Sneakin'

The founder of OVO, the pioneer of the sensitive rap phenomena and the King of the indirect sneak diss, Drake, finally dropped some new material. Drizzy announced this week that he will be releasing a playlist in December. A playlist? Not an album, not a mixtape but a playlist - I’m not even sure what the fuck that’s going to be but I’m hyped nevertheless. Along with the announcement, Drake dropped four tracks on us as a teaser. The one that’s currently making the most noise out there is the track Sneakin’ featuring 21 Savage (21 21 21).

The track starts with a jaunty chopped up beat before Drake goes off. As someone who didn’t particularly enjoy Views, it’s good to hear Drake back to his menacing darker flow. With this flow and beat Drizzy’s words actually carry some weight and pack a certain punch which they didn’t on Views, in my opinion. We’re back to the good old Drake where he seems to be taking shots at the industry and other rappers in his track with some great lines. To be fair you knew this track was going to be lit just from the first 5 seconds of the beat and the first bar – “This is all God’s doing man you can’t plan it, But if the Devil’s in the detail then I’m Satanic”. The 21 Savage feature is going to divide opinion – I know a lot of you don’t think he can even rap. But for me 21 work on this track and to be fair he does come through with some decent bars – “Baby I’m a savage I ain’t romantic, when I come around rappers start to panic, and their pockets going under like the Titanic”, a lot of people will call the bars overly simplistic and hate on the flow but I’m fucking with it heavy (21 21 21).

All in all this is a pretty tight track, not going to go down as one of the classics like Started From The Bottom but still tight. The beat is simple but effective and track has some decent bars too. I’m probably more excited by this “playlist” than I was by Views purely because Drake has a tendency to go harder and darker on his mixtapes like If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late as oppose to his more radio friendly albums like Take Care. We’ve heard a lot of Drake’s sensitive side in his music for the last year or so but now it’s time to get back to savage mode (21 21 21).

Drake – Sneakin’ (feat. 21 Savage) – 7.5/10