I think Drake's music has progressed and his rapping has gotten better with time. Obviously the topic of the music has shifted but in terms of ability only his hooks have been declining to my ear.

Edit: I am not specifically referring to Her Loss just a general feeling since around 2018. To my ear 90%+ of his songs and features had insanely good hooks and that was his calling card since so far gone. Nowadays they can be just ok he still has mostly great hooks it's just not a guarantee like it was before.

tbh you kinda right.

hooks like we'll be fine or the language are legendary

I kinda agree tbh . Happy when i hear hooks like the one on p**** & millions though . S*** is S tier and stands out on the album

no

He went to the moon on P**** and Millions hook. That melody and cadence is a body bag

No
I think the focus was more on the verses and vocal execution

But still some phenomenal hooks on her loss and very good hooks on HNVM

Her loss hooks that are 🔥:
Treacherous Twins
Jumbotron S*** Poppin
P**** & Millions
Spin Bout U
1st half of Broke Boys

HNVM hooks 🔥:
Flights Booked
Massive
Overdrive
A Keeper

lowkey agree with it

I think his hook making has aged with the times.

The popular sound in Hip-Hop has basically eradicated traditional hooks (for now) and in it's place is essentially the melodic part of the rap verse.

Honestly Nevermind showed that he's still very much capable of those high level potent hooks.

Tell me, what did I do wrong?
Tell me, what did I do wrong?
Tell me, what did I do wrong?
Tell me, what did I do wrong?

Scorpion has entered the chat

Agreed. I wouldn’t necessarily say they regressed but the hooks on Her Loss are very Uzi’ish to me. Where the hook isn’t necessarily some catchy bop that makes the song. More so the hook flows into the verse.

It’s not so chorus, verse, chorus, repeat. The verse and the hook are almost one. That seems to be the formula alot of post 2016 rappers do. I personally credit Uzi cause I feel like he was one of the first pioneers of that sort of rap

Rap’s changed. Drake is following suit.

Right, that's what I meant by the hook being the melodic part of the verse.

I really wouldn't be surprised if the more recent hooks from Drake are made after the fact, like how future does it.

Record the verse or two, find the catchiest part, and build around that.

That’s crazy bro cause I was literally thinking about that today when listening to the album and then later on I read your comment and it helped me formulate that into words lol

I could see that too. That’s more than likely the case and I wonder if great hooks will make a come back or will things get shorter and rap ends up becoming beats and a verse only. I wouldn’t be surprised with the way reels and tiktok has changed music. What do you think

Yeah I agree but for me the change in hooks started in 2015 with things like Blessings. They were still good but not the same otherworldly instant hits that he was giving us through 2014. Much less melodic

I think he kind of started to do mor “minimal” hooks at some point. Like hooks that more let the song breathe or feel more natural and not as hooky, less melodic, which makes sense I guess as a stylistic evolution. Like compare One Dance hook to the hooks on TC

I feel like this new album has his best hooks since 2014 or so, hes been slowly going back to giving us actual drake hooks like on Fair Trade. And HNVM with Flights Booked restored that melodic feeling a bit too

Yeah pretty much this

IMF was a great one but the other hits had those “non hooks” on it