''Honestly, Nevermind'' is the seventh studio album by Canadian rapper and singer
Drake
Drake may refer to:
Animals
* A male duck
People and fictional characters
* Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name
* Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* ...
, which was
surprise-released on June 17, 2022, through
OVO Sound
OVO Sound (also known simply as OVO) is a Toronto-based Canadian record label, founded in 2012 by hip hop artist Drake, producer 40, and Oliver El-Khatib. It operates as a subsidiary of, and is distributed through, Warner Music Group's Warner ...
and
Republic Records. The album includes a sole guest feature from
21 Savage
Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph (born October 22, 1992), known professionally as 21 Savage, is a rapper based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Born in London, he moved to Atlanta with his mother at age seven. He became known after releasing two m ...
, and production from a variety of producers, including
Gordo,
Black Coffee, and frequent collaborator
40.
A stylistic departure from Drake's previous releases, ''Honestly, Nevermind'' adopts a
dance,
house and
Baltimore club sound. The album received generally positive reviews and debuted atop the US
''Billboard'' 200 with 204,000
album-equivalent unit
The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditio ...
s. It became Drake's eleventh US number-one album. The album's singles, "
Sticky
Sticky may refer to:
People
*Sticky (musician), alias of UK garage producer Richard Forbes
* Sticky Fingaz or Sticky (born 1973), nickname of the US rapper and actor Kirk Jones
Adhesion
*Adhesion
Adhesion is the tendency of dissimilar ...
" and "
Massive", debuted in the top 20 in the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100, while "
Jimmy Cooks" became Drake's eleventh (and 21 Savage's second) US number-one song.
Background and promotion
On March 4, 2021, Drake announced the launch of
satellite radio channel ''Sound 42'' on
Sirius XM, with
OVO Sound Radio as its flagship program, marking the show's return since it aired between July 2015 and October 2018 on streaming service
Apple Music
Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...
. Following the show's broadcast, he released his fourth
extended play
An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record. ''
Scary Hours 2
''Scary Hours 2'' is the fourth extended play by Canadian rapper Drake and a sequel to his second extended play '' Scary Hours'' (2018). It was released on March 5, 2021, and features two collaborations with American rappers Lil Baby and Rick Ros ...
'' at midnight. Drake also revealed that his sixth studio album ''
Certified Lover Boy
''Certified Lover Boy'' is the sixth studio album by Canadian rapper and singer Drake, released on September 3, 2021, by OVO Sound and Republic Records. Its production was handled by frequent collaborators 40, Nineteen85, PartyNextDoor, OZ, a ...
'' would be coming soon, which was eventually released on September 3.
On the afternoon of June 16, 2022,
OVO Sound
OVO Sound (also known simply as OVO) is a Toronto-based Canadian record label, founded in 2012 by hip hop artist Drake, producer 40, and Oliver El-Khatib. It operates as a subsidiary of, and is distributed through, Warner Music Group's Warner ...
announced on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
that Drake would be premiering his own
radio show ''Table For One'' on Sound 42 later that night at . A few hours later, Drake made a surprise announcement on
Instagram that he would be releasing his seventh studio album, ''Honestly, Nevermind'', later that midnight. Broadcasting not long after Game Six of the
2022 NBA Finals
The 2022 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 2021–22 season and conclusion of the season's playoffs. In this best-of-seven playoff series, the Western Conference champion Golden State War ...
earlier that night, Drake premiered the tracks "Confusion" and "I Don't Care" on the show. Drake also revealed during the show that he was working on ''Scary Hours 3''.
The album is dedicated to American fashion designer
Virgil Abloh
Virgil Abloh (; September 30, 1980 – November 28, 2021) was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur. He was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection beginning in 2018, and was given increased creative responsibilitie ...
, who died in 2021.
A music video for "
Falling Back" was released alongside the album. Directed by
Director X
Julien Christian Lutz (born October 31, 1975), known professionally as Director X, is a Canadian filmmaker, commercial director, music video director, and television director. Having directed more than 100 music videos, he is widely known as a pr ...
, the official music video sees Drake marrying 23 different women. Canadian-American professional basketball player
Tristan Thompson
Tristan Trevor James Thompson (born March 13, 1991) is a Canadian-American professional basketball player who last played for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He won the 2016 NBA Finals with the Cleveland Cavali ...
makes an appearance as his
best man
A groomsman or usher is one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony and performs the first speech at the wedding. Usually, the groom selects close friends and relatives to serve as groomsmen, and it is considered an honor to be ...
.
The album's only feature,
21 Savage
Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph (born October 22, 1992), known professionally as 21 Savage, is a rapper based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Born in London, he moved to Atlanta with his mother at age seven. He became known after releasing two m ...
, appears on the closing track of the album, "
Jimmy Cooks". The album's first two singles, "
Sticky
Sticky may refer to:
People
*Sticky (musician), alias of UK garage producer Richard Forbes
* Sticky Fingaz or Sticky (born 1973), nickname of the US rapper and actor Kirk Jones
Adhesion
*Adhesion
Adhesion is the tendency of dissimilar ...
