Jeremy Markus / Assistant Arts Editor

February 13, 2020

ART OF THE WEEK | The Worst Drake Lyrics

Print More

There are very few things on this Earth I will get into fights with strangers over online, and just about all of them boil down to everybody’s favorite Canadian — Drake. Is he the greatest pop artist ever? Did Pusha T win that beef? Are his lyrics actually any good? While he has classics, he also has some of the worst bars any artist has ever released sprinkled in for good measure. The worst part is, he’ll often slip them in over some of his best beats and hope you don’t notice. But Drake, believe me, we’ve noticed. But if you didn’t, here are the four worst Drake bars:

1. “Bills so big I call them Williams, for real” — from the song “Nonstop”

What on Earth is this bar? I can’t imagine walking into the studio, rapping this lyric and deciding it’s worth releasing. I know that this check was big enough to pay for producer Tay Keith’s grandkids college education, but damn. Was it worth it? This is one of the most deflating songs to listen to for the first time because it starts out with Tay Keith’s hardest beat, and then Drake gradually drops worse and worse bars until you’re completely demoralized. Really drops your expectations to the floor for the rest of Scorpion though, which it definitely needed.

2. “I pull up in yachts so big that they try to hit me with boat fines.” — from the song “TKTKTK”

This honestly could be the hardest flex of all time — maybe boat fines actually exist but we just don’t know about it because we don’t have yachts. This isn’t even a lazy attempt at a flex, that’s what makes it so bad. You know you have too many yes-men in your camp if this bar makes it to the final version of a release.

3. “We movin’ militant but somehow you the ones tankin’” — from the song “4 PM in Calabasas”

It’s really a shame that Drake released Care Package last year because up until that point, this song was buried as an Apple Music exclusive. This is like your old Facebook posts from middle school resurfacing, but if you were the one to repost it.

4. “Got so many chains they call me Channing Tatum” — from the song “Pop Style”

I really wonder how Jay-Z heard the released version of this song and still decided to hop on the remix. I mean, you can’t put the greatest lyricist of all time in the same song as this lyric, that’s just wrong. Usually saying a bar with your chest can cover how weak it is, but somehow this just emphasizes how bad it is.

 

Daniel Moran is a junior in the College of Human Ecology. He currently serves as the assistant arts and entertainment editor on The Sun’s board. He can be reached at [email protected]