Scary Hours 2 Review

 

    The past few years, Drake’s music has declined in a sense, whether it is the lazy songwriting or uninspired production, Drake cannot seem to elevate his releases to that same echelon of nostalgia or precision that he had on his older, much more refined projects. The ridiculous urge he has to put out projects that attempt to hop on a new internet wave or some absurd Tik Tok trend has really damaged his reputation, so the expectations for this Scary Hours 2 EP were quite low. Drake exudes a lot more precision, hunger and passion on this project which helps it sound more polished in the grand scheme of things, but it still requires a colossal amount of improvement for it to be considered a project worth listening to again and again.

    Drake’s Achilles heel has always been his songwriting. His music when compared to his contemporaries’ flows and lyrics are sometimes laughable, and the first track “What’s Next” is a prime example of that. The production is reminiscent of a throwaway Playboi Carti cut, laced with boring synths and percussion that is even worse, sounding cheap and rushed as if it was mixed in 20 minutes and got the Drake seal of approval for its glaring mediocrity. The main issues with this song though are of course the lyrics. The flow is so basic and phoned in that even though this track isn’t titled as the freestyle on this project, you could have fooled me into thinking that it was because it is so nonchalant and does nothing to stimulate anyone’s emotions whatsoever. Drake raps “They want my life exposed, they wanna know about the highs and lows, Well summer, all I did was rest, okay? And New Year’s all I did was stretch, okay? And Valentine’s Day, I had sex, okay?” Come on Drake, at least put in a little bit of effort. There is no redeeming quality at all in any of these lyrics and the Valentine’s Day bar is unbelievably corny and dumb but I am in no way surprised that it showed up on a Drake song.

    The next track “Wants and Needs” featuring Lil Baby is a massive improvement. The production is much better here, with some heavy, trap inspired percussion that is sonically gorgeous and this ominous synth creeping in and out of the instrumental. Drakes flow is a little off tempo at first, but this is remedied as soon as the beat drops and once that happens the production is improved upon even more as these miniscule, delicate synth chords and horns start progressing far away in the background that inject the final dose of character and grueling energy this track needed to become much better. Drakes flow is done well here and the hook he constructs is melodic and catchy in that classic Drake fashion, sounding ripe with an urgent sense of passion and emotion. Lil Baby is pretty good on this track as well, his flow is the same as it always is but this works quite well within the scope of the production. The “wants” and the “needs” that Drake and Lil Baby rap about are those akin to all rappers, with them spitting bars such as “I got sins on my mind, and some M’s, got a lot of M’s on my mind” and “I’m not a goat but I fit the description.” Overall this track was a pleasant surprise and has much more replay value than the first.

    Lastly, we are graced with the Track “Lemon Pepper Freestyle.” What this track lacks in pure rapping and the lackluster Rick Ross feature it makes up for in its production. There is a beautiful female voice that has been chopped up and laced throughout the track, exuding a sense of pain and a raw desire for greatness as the track progresses. The percussion is catchy and sounds really great, but the main instrumental element are the bubbly chords and synths that sound like distant, heavenly harps and lutes that have been synthed up enough to fit perfectly into a Drake song. This final touch really gives the production on here a definitive, cutting edge. This freestyle is oddly more refined and precise than “What’s Next” as the bars are more impactful and the effort and intensity is more prevalent from Drake and Rick Ross. Nothing too meaningful or deeply thematic is uttered on this cut, but Drake does rap “You just found a bottle with the messages, these days, fame is disconnected from excellence.” Lyrics such as this one show that Drake can indeed write well and come up with slick, creative bars, it’s just a shame that this is one of those rare occurrences that does not happen often enough.

    Drake has had a moment to reflect on the past few years of his career and I think that this project was his comeback in a sense. His past few releases were nothing special and I think that with all his attempts to glorify mediocrity he realized that he had lost his way and descended into an abyss of unrelenting scrutiny. Scary Hours 2 might not be the most concise and polished work of his career, but when compared to the outrageously terrible projects he released over the past few years, this EP is a huge jump in quality. Light years ahead of the vacuous music he had been making, Scary Hours 2 is just what we needed to hear from Drake to show that he is on the right track and offers a positive outlook on his musical future.

Score: 5/10