" and "
Massive" were sent to
rhythmic contemporary radio and
contemporary hit radio, respectively, on June 21. "Jimmy Cooks" impacted contemporary hit radio on October 11, as the album's third single.
Composition
''Honestly, Nevermind'' is a
dance album driven by
house and
Baltimore club influences.
The album includes elements of
Jersey club
Jersey club (originally called Brick City club) is a style of electronic club music that originated in Newark, New Jersey in the late 2000s. It was pioneered by DJ Tameil and other members of the Brick Bandits crew, who were inspired by Baltim ...
,
hard techno
Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno or hardcore house) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorte ...
,
R&B,
amapiano
Amapiano ( Zulu for "the pianos") is a style of house music that emerged in South Africa in the mid 2010s. It is a hybrid of deep house, jazz and lounge music characterized by synths and wide percussive basslines.
It is distinguished by high-pi ...
,
ballroom,
and Drake's traditional style of
hip hop.
Critical reception
''Honestly, Nevermind'' was met with generally positive reviews. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...
score of 73, based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Aggregator
AnyDecentMusic? gave it 6.7 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.
In a positive review, Robin Murray of ''
Clash'' called ''Honestly, Nevermind'' a "puzzle that will take a long time to fully unlock" and "a devastating about-turn that will fascinate and frustrate in equal measure".
Tim Sendra from
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
enjoyed the album, saying, "''Honestly, Nevermind'' is a welcome development in the Drake saga, a left turn off what was starting to seem like an endless stretch of
trap
A trap is a mechanical device used to capture or restrain an animal for purposes such as hunting, pest control, or ecological research.
Trap or TRAP may also refer to:
Art and entertainment Films and television
* ''Trap'' (2015 film), Fil ...
-heavy highway. The destination is still sad and self-involved, but at least the scenery is colorful and never boring".
''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''s
Jon Caramanica
Jon Caramanica (born 1975) is an American journalist and pop music critic who writes for ''The New York Times''. He is also known for writing about hip hop music.
Biography
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Caramanica received his bachelor's degree ...
wrote, "A small marvel of bodily exuberance – appealingly weightless, escapist and zealously free. An album of entrancing club music, it's a pointed evolution toward a new era for one of music's most influential stars. It is also a Drake album made up almost wholly of the parts of Drake albums that send hip-hop purists into conniptions".
Writing for ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'', Jeff Ihaza stated, "The album achieves something mischievously unguarded: a collection of blissful dance tunes constructed for embrace and abandon. Drake takes a leap further into uncharted realms than any of his peers, offering a refreshing sign of what's to come".
Vivian Medithi of ''
HipHopDX
''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of hip hop music criticism and news. The website's current president and publisher is Sharath Cherian and the Head Of Content is Jerry L. Barrow. ''HipHopDX'' is the flagship publication of Cheri Media Group.
...
'' said, "He stopped making the Drake album we want him to make and made the Drake album Drake wants to make. Locked in with producers he trusts and letting his guard down, he sounds more focused and balanced than he has in years".
''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' critic Alex Swhear said, "As a standalone Drake album, it's deeply refreshing, and a dose of vibrant
pop likely to reverberate through the remainder of the summer". Louis Pavlakos of ''
Exclaim!'' said, "Hints of the album's atypicality are apparent from its opening minutes, for better or worse. "Falling Back" makes for a questionable lead-off, as Drake's falsetto has never been particularly strong, but ''Honestly, Nevermind'' rarely falters from there".
In a lukewarm review, ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
''s Alphonse Pierre wrote, "A breezy Drake dance album sounds great in concept, but the half-measure house beats and lackluster songwriting keep it from really popping off".
In his review,
Alexis Petridis of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' states, "The Canadian superstar's new album is surprisingly full of house music, but his passive-aggressive complaints get dull".
''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' critic Kyann-Sian Williams said, "The Canadian's latest release surprises in many ways, ditching bland trap for house beats and some daring, if somewhat mixed, vocal takes".
In a more negative review, David Smyth of ''
Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format.
In October 2009, after be ...
'' opined that ''Honestly, Nevermind'' felt like "a minor work" within
Drake's discography, going on to say that "
rakesounds like he isn't trying very hard".
Year-end lists
In popular culture
The song "Texts Go Green" was used by
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
in an
Android advertisement to call on
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
to adopt
Rich Communication Services
Rich Communication Services (RCS) is a communication protocol between mobile telephone carriers and between phone and carrier, aiming at replacing SMS messages with a text-message system that is richer, provides phonebook polling (for service dis ...
(RCS), in reference to the song's premise of
iPhone users being blocked on
iMessage
iMessage is an instant messaging service developed by Apple Inc. and launched in 2011. iMessage functions exclusively on Apple platforms: macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS.
Core features of iMessage, available on all supported platforms, in ...
.
Commercial performance
''Honestly, Nevermind'' debuted at number one on the US
''Billboard'' 200 with 204,000
album-equivalent unit
The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditio ...
s, including 11,000 pure album sales. Its tracks earned a total of 250.23 million on-demand streams. The album is Drake's eleventh number-one album in the US.
