HABIBTI

You cannot deny that these records – ‘Iceman’, in particular – are some of Drake’s strongest work in a while. The trilogy doesn’t restore Drake’s invincibility, but beneath the spectacle and the streaming bait is an ageing superstar still stubbornly clinging onto his crown with both fists.

Habtiti, on the whole, feels like the Drake album we would have gotten a couple of years ago were there no 2024 rap beef. At a tight 11 songs, this album finds Drake in romantic territory, having shed the guarded iciness of Iceman and embracing the R&B loverboy that audiences first came to love him for.

Its 11 tracks are crawling with morose R&B melodies that feel beamed from Take Care’s deleted scenes, almost capturing the fun multi-regional slant of 2020’s Dark Lane Demo Tapes. But Drake’s writing still feels smoothed over and starved of evocative detail. His ideas oscillate between half-baked and colorful, saved by a few spurts of inspiration.

Habibti, though the most replayable entry of the trilogy, is more about atmosphere than content.

He does better on “Habibti,” which feels like it collects all the weird castoffs of this cycle but ends up being the most interesting to follow.

Habibti sound like old ground being half-heartedly retrodden for the sake of it, a plethora of familiar musical and lyrical tropes.