On June 24th, 2023, Drake announced that he was working on a new studio album. His last studio album, Honestly, Nevermind, released on June 17, 2022, had over 200 million streams in its first week on Spotify, and reached number 1 on the US billboard 200. Shockingly, however, the album album was not in fact one of his most popular and did not meet the standards of previous Drake albums.
Although Drake had originally planned for the release date of his newest album, For All the Dogs, to be on September 22nd, 2023, he had faced a slight dilemma over whether he should focus on the album and finish it or cancel shows for his tour that was going on at the time. Drake chose to change the release date of the album, pushing it to October.
Drake soon dropped the official release date of October 6th, 2023. Earlier though, he teased and dropped a song from the album, “Slime You Out,” on September 15th to help promote the release of the album. Fans were shocked by this drop, as his ex, Sza, was given a feature in the song. The song was their first-ever collaboration with each other. After he dropped the single featuring Sza, he later dropped another single from the album, “8am in Charlotte,” on October 5th, 2023, the day before the release of the album.
For All the Dogs is Drake’s 8th studio album. It contains 23 songs and has many features, ranging from 21 Savage to his son, Adonis Graham. Drake also revealed that Adonis Graham designed the cover for the album, a drawing of a goat.
Drake also has two other albums on which he collaborates with other artists. The first collaboration, released on September 23, 2015, is with Future and is called What a Time to Be Alive. The second album collaboration, Her Loss, released on November 8, 2022 and features 21 Savage.
For All The Dogs is said to be about heartbreak and how Drake is moving forward through the sorrow.
“Slime You Out” has racked over 7.2 million views on YouTube since its release. Though this is his most popular song on the album, many fans are astonished by his first song on the album, “Virginia Beach,” which has over 3 million views on YouTube. The song is a comparison between the city and a lover, but what makes it so special is that it samples a track from Frank Ocean called “Wisemen.” This move baffled fans, as Ocean, an American songwriter and singer, stopped making new music seven years ago following his last album Blonde.
It is projected that For All the Dogs will be the 13th one to hit number one on Billboard’s top 200 albums of 2023.
