While Drake cedes the crown for “king of most frustrating rollouts” to Playboi Carti and Kanye West, we’ve somewhat become accustomed to fits and starts when Drizzy begins ramping up for a project. That remained the case for his upcoming eighth studio album, For All The Dogs, which was first announced alongside the rapper’s poetry collection back in June. Just a few weeks back, Amazon Music and other streaming platforms “confirmed” an August 25 release date for the project. This lined up with what Drake himself had teased during one of the NYC stops on the It’s Been A Blur tour. Obviously, that did not come to pass, but the rapper’s social media in the past week or so has given us some official announcements. First, the real release date of September 22, and then its first single, which would be a Drake-SZA collab.
Drake & SZA Take Aim at Their Exes
Titled “Slime You Out,” the song’s album art certainly fits the theme the two artists set up in it. Upon hitting play, the first thing we get is a half-rapped, half-spoken word section from Drake, who starts by airing grievances about what his partners have wanted from him. That’s a tone-setter for the rest of the song, where we see the Canadian MC and SZA swapping lines about how they’ve been slighted by partners past and present. Obviously, this is not unfamiliar territory for Drake, whose last official release was the pining and somber “Search & Rescue.” But, this is one of the more melodic performances for him in recent memory, a great match for his first link-up with the multi-platinum singer.
In her section, which clocks in at the midpoint, SZA sings: “You ain’t bout the s*** you rapping about. / I could spend a whole year airing it out. / I’m going off like a sawed off.” It’s certainly a pointed verse from her, again something we’ve grown accustomed to through the course of tracks like “Kill Bill” and “Shirt.” Finally, Drake closes out by leaning closer to his hip-hop roots, rapping about a hypothetical year in the life of someone who’s scorned him—dropping the obligatory shoutout to his label when he spits “October’s all about me / ‘Cause your turn should’ve been over.”
A Long-Awaited Collaboration
The first-ever collaboration for the pair comes about two years after they shared headlines. In his feature on 21 Savage’s 2020 track “Mr. Right Now,” Drake rapped “She said she wanna **** to some SZA, wait / ‘Cause I used to date SZA back in ’08.” The “Kill Bill” singer would respond shortly after, confirming but noting that Drake’s timeline was off by a year or so. She explained further that “it’s all love, all peace.” Now, with a joint single under their collective belt, that certainly seems to be true.
To call For All The Dogs long-awaited might be a stretch. After all, it’s been less than a year since Drake dropped his collab album with 21 Savage, Her Loss. What it has got going for it is a ton of speculation, with Lil Yachty claiming that it features “some of the best verses I’ve heard” and this song showing that we’ll get plenty of the softer side as well. Either way, it’s sure to do eye-popping numbers the same way his previous releases have. We’ll get the chance to hear it in full when it drops next week, on September 22.