In its second week, the album remained in the top ten as it fell to number three, earning 73,000 album-equivalent units.
Track listing
Notes
* signifies a co-producer
* signifies an additional producer
Sample credits
* "Currents" contains samples of "
Some Cut", written by
Jonathan Smith,
Donnell Prince,
Lawrence Edwards,
Jamal Glaze, Craig Love, LaMarquis Jefferson, as performed by
Trillville
Trillville is an American hip hop group formed in 1997. Its founding members are Donnell Don P Prince, Dirty Mouth (born Jamal Glaze), and LA (formerly Lil LA and Lil Atlanta; born Lawrence Edwards). Dirty Mouth left the group in 2007 to pursue a ...
,
and also contains an uncredited sample of "Shake it to the Ground", written by Charles Smith and Ryeisha Berrain, as performed by
Blaqstarr
Charles Smith (born September 30, 1985), better known as Blaqstarr or DJ Blaqstarr, is an American rapper, singer, producer and DJ. He is best known for his work with M.I.A.
Biography
Blaqstarr had local success in the early 2000s with the s ...
and
Rye Rye
Ryeisha Berrain (born November 25, 1990), known by her stage name Rye Rye, is an American rapper, singer, dancer and actress. Signed to N.E.E.T. Recordings, she released her first mixtape RYEot PowRR in 2011 and her anticipated debut album ''Go! P ...
.
* "Calling My Name" contains uncredited samples of "Oye Ohene", written and performed by
Obrafour
Michael Elliot Kwabena Okyere Darko popularly known as Obrafour, other names include Rap Executioner and Rap Sofo (born 1976) is a Ghanaian hiplife musician and rapper. Obrafour has a unique style of Twi rapping and storytelling. His popular and ...
.
* "Sticky" contains uncredited dialogue from
Virgil Abloh
Virgil Abloh (; September 30, 1980 – November 28, 2021) was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur. He was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection beginning in 2018, and was given increased creative responsibilitie ...
's 2017 "Everything in Quotes" lecture at Columbia University's
GSAPP.
* "Flight's Booked" contains samples of "
Getting Late
"Getting Late" is a song by performed by Floetry, issued as the third and final single from their debut studio album ''Floetic''. It was written by Natalie Stewart and Marsha Ambrosius along with Vidal Davis; and it peaked at #31 on the '' Bil ...
", written by
Marsha Ambrosius
Marsha Ambrosius-Billups (born 8 August 1977) is an English singer and songwriter from Liverpool, England. She embarked on her musical career as a member of Floetry. Ambrosius released her debut solo album '' Late Nights & Early Mornings'' in M ...
, Natalie Stewart, and
Vidal Davis
Dre & Vidal is a songwriting and production duo consisting of Andre Harris and Vidal Davis, who are best known as the main producers for Jill Scott and Glenn Lewis. Alumni of DJ Jazzy Jeff's A Touch of Jazz production team, Dre & Vidal were also ...
, as performed by
Floetry
Floetry were an English R&B duo comprising Marsha Ambrosius ("The Songstress") and Natalie Stewart ("The Floacist"). The group recorded two studio albums and one live album and sold over 1,500,000 records worldwide. Formed in 1997 Floetry star ...
.
* "Jimmy Cooks" contains samples of "Just Awaken Shaken", written by
Ibn Young, as performed by
Playa Fly; and also contains samples of "You Were Gone" written by
Al Goodman,
Harry Ray, and Walter Morris, as performed by
Brook Benton
Benjamin Franklin Peay (September 19, 1931 – April 9, 1988), better known as Brook Benton, was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960 ...
.
Personnel
Musicians
*
Drake
Drake may refer to:
Animals
* A male duck
People and fictional characters
* Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name
* Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* ...
– vocals
*
Mukengerwa Tresor Riziki – additional vocals (track 4, 11, 12), background vocals (9)
* Wondra030 – piano (5)
* Alex Lustig – keyboards (6, 10)
* Beau Nox – guitar (6, 10), additional vocals (9) background vocals (10, 11)
* Emily Hemelberg – background vocals (10)
*
Black Coffee – drums (10)
* James Bryan – guitar (10)
*
40 – keyboards (10)
* Nyan Lieberthal – drums, keyboards (13)
* Tim Suby – keyboards (13)
* Dougie F – background vocals (14)
Technical
* 40 –
mixing (all tracks),
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...
(4, 5, 8, 13)
*
Luca Pretolesi – mixing
*
Noel Cadastre
OVO Sound (also known simply as OVO) is a Toronto-based Canadian record label, founded in 2012 by hip hop artist Drake, producer 40, and Oliver El-Khatib. It operates as a subsidiary of, and is distributed through, Warner Music Group's Warner ...
– engineering (1–)
* Harley Arsenault – engineering (6)
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
References
{{Drake
2022 albums
Drake (musician) albums
Republic Records albums
OVO Sound albums
Albums in memory of deceased persons
House music albums by Canadian artists
Albums produced by Tay Keith
Albums produced by Cubeatz
Albums produced by 40 (record producer)
Albums produced by Vinylz
Baltimore club albums