There is this stark duality throughout Drake’s discography of disconnecting ideals. One side is alluring love ballads with melancholic melodies of the empty feelings that come with fame and the ultimate price of Drake’s success: not being able to keep a meaningful relationship going. The other side of Drake’s records are these braggadocious “Bat Mitzvah” bangers, in which Drake stops on dime and divulges into his own decadence being: partying and polyarmourus relationships. 

These differences in his music are what make Drake a dynamic artist, but it also makes a lot of his work disjointed, with him asking a lot of questions. A lot of his answers result in these weak dissolutions as he drags on in a monotone giving us little to no clarity in his many recent albums. 

The line between “Sad Drake” and “Hype Drake” is getting thinner by the year. His latest album, Certified Lover Boy, was diluted immensely by the combination of the two distinct flows in many songs and Drake’s inability to fully commit to either his sad or hype persona. 

Beat switches happen a lot during the album, which is not uncommon in contemporary hip hop, most recently done by Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar in their single “family ties.” The single has three beat changes in four minutes, changing the beat to match the flow instead of changing the flow to match the beat. 

Drake, however, would change an entire flow of a song just to match another artist’s style. This causes division in a few of his tracks and he even compromises some of his own creative identity to accommodate his features.  Ultimately, his more ambitious collaborative tracks can fall short. 

By keeping one foot on each side of the proverbial “Drake line,” as a listener, it can be hard to empathize with him. It’s as if he doesn’t even know what to feel sometimes, but that’s what’s admirable about Drake. He’s not Kendrick or Kanye – not all his songs have a profound message behind them.

It can be hard to know what to feel sometimes, and Drake’s own personal dichotomy of introspective ballads versus dance tracks, lovey dovey versus hype, emotional pop versus gangster rap, show that fact. As the album progresses these genres are battling for the spotlight, but it’s the more personal tracks that shine through. 

As Drake enters fatherhood, he is at his most vulnerable yet maturest place musically to this date, and although his latest release has some rough edges, it’s Drake that finds solace in his own ballads.