Drake shocked the world and started 2018 off with a bang, releasing Scary Hours a two-pack of new songs.
The release came out of the blue, with Drake revealing a few hours prior that the EP would come out at midnight. Before even getting into the songs, I'm a huge fan of how they were released. The album cycle can leave fans waiting for a while, so a two song teaser is perfect to fill the gap. And dropping Friday night at midnight, the timing couldn't have been better. Friends were immediately texting and snapchatting about the release. The first song, "God's Plan" already has 851,000 views on Genius and over a million views on YouTube. It came on twice in the club on Saturday night.
These kinds of releases are becoming more common, like aptly-named Without Warning in 2017. I'd love to see the trend evolve with more releases like this one, just a couple songs to get new music out quickly.
Enough about the release, which would be nothing without the content, the songs. "God's Plan" is a vintage Drake banger, before he slows it down and gets more introspective with "Diplomatic Immunity."
"God's Plan" is fun, catchy, interesting, and without sounding too redundant: just classic Drake. I love the almost angelic sound that opens the song up before the great beat comes in. The instrumental does a great job of getting louder, softer, or dead silent at times to enhance Drake's delivery: like when the music cuts completely as Drake delivers an instant classic line:
She say "Do you love me?" I tell her only partly
I only love my bed and my momma I'm sorry
Thematically, the song builds on the idea of the hook from More Life's "Sacrifices": "Someone watchin' over us so shout goes out to Him." He raps about the uncertainty of the future, but everything, the ups and downs, seemingly random occurrences, are all just a bigger part of God's plan. I like to think Drake's line in this song "Someone watchin' this shit close" is a direct shoutout to "Sacrifices."
Drake's excels both when rapping and singing in this song. I don't even think the hook is great on it's own: but it's still so catchy and easy to sing along to.
"God's Plan" is easily the superior song in terms of widespread play-ability and replay-ability. It probably won't reach the heights of say, "One Dance" and "Hotline Bling," but it's a better song than both of them.
Drake's excels both when rapping and singing in this song. I don't even think the hook is great on it's own: but it's still so catchy and easy to sing along to.
"God's Plan" is easily the superior song in terms of widespread play-ability and replay-ability. It probably won't reach the heights of say, "One Dance" and "Hotline Bling," but it's a better song than both of them.
"Diplomatic Immunity" plays out as one long verse, with some classic Drake bars and flows. His delivery and wordplay is great in this song, better than in most of More Life. This is pure rap, with references to his personal life, on this topic of diplomatic immunity: defined as "The privilege of exemption from certain laws and taxes granted to diplomats by the country in which they are working." Drake is drawing the parallel that the life of fame has given him exemptions from certain laws and ways of life that everyday people are forced to suffer through.
The line that hit social media hardest was "2010 was when I lost my halo, 2017 I lost a J. Lo," but one of my favorites is "Black excellence, but I guess when it comes to me it's not the same though, all goodie." While Drake is obviously widely successful, he thinks he doesn't get the same recognition as a black artist as some of his contemporaries.
I also enjoyed his set of lines aimed at Joe Budden, and his use of homophones (Budden/budding).
The production is simple and solid, with a drum beat over some brass instrument. It doesn't do much to change, so the song might be a tad long but Drake keeps the delivery and flow interesting enough.
Conclusion
"Scary Hours" was awesome surprise by Drake, and hopefully an appetizer for his next full-length album. "God's Plan" is my favorite of the two tracks, although fundamentally "Diplomatic Immunity" is a better rap song. With all things considered, including the release method which really can't go underrated, I'll give "Scary Hours":
8/10
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