now, there's also been a lot of talk of Drake releasing this many projects at once as a means of getting out of his deal with UMG. We will see if that's the case. But more importantly for the purposes of this review, fencing much of that bitter crap into Iceman has allowed Drake to make two albums here where, for the most part, he's creating for creation's sake: letting his ears, his heart (and also his hips) decide where he should go next.

I will start with Habibti, which is the slower and sleepier of these two projects, but still I think pans out to be the thinking man's album when it comes to this trilogy of records that have suddenly been dropped on us. Now sadly, I still think this album suffers from a bit of brevity and lack of development, which has really been a thing with Drake lately, with him not really being able to follow through with a song idea, developing the music and the details, and instead opting for beat switch after beat switch when he hits a wall. Or maybe he wants to feed into some kind of ADD tendency within his audience because he feels like they're losing interest. And while very few tracks on this album tell an entire story by themselves, the whole record, I feel, culminates into a choppy but very obvious narrative around a love that clearly has left Drake longing for more.

With the way I'm reading it, there are enough details here to make it clear that Drake is a bit of a side guy in this dynamic. This may be one of many relationships he's fielding through his phone. This is also kind of an international or cross-cultural affair as well. And this is clearly a woman who is from, or at least comfortable in, places like Dubai. And I would say also, in some ways, Drake and this other person seem like they are made for each other. They're both a little high drama, both have expensive tastes.

But sadly, this dynamic seems a little doomed from the start, at least if the song "WNBA" is kind of painting a picture of the way things are starting off, as we're already getting hit with these metaphorical descriptions of this companionship that likens her participation to that of somebody who's an athlete playing on the court in a game of love. Meanwhile, Drake is blowing all of his money on this situation as a means of getting romantic attention.

The following "Slap the City" also brings what feels like more descriptions of this dynamic. Instrumentally, we have lots of slow, woozy beats, and pitched vocal samples. Lyrically and vocally, Drake sounds like he's kind of rolling around in bed staring at his phone, sad style, with some random bird noises floating in the background. There's a really sleek, Qendresa feature, too, which elevates things a bit.

Then, in the last third, we get what I think is one of the better beat switches on this entire project. But this beauty is contrasted by very tedious descriptions of Hinge and finding the modern dating scene kind of thankless. It almost feels like Drake and this other person are kind of shrugging their shoulders at each other, thinking like, "Well, we're kind of dissatisfied with being alone, might as well be interested in each other."

Then, following this, "High Fives," I think is the first real slap on this record so far. Drake hits this track with a really catchy flow, with some nice variations, he's kinda hitting different pockets across the instrumental. It's a very vibey beat with numerous mushy, droning tones kinda blending into each other. It's not so good of a song that I would totally overlook bars like "let your pussy talk, imma do the ad-libs," but still, it is the most engaging cut so far.

Sadly, immediately after this track, the record starts going downhill, because we get the track "Hurrr Nor Thurr" featuring Sexyy Red, which is a complete misuse of her talents and appeal. Sexyy does best on a song where she's allowed to let loose and be as high energy and as in-your-face as possible, or as funny and ironic. But here, Drake and her seemingly are in a competition to see who can come across the least sexy.

Meanwhile, "I'm Spent" is maybe the most unfinished sounding track on the entire record, really the most rushed track so far. And what the hell are these ad-libs? "Brrr, warr, grrr, yeer!" whatever elements Drake is bringing to this track vocally and lyrically that are decent are getting entirely drowned out by these ridiculous vocalizations. Then "Classic," which I do think is a bit of a step up, brings some nice R&B throwback vibes straight out of the '90s.

But of course, once again, rather than fully developing this very good quality tune out, Drake and his team decide to beat switch into, of course, a pitched sample loop of another R&B track from the '90s, the track "Don't Beat Around the Bush" by Just Cause. Genius kind of frames this section of the song as an outro, but it's literally half the damn song. Like, I'm sorry, just randomly ending your track like this halfway through is some lazy bullshit.

After this, "Gen 5" features some of the most in-depth lyrical descriptions of the dynamic that Drake seems to be obsessed with on this record. But many of the descriptions are also very unflattering too, in a way that reads as unintentional. "Fighting with me, trying to fire me up / That's not gonna work, I'm a passive guy / I know that I'm treating you better than him / 'cause you do not come home with no blackened eye."

