Drake and PartyNextDoor’s new album, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, has arrived and, depending on who you ask, is evidence that Drake is as good as ever or more proof that his career can’t withstand the death blow of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” Reality is probably somewhere closer to the middle, as the album offers fans of Drake and PND’s breezy R&B sound plenty to grasp onto, with 21 tracks of well-executed, signature OVO-style hits. Drake and PND have a magnetic chemistry that jells on several moments on the record, though it’ll likely mostly appeal to listeners who are already fans.
On the other hand, if you already don’t like Drake, nothing here is going to change your mind. But that doesn’t seem to be the purpose of the record, which leans more heavily into fan service — a treat for those who’ve stayed loyal (or at least neutral) as Drake suffered the past year’s cavalcade of embarrassments. For casual listeners, songs like “Nokia” and “Gimme a Hug” are likely to be in heavy rotation in the coming months, as they’ve already started taking off on video platforms like TikTok and Reels.
Overall, the album seems like a sensible move for Drake when it comes to courting a general public that’s spent a year dancing on his metaphorical grave. Here are six takeaways from Drake and PartyNextDoor’s $ome $exy $ongs 4 U.
The moment everyone was waiting for on this record doesn’t actually arrive until close to midway through, on “Brian Steel,” a track named after Young Thug’s now mythical attorney. Drake alludes to the rap beef heard around the world — and at the Super Bowl — with pretty standard-issue Drake talk. “Broski just hit me, said, ‘Put all the beef on the side,’” he raps, alluding to Thug, who was recently released from jail. “I can’t/Mm-mm, I’m heated now, yeah.” On the next track, “Gimme a Hug,” which finds Drake in peak form with the rapping and melodies, he seems to change his mind: “Fuck a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit.” Perhaps if you’re still deeply invested in the ethics and strategy of this beef in the year of our Lord 2025, this is some sort of damning reversal. Otherwise, it reads more like Drake mentioning the thing he’s been most famous for in the past year and doing what he can to minimize it, which is honestly all he can really do at this point.
One thing that’s certain about Drake is his commitment to a bit. Spanish-accent Drizzy, who has been popping out going back to his 2018 collab with Bad Bunny, “MIA,” makes an appearance alongside Chino Pacas on “Meet Your Padre,” which — Drake’s pronunciation issues aside — is sort of a bop. PND’s melodic delivery fits well alongside the música mexicana sound Pacas is known for, making for a compelling international crossover and more evidence of Mexican music’s growing influence across genres.
Ice Spice’s vocals from her 2023 interview with Zane Lowe set the vibe on “Glorious,” a New York drill-inspired banger that finds Drake in the same bag he was in for one of his better efforts against K. Dot, “Family Matters.” Here, without the weight of an ongoing war of words, we get a reminder that these are the beats Drake raps over best. Ice Spice told Rolling Stone in her cover story last summer that she hoped to one day work with Drake, who she described as a major inspiration. “We talk, but we never really was on some bestie shit,” she said. Drake clearly took some inspiration from her, interpolating her flow and even adopting a few of her most quotable lines.
If the rap world stays icy on Drake, he’s surely got enough range to figure something else out. “Die Trying” feels like a bona fide pop crossover hit, replete with catchy acoustic guitar and paired nicely with PND’s soaring, elastically rhythmic vocals. For all of the allegations that Drake’s lyrical content feels stale, “Die Trying” has the kind of forlorn sensibility that suggests more self-awareness than some of Drake’s critics give him credit for. Sounding sort of like a depressed Noah Kahan, Drake laments his self-inflicted loneliness and manages to turn it into a breezy pop hit.
The album’s most memorable track will likely end up being “Nokia,” a club-ready hit that finds Drake at his most potent. It was his New Orleans bounce-infused hit “Nice for What” that helped wash the taste of his beef with Pusha T from the public’s consciousness in 2018, and “Nokia,” which rides a vintage funk bounce to impressive effect, feels like Drake’s best bet at a similar response to his latest dustup. Already, streamers like Kai Cenat and Plaqueboymax have gone viral reacting positively to the track, and even the staunchest Drake haters gotta admit it’s pretty good. Whether it’ll be enough to flip the narrative set by “Not Like Us” is another story, but it’s a solid effort from an already iconic artist beginning to show flashes of a reinvigorated new era.
From Rolling Stone US
