Indeed, Drake is back. The Toronto MC now appears at the precipice of his thirteenth studio album, ICEMAN, streaming out the news to hardcore devotees via a recent livestream and more earnestly announcing with a new single. “What Did I Miss” stamps the first Drake release since his daliance with PARTYNEXTDOOR — here’s what you’ll find once you press play.
While it’s always the smart move to start our analysis music first, it’d be malpractice in this case to not primarily address the Drake claim at the crux of “What Did I Miss:” its title. In genuinely less than a year, this makes the third time that the multi-platinum artist has “returned.” The assorted loosies collection / EP ”100 gigs” came less than three months after “Not Like Us” largely heralded the end of the spat, yet to be fair, it was reportedly a “dump off” of singles that had been in the tuck for longer. Earlier this year, Some Sexy Songs 4 U fulfilled a more fleshed out release, though perhaps the collaborative nature alongside PARTYNEXTDOOR prevented it from being the real “comeback.”
All told, it takes a lot of caveats and discounting to give“What Did I Miss” the “long-awaited response” status that Drake presents it with, and we’ve heard a lot of its salacious shots back already.
A Mixed Lyrical Bag For Drake On “What Did I Miss?”
At the risk of sliding into the armchair psychologist seat, another factor undercutting this song is its contradictory sentiments. The ostensible chorus plants an overarching theme,, “I don’t give a f*** if you love me, I don’t give a f*** if you like me,” yet throughout we get continuous reference to both tangible moments in the back-and-forth and promises to its principal characters. The first verse threatens the opposition at large against “ask[ing] for no favors,” the Pop Out makes its way into the second verse, the third questions where the reciprocation is for years of defining verses and hospitality.
All of this said, it really does take working through what Drake puts forth on “What Did I Miss” with a fine tooth comb to reveal these issues. In the broadest strokes, it’s another expression of the “Midas Touch” on a smaller scale: the single is already performing characteristically well for a Drizzy lead single, the production is hard hitting, the delivery and cadences threaten earworm status. Perhaps it’s exactly that, how granularly the hip-hop audience dissected the Kendrick Lamar situation, that leaves us in such an unwilling position to relitigate. However, for an artist so dedicated to subliminal shots and easter egg conflict, starting off an album era with the same old tricks that led to such a ground-shaking result just doesn’t seem like the best sign.
Catch “What Did I Miss” and all of the Drake discography now wherever you stream your music.
