Drake‘s been feeling triumphant of late — something he made clear on his two recent releases, “Trophies” and “We Made It” — and his latest keeps that winning streak alive.
On Tuesday night, the rapper posted a new track, “Draft Day,” to his blog, October’s Very Own.
Over a soulful flip of Lauryn Hill’s 1998 single “Doo-Wop (That Thing),” produced by Boi-1da, SkySense and Ducko McFli, Drizzy opens up with a hook where he shouts out Johnny Manziel and Andrew Wiggins — expected to be top picks in the upcoming NFL and NBA drafts, respectively — before jumping into his only verse.
Throughout, he weaves rhymes that both exude confidence and can be read as potential subliminal shots at other rappers. “I’m focused on makin’ records and gettin’ bigger/ Just hits, no misses, that’s for the married folk,” he says at one point. Beyond the face value of the rhyme as a baseball metaphor, it seems to double as a response to Jay Z.
Last week, Hov rhymed over “We Made It”, which Drake remixed in December (it was originally Soulja Boy’s song). On it, Jay calls out Drake by name: “Sorry Mrs. Drizzy for so much art talk/ Silly me, rappin’ ’bout sh– that I really bought.” That line was a response itself, to something Drake said to Rolling Stone in February: “It’s like Hov can’t drop bars these days without at least four art references,” he told the mag.
Right when the track hit the Net, fans took to Twitter to debate whether or not there were lyrical jabs aimed at Jay:
Later, though, Drizzy seems to make light of the back and forth between him and Jay over those Rolling Stone “art” comments: “We all do it for the art so I can never hate though,” he says.
Subliminals aren’t all that caused a stir, though. Drake mentioned one buzzing up-and-comer by name: “And if I left sh– to chance, I would’ve picked a name like Chance the Rapper/ No offense, ’cause I don’t know that n—a.”
Despite the disclaimer, some are taking it as a diss, while others think it’s just wordplay:
Whether the Nothing Was the Same rapper is coming at some of the game’s finest or simply basking in his recent successes, his sword sounds as sharp as ever.
Is “Draft Day” aimed at Jay Z? Let us know what you think in the comments and the poll.
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