I should also mention, "And I know I call you my baby girl / No wonder that you been feeling pacified, yeah."

Yeah, I'm envisioning you as a baby. Love that for Drake.

Like, I know for a lot of Drake's fans this album's kinda being pitched as "the one for the ladies," but what solace are self-respecting women supposed to take from this record's mediocre side guy dynamics being laid out with, "Well, I know you have things better over here because I'm not beating you?" This sounds like the inner-monologue of a high school football team captain and who's two years out from an unplanned pregnancy.

Lyrically, the song "White Bone" lays things out on the table even further, and I think does a better job. It's a dark, genuine moment with some interesting minor details of this woman and their relationship, though I don't think Drake does a great job of making a case for her staying, or for his side of the story, with bars like "I'm the only don you know other than Julio" and "Insurance on the dick if you want, cover me with GEICO." I don't know, could have been a lot of reasons it didn't work out. Maybe one of them was that she was interested in somebody who didn't have the sense of humor of a high school sophomore.

After this though, "Fortworth" comes through, which is one of my favorite tracks on the record. It's a kind of a trip down memory lane, a narrative switch with Drake going back to the earliest years of his career, describing playing shows in places that he would probably never perform in now. One particular Connecticut spot gets a shout out where if you actually go there today, there's pictures of that particular performance plastered on the inside of the venue.

And while I don't think this track has an amazing tune at the core of it, at the at least it does have a really cool sort of vivid picture of Drake's life at a point in time when things were more peaceful, but also confusing. The closing track lyrically has some interesting thoughts within its many bars, but again, doesn't really culminate or get structured out into a very cohesive or interesting song.

And that's really my problem with the record overall. It does have a focused vibe, and I think enough consistent themes to turn it into a narrative that's actually worth diving into more deeply, but there's not really enough intention or structure on the musical side to develop it and really build it all out. Unfortunate that Drake kind of saved that dig deeper energy for all of the beefs he had to settle on Iceman and didn't quite bring it on this one.

Overall, I feel like Habibti is listenable and not quite as awful as Iceman for sure, though I still did leave this one feeling very underwhelmed. I'm feeling maybe more of a strong 4, light 5 on it.

Then there's Maid of Honour, which is handily the most fun record of these 3 new albums. It's also very focused, but in a different way: focused on the dance floor. And, in a lot of ways, succeeding where a record like Honestly, Nevermind miserably failed.

The production on this thing is actually lively and exciting. And it also sounds like Drake is just genuinely being unafraid here to have fun, which is something I was hoping he would do after "Nokia" skyrocketed off of $ome $exy $ongs 4 U.

Now, I'm not gonna analyze the fact that he took old photos of himself, his dad, and his mom on the cover of this record, which he fronted with a song titled "Hoe Phase" too much. But that song itself is a bop-and-a-half, and kicks off like we're gonna embark on this dreamy house odyssey, but then suddenly shifts into these determined Kanye-like flows over crisp chants, bustling dance beats, that have an intense electro-retro flair. And while I do think this song could have gone on a bit longer, I think a lot of its momentum does effectively carry over onto the following "Road Trips," which brings even more Graduation and 808s era vibes, combining more vintage synth lines and punchy drum machine sequences.

Now, of course, sometimes Drake can't really help himself all that much lyrically, and is way too on the nose with lines like "All those nights in my kitchen giving you my advice / I'm supposed to be the one whose heart is made of ice." But still, there are a lot of massively catchy ideas on this track, including the kind of call-and-response vocals between Drake's refrains and the group chants of a "hell yeah!" It's just great energy all around.

I also enjoyed a lot about the track "Outside Tweaking" featuring Stunna Sandy. I can't believe Drake got the carbon copy Ice Spice on this track, but whatever. And there really is something to this song, I gotta admit. Drake's slick, monotone flows at the start of the track are a low-key earworm, and Drake and Sandy's vocals twist together against this ascending production, it sounds weirdly heavenly. That "kick and twitch" line is a very funny one, too. My biggest issue, though, is that when this track should completely blast off with either a huge hook or a really loud wall of sound, it instead decides to go into a sleepy interlude until it just fizzles out into nothing. Like, why? You built up all that momentum for a very mild finish.

