Drake - How About Now

It’s gotta be tough being Drake in 2014. Increasingly seen as more a meme than a musician, he’s an artist who’s seen his career both constructed and gleefully picked apart by the ever-changing sentiment of the internet. Of course, he might not help himself sometimes – his recent tattoo of an emoji-based twist on the artwork for new track ‘6 God’ being a particularly ‘post-ironic’ highlight - but with a reputation defined for some by social media mockery and friendzone fan-fiction, it’s all too easy to forget the bite Toronto’s musical mayor once harboured.

Released out of the blue in order to beat “some hackers” to the punch (there’s that pesky internet wreaking havoc again), Drizzy’s chasing the critical acclaim for ‘Nothing Was The Same’ and its radio smash ‘Started From The Bottom’ with a trio of tracks that, while perhaps taken off the boiler a little earlier than their craftsman might have liked, perfectly illustrate both sides of his coin. ‘6 God’ is a barbed assault that’s probably the closest we’ll get to seeing Drake fire back at Tyga’s diss from earlier this year, and ‘Heat Of The Moment’ is a milky ballad which serves as perfect vessel for his soppier crooning; but nestled between the two is the perfect unification of this split personality in ‘How About Now’.

Boy-1da and Jordan Evans’ production is thick like honey, defined by their juxtaposition of gut-wrenching bass drops and a sickly sweet pitched-up sample of Jodeci’s 90s slow jam ‘My Heart Belongs to U’. Over the top, Drake seizes control with a smirk in his voice and a bounce in his delivery, laying into his efforts in a past relationship with a ferocity that’s equal parts self-reflection and exorcism. The chorus is almost tongue-in-cheek in its delivery – “I’m up right now, and you suck right now” he grins on the juvenile hook.

Yes, it’s about an ex, but this is a far more sneering effort than Drake’s ‘wet blanket’ online image would have you believe. “Crazy how you gotta wait ‘til it’s dark out to see who really with you” he cries, but he’s not gazing at his navel or weeping into his latest Timehop – he’s taking on the world, and consequently far more in control than anyone stuck behind a keyboard, taking pop-shots.