Album Review: Maid of Honour by Drake

With a triple threat release, Drake compartmentalises his stylistic range and explores some club-adjacent sounds on MAID OF HONOUR. I welcome him experimenting with different sonics rather than revisiting the same passionless R&B-tinged rap he has spat out almost yearly for a decade now. Yet, unfortunately, MAID OF HONOUR, like Honestly, Nevermind, feels incomplete and aimless.

It starts with ‘Hoe Phase’ and then ‘Road Trips’. They both contain beat switches that feel incredibly abstract, especially for Drake. In ‘Hoe Phase’ the blunt switches between incongruous sections just seem to take away from the song’s overall teleology.

The second track, however, is much better. Drake’s signature swathing pads melt away for an abrasive techno riff to enter. We then hear some deep house sounds that really accentuate his autotuned crooning.  

‘Outside Tweaking’ is also a curveball. With some unorthodox double-tracked delivery from Aubrey here, Stunna Sandy also flows nonchalantly on rhythmically complex drums that almost evoke the sequencing of mid-discography Death Grips.

‘Cheetah Print’ samples Peggy Gou’s ‘(It Goes Like) Nanana’. The hook – him repeatedly saying “I’ll smack  that…until it’s cheetah Print”, feels ludically memorable and unbelievably doesn’t come off as cringe. Sexyy Redd also provides an interpolation of ‘Cha Cha Slide’, modified by her usual hyper-sexualized lyrical material. 

Until this point, although sporadic in quality, the rapidly shifting structures and dance timbres do provoke interest. But, as the record goes on, it feels increasingly lacklustre, with Drake not showing any real conviction in his creative choices. ‘Which One’ exemplifies that point. The only thing of note is Central Cee’s verse, seeming vivacious and direct against Drake’s dull tones. 

‘BBW’s sexual imagery induces cringe in the same way it would hearing your little brother spit these bars. It then goes into a distorted baile funk section that sounds huge but feels bolted-on. ‘New Bestie’ and ‘Goose and The Juice’ are bitter laments at anonymous girls Drake supposedly did so much for but have moved on to new partners. “We’re stuck, stuck like traffic, stuck” is the lyrical focal point of the twelfth track, which sounds as bad as it looks written down.

The last track, ‘Princess’, was actually enjoyable; a drumless song starting out with a bitcrushed guitar where he sings in falsetto about his “princess layin’ in the bathroom” after ingesting too many substances. 

On the beef between Drake and Kendrick, djbooth.net’s Brian Zisook wrote that it was essentially a battle between two marketing styles. Kendrick is patient and considered, whereas Drake pumps out music at an admirable rate to constantly maintain his presence in our cultural consciousness. What results from this tactic are records that feel imprudent and hashed together.

With this three-album drop, like with the three Wireless performances (that also felt tired and unthinking towards the end) maybe he is making the point that he can cover multiple genres. But this isn’t really a flex in the postmodern landscape of today’s industry. If he is to engage with these different genres, he should give them the respect of appropriating them with purpose and care.

4.5/10

Words by Charlie Edmondson