i'm challenging y'all to read a bit. sorry. what yall think

theparisreview.org/blog/2025/08/11/drake-in-search-of-lost-time

Disappointment has a placid surface—the word is buttoned-up, its gesture to an inner world prioritizing mild description over emotional urgency, an indication simply that what one wished for went left, fell short. Admitting disappointment in others, in circumstances, can be a moment of quiet devastation, but to describe something as “disappointing” is a means of forestalling tears, putting them on the other side of a line. In pop culture, Drake is disappointment’s mouthpiece and its walking embodiment—it’s almost all he talks about and all one seems to hear about his music and persona. At his best, he is disappointment’s major-label poet, if you’re still willing to go there with me now that his utter ubiquity and industrial-strength productivity have, in the last decade, evacuated what remained of those early days of critical respect. Just as disappointment doesn’t often bring more than a few tears to the eye, Drake’s songs don’t, or don’t let themselves, go loudly to that part of the spirit that cries out for something more. Almost every song, always mixed to a streaming-optimized sheen, is a litany of feelings that are ever so slightly bitter, muted, a half Xan’s worth of narcotized. Psychological and calculating but only rarely soulful, just ceaseless solipsism cut sometimes by the urge to seduce or make music for women to dance to, all delivered with the charming evenness of the lounge singer whose chief pleasure is to give you what you came for.

Unfortunately, I love it. This multialbum monologue of someone who has decided in advance to never break down—“I’ll probably self-destruct if I ever lose, but I never do,” et cetera—who gets rejected by women, colleagues, idols, “the culture,” and, in rare moments of real lucidity, himself, has burrowed so deeply into my nervous system that instead of compulsive counting to make it through long train and elevator rides, I rap or sing these songs to myself, over and over and over, without end, with minor regret.

Without end because the songs are deeply, miraculously sticky; with regret because not only does Drake’s hermetic world feel like a retreat from the real one, but he is also difficult to defend from any angle besides pleasure. For example, Drake is a man of the people, or he tries to be: he’s rapped and sang in at least three or four black Anglophone dialects and dabbled in French, Arabic, and Spanish, too, as the mood, or market, strikes. But it’s hard to be a man of the people and also completely neurotic, so when the diss track that, through its own series of familiar national chauvinisms, went stupidly viral by eviscerating his obvious desire to Represent and Belong, he bowed out of the drama with a deflated, byzantine response (“The Heart Part 6”) that presented himself more as a private mastermind, planting fake info and pulling all kinds of secret strings, than a public icon who can count on the love of a congregation. The ubiquity of “Not Like Us,” however, feels like beating a cheesy joke even when the horse is dead, to paraphrase Earl, and at most like a simultaneous release and containment of oppositional political energies that have had almost no expression at a national or international level. (Only one person was arrested for their political views at Kendrick’s halftime show, and it wasn’t Kendrick.)

The daily Drake thread

More continued promotion

Thank you for your service in making Drake the most popular topic of discussion another year on KTT2

you're welcome now read the thing

No idea how to

wtf op assigned us home reading

one word at a time, doot. left to right

imma get yall hooked on phonics instead of opium

I’ll give my opinion on this in 15 minutes

wee wee

thank you user niggamortis

oh you speak french now?

just get your mom to sign the reading slip bro

Drake Kendrick beef thought pieces written by white people in August 2025

benjamin krusling is black lmao

I read most of this and honestly I feel like this is a pretty good write up and explains in detail what makes him popular. In a simple sense, his music is casual, relatable, catchy and marketable. Anyone that has been a fan of Drake for a while knows that there has been an obvious shift in direction. I know it’s a bit more polarizing than his earlier work, but then again as the article touched on and anecdotally as a fan for a long time even his early work was a point of contention since he’s never fit any of those traditional boxes. He’s a walking paradox of being everything relatable but also such a character and caricature that we micro-analyze everything about him down to literal likes on Instagram.

I honestly think he’s a great representation of why we as a collective have gone too far in parasocial relationships with an artist both good and bad. Some things just need to exist as they are. He definitely leans into it though hence why he’s perpetually a topic of conversation and is one of the most popular artists in history

thank you jbreezy on deck for your effort & for this. people need to see that he's a big fan but that doesn't mean he's not critical of him & what he represents

i think it's weird how artists hate parasocial relationships but to make a buck its the first thing they'll indulge. capitalism!

Yep. I’m a big fan as well but we can be critical. Unfortunately things have moved (and this is really in all mediums not just w Drake) to a point where having an opinion on one thing means you either hate everything they do or love everything they do with absolutely no nuance to it. It’s lazy and annoying

got stuck on the word placid and gave up

Can someone summarize with ai

I apologize. Remove white people from my statement and I stand by what I said

Also I’m high just realized it’s think pieces not thought pieces

thank you for trying niggamortis

niggas too lazy to summarize it with ai THEMSELVES were cooked

i read over half of it and it isnt sayin anything

i read over half of it and it isnt sayin anything