Drake is more meme than man at this point and with More Life he's once again embracing his internet persona by straight-up trolling his fans. How is he doing this, you ask? Well, by shouting out Jennifer Lopez in the opening track on his latest full-length, which he prefers you call a playlist that will "soundtrack your life" rather than an album.
This 22-track playlist begins with "Free Smoke," where he raps, "I drunk text J.Lo/Old number so it bounce back." While Lopez recently made it clear she's not dating Drake, he doesn't mind keeping things vague so that fans can use their imagination about what went down after the prom. Later, on he's singing Lopez's "If You Had My Love" on "Teenage Fever" that has him letting a girl friend know she’s “to blame for what could have been.”
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Lopez isn't the only woman who seems to hover over More Life. According to Complex, Zoë Kravitz, who has been linked to Drake romantically, appears uncredited as a singer on "No Long Talk." Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention even gets some love on "Can't Have Everything" in a voicemail from Drake's mom who wants him to take the high road.
Rihanna may not be a featured guest on this playlist, but her presence is felt on tracks like "Passionfruit," a song of the summer if we've ever heard one. Drake is more than happy to keep the fire burning on those rumors that he's not so over RiRo. Let's be honest, no one actually thought he was after that recent birthday message he sent her. Drake sings, "Passionate from miles away/Passive with the things you say/ Passin' up on my old ways/I can't blame you, no, no," which feels like another nod to their inability to make things work.
On the latter half of More Life, Drake teams up with old friend Kanye West on "Glow." It's a surprise appearance really since Drizzy seemed to be done with West and his shenanigans. Recently, Drake even said he was confused about West's rant at a concert last year where he said that Drake and DJ Khaled's music was "overplayed" on the radio. Earlier this month, Drake rocked a West mask at a show in Denmark just to add a little extra salt to this wound.
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This playlist isn't Drake at his best musically. Once again this release proves why a good editor — or maybe good friends — are hard to find, but it does feel like a response to those who think he can't do it all or have everything. It's something he raps about on, rather fittingly, a track called "Can't Have Everything."
Specifically, Drake may be going at the Grammys, who he said miscategorized him this year as a rapper when he's really a pop star. He's not wrong, since the Recording Academy gave him Best Rap Song with "Hotline Bling" when he doesn't rap on it. What More Life does do well is fuel the Drake mythology with tracks about who he's feuding with and who he'd like to be making up with. The internet would like more of that, for sure, and Drake's more than happy to oblige.