Drake has mentioned numerous musicians and public figures on his new album, ‘For All The Dogs: Scary Hours Edition’ – check out who below.
The reissue of Drake’s eighth studio album ‘For All The Dogs’ was released last Friday (November 17) as ‘…Scary Hours Edition’. Colloquially known as ‘Scary Hours 3’, it is the third instalment of Drake’s musical series ‘Scary Hours’. The first came in 2018 ahead of the rapper’s fifth studio album ‘Scorpion’, before ‘Scary Hours 2’ followed in 2021 with features from Lil Baby and Rick Ross.
The new songs on ‘Scary Hours 3’ have sparked controversy in the worlds of music, sport and beyond, with Drake talking about numerous public figures in his lyrics, from known foes in Kanye West and Pusha T to his friends Taylor Swift and James Harden.
Drake and West publicly called a truce in 2021 after a long feud, when they performed together at the Free Larry Hoover Benefit Concert to raise awareness for prison reform.
On the first track, ‘Red Button’, Drake called out his longtime rival West for being deceitful and not honouring said truce – rapping “Every time you need me for a boost, I never hesitated/ Every time that Yeezy called a truce, he had my head inflated/ Thinkin’ we gon’ finally peace it up and get to levitatin’/ Realise that everything premeditated.”
The Canadian also seemed to take shots at Ye for walking around barefoot and comparing himself to the late Basketball player Kobe Bryant (noticeably on ScHoolboy Q‘s ‘THat Part’) on ‘Stories About My Brother’.
“I can’t wait for the day that you choose to retire your stuff/ Taking off the sneakers ’cause you tired of tying ’em up/ That one day you wake up and tell ’em, ‘Enough is enough’/ That’s how you gon’ find out you not Kobe Bryant to us [laughs]/ Man, you not Kobe Bryant to us… at all,” Drake rapped.
He also called out Joe Budden when he rhymed: “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****s still down at base camp, they planning they expedition.”
Drake’s disdain for Budden started when the latter said he is “rappin’ for the children” and needs to “get the fuck away from some of these younger n****s” on his popular podcast. The rapper clapped back and called the New Yorker a “failure”.
Budden rthen esponded to Drake’s jab at him, telling Complex, “I have absolutely nothing to say… I’m gonna keep my thoughts to myself.”
6ix9ine also comes under fire on the record. Known for his nefarious gangster image, the rapper solicited the East Coast gang Nine Trey Gangsters as his security in his early career. His affiliation with them led to his arrest in November 2018 for firearm and racketeering charges. In 2019, the ‘GUMMO’ rapper was sentenced to two years after testifying against the Nine Trey Gang and is now known as a “snitch” to many – damaging his rising rap career.
Drake took a jab at 6ix9ine on ‘Scary Hours 3’, rapping: “Y’all the type to catch a charge, head to the deposition/ And act like the rapper named after the sex position.”
A conflict between Pusha T and Drake reached its peak in 2018 when the two went back and forth with diss tracks. The new song ‘Wick Man’ calls back to the former’s song, ‘The Story Of Adonis’ from the feud, where he mocked Noah “40” Shebib’s multiple sclerosis disease: “OVO 40, hunched over like he 80—tick, tick, tick/ How much time he got? That man is sick, sick, sick.”
On the Alchemist-produced song, Drake rapped: “Man, I remember n****s was joking ’bout some tick, tick/ And now that rapper broke as fuck, that boy a statistic.”
‘Wick Man’ also mentions John Cena: “I’m almost expressionless. John Cena wouldn’t know emotions / Play ’bout the fact I was born a perfectionist. Still can’t even wrap my mind around the success of this.” The WWE superstar has responded to Drake namedropping him by posting a picture of the ‘For All The Dogs’ rapper holding a replica WWE championship belt on Instagram.
Taylor Swift was also lauded on ‘Red Button’, with Drake rapping: “Taylor Swift the only n**** that I ever rated/ Only one that could make me drop the album just a little later / Rest of ya’ll, I treat ya’ll like you never made it/ Leave your label devastated/ Even when you pad the stats, period, I never hated.”
Fans don’t know whether Drake referencing basketball player James Harden on ‘The Show Fits’ is a jab or simply a mention, as he raps: “She said ‘My new boo hoopin’ tonight and he said he play at the Garden / He said if I ain’t watching, then that nigga ain’t startin’ / She point to the guy that she talkin’ ’bout and it’s James Harden.”
In one X/Twitter chain, one user theorised that Drake is saying the Los Angeles Clippers player is “the better guy” and isn’t a diss. Whereas the user Terry Franconia wrote that Drake called him “a bench player.”
Drake dissing James Harden is wild Lmaooo pic.twitter.com/tKufGjJfEN
— NBA Slime (@TerryFranconia) November 17, 2023
Last week, Drake released a trailer for the project where he spoke about how ‘Scary Hours 3’ came together. There has been much speculation over who Drake could have been talking about in the video’s voiceover when he said: “I know I can go and disappear for six months, a year, two years – even though I’m not into the super lengthy disappearances for the sake of mystery.”
In a video essay by Fantastic Hip Hop on YouTube, they suggest that it is Kendrick Lamar, after ruling out Frank Ocean (who hasn’t released an album in seven years) because he was sampled on ‘Virginia Beach’. Lamar’s blockbuster 2022 album ‘Mr Morales & The Big Steppers’ came five years after his Pulitzer Prize-winning LP ‘DAMN.’.
Lamar and Drake have been sending indirect shots at one another for years since the former name-checked the Grammy Award winner in his monumental verse on Big Sean‘s ‘Control’.
On Friday (November 17), footballer Kevin de Bruyne denounced claims that he co-wrote ‘Wick Man’ on ‘Scary Hours 3’.
Last week, Drake announced a joint tour with frequent collaborator and longtime friend J. Cole called the ‘It’s All A Blur Tour – Big As What?’. Fans can visit here to buy tickets.
