This past June the well-known rapper, Drake, surprise-released his seventh studio album, “Honestly, Nevermind,” with a tracklist that deviates from his typical rap/R&B sound. “Honestly, Nevermind” includes thirteen tracks, most of which using the house style of music and electronic beats.

To be clear, I am not a Drake fan. While his older R&B era is undeniably nostalgic, much of his current music failed to impress me. Nevertheless, I was excited to hear the album and his addition to a newly recognized genre of music. I began listening to the album on its release date and after hearing the first few songs, decided that continuing was too big of a feat. Aside from hearing some of the songs through social media, I could not listen to the whole album until I committed myself to doing so for the sake of writing this article. 

The album begins with “Intro,” a 37 second song that solely consists of a saxophone; an irrelevant addition, in my opinion. The album progresses to the first song, “Falling Back,” which has an upbeat feel to it. This song, to me, is a weak and unmemorable way to begin the album. Drake’s voice on the song is unmelodic and his usually impressive bars were replaced with a lousy attempt at singing. Despite my optimism, the album did not improve and songs became worse and more repetitive as it went on. There were, however, a few decent songs on the album. Some of my favorites were “Texts Go Green” and “Jimmy Cooks,” which resembled Drake’s typical rap style. “Jimmy Cooks” was catchy; still, Drake’s talent was not showcased, and 21 Savage’s verse outshone his. 

Much of the public seems to share this belief, evidenced by the album’s low first-week sales. Having received 204,000 sales in its first week, “Honestly, Nevermind” is Drake’s lowest selling album to date. The lower album sales should not be attributed to “Honestly, Nevermind” being a surprise release either because Drake has spontaneously released albums in the past. Drake’s new endeavor into the house genre has no redeemable qualities and miserably failed.