At least the song "Cheetah Print" with Sexyy Red is a blast, though I know this song has really been one of the most polarizing of this Iceman era. Look, personally, I find the "Cha Cha Slide" interpolations to be very unserious and self-aware, and it just feels like Drake and Sexyy Red are coming together in a way that just feels like they're just trying to be funny on purpose and just very silly. The production brings a big Afrika Bambaataa, Planet Rock vibes. I could honestly see the club going nuts on this one if Drake's fans and casual listeners are able to just kind of loosen up a bit and not overthink what's being done here.

Now, all these songs, in my view, come together into a pretty strong first leg, but Drake going into a direction where he is intentionally letting loose with some dancey, lighthearted, feel-good vibes also means he is going to be tempted to do some dancehall too, with the fake patois and all, which we hear on "Which One" featuring Central Cee, which is an old single that was the B-side of "What Did I Miss?" It was a snoozer then, it's a snoozer now. I still can't handle that "chopstick for your wonton" bar. I think the song makes a bit more sense contextually in a record like this, but it's still an instant skip for me, and I have no reason to go back to it. He's been doing this patois thing for over a decade now, and it's still no less cringe.

It just feels like for him it's more or less normalized now. His fans who still remain are very much here for it, and anybody who might take issue with it is most likely going to be distracted in instead by the many other more controversial things going on in his career currently.

"BBW" is a big girl anthem with more of an '80s flair, and I guess at this point, why not? It's kind of fun. Very pandering, but that's not the worst characteristic a Drake record during this era has showcased. I think the weirdest thing about the track, honestly, is this refrain about this person having so much ass they should be cremated because they're too big to put in the ground? Like, that's not a compliment.

I love the song "True Bestie," though. This one is a banger. The production definitely carries. So does this little feature refrain from Iconic Savvy. The energy she brings to the track is incredible. Again, though, it's just one of several songs on the record that I just wish was longer. I mean, this is a dance album, no? Dance it out. Extend it out. Get the grooves goin'.

From here, the closing leg of the record is a bit of a mixed bag. Contrasting "True Bestie," you have this little interlude moment, and then also "New Bestie," which is another very low-key, sleepy, forgettable, watered-down dancehall cut, which you've heard Drake do again and again and again at this point. He's not really adding any variation or exploration to this sound as he continues to attempt it. The song "Q&A" is a vibe for sure, but goes nowhere fast.

The song "Stuck" I think could've built up a little bit more, but at its core it's a very catchy, very snappy little kind of R&B, New Jack Swing tune. I could totally hear him, like, leading an old-school boy band on this one. The song "Goose and the Juice" essentially feels like maybe 5 or 6 Weeknd songs that already exist.

And then the closing track on here is maybe the biggest surprise, as it sees Drake singing against these slow, very dramatic pop punk guitar chords that have a lo-fi distorted flavor to them. The only thing the song is truly missing is a big blow-up at the end with some guitars and drums. But even though the track like is very minimal in a way, I do think it is fitting for the end of this album, as Drake kind of lays out these visuals about a girl who is passed out on the floor in the bathroom because she went a little too hard with the drugs, with the drinking.

This song doesn't sound too much like a party because at this point the party's over, which again, anticlimactic, but thematically fitting finish for this record, which honestly showcases more thought in terms of tying things up than what Drake brought to Habibti or Iceman itself. And that, with many other things, I think makes Maid of Honour the most enjoyable album of the three. Gonna stamp this one with a light to decent 6.

And those are essentially my thoughts on these two albums, which again, I will leave this review by saying I hope that what these records kind of signify is that Drake actually does have the capacity to move on and create music for the sake of music. Or, I don't know, for the sake of some other third thing that is not his ego or a score that he has to settle. That would be nice. Also, what would be nice is a little bit more forethought when it comes to the structure and the songwriting on a lot of these tracks.

But the intentions going into these albums, even if they are a little bit shorter and more scant than what Iceman had to offer, the energy here is a lot more palatable and enjoyable than what we got on Iceman.

Anthony Fantano. Drake. Forever.