Yasiin Bey has called Drake‘s work “shopping” music, arguing that it’s not hip-hop.
Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, appeared on fashion podcast The Cutting Room Floor, where a TikTok clip from his conversation went viral.
Host and designer Recho Omondi asked Bey whether he thought Drake was hip-hop, to which he sighed: “Why are you doing this to me?”
The rapper expanded on his thoughts, explaining: “Drake is pop to me, in the sense like, if I was in Target in Houston and I heard a Drake song… it feels like a lot of his music is compatible with shopping. Or shopping with an edge in certain instances… It’s likable.”
@tcrfff 🎙️Season 5 Episode 2 #yasiinbey
Bey continued: “What happens when this thing collapses? What happens when the columns start buckling? Are we not in some early stage of that, at this present hour? Are we seeing the collapse of the empire? Buying and selling, where’s the message that I can use? What’s in it for your audience apart from banging the pom-poms?”
It’s a problem NME detected in our two-star review of Drake’s recent album ‘For All The Dogs’: “Lack of quality control on a Drake album is no new news. Latter-day Drizzy records have often been criticised for being stuffed full of filler as a way of maximising streaming figures and spamming the Top 100, and unfortunately nothing’s changed here.”
Recommended
“At 23 tracks and almost 85 minutes in total length, ‘For All The Dogs’ ends up feeling at times like a slog, a feeling not helped by the artist feeling obliged to pepper the albums with long-winded intros, needless interludes and various faux-radio show skits.”
Drake has teased that he will “definitely” return to Europe for a 2024 tour, saying he’d like to visit some places for the first time including Italy, Tokyo and Albania.
The rapper recently embarked on his ‘It’s All A Blur’ tour, where he brought co-collaborator 21 Savage to finally play a show outside of the US for the first time.