Drake name-checks Taylor Swift and Kanye West on new track ‘Red Button’
Drake’s latest surprise music drop includes unexpected nods to two infamously opposed artists: Taylor Swift and Kanye West.
The Canadian rapper, 37, released For All the Dogs Scary Hours Edition on Friday (17 November), as an extended version of last month’s album release, For All the Dogs.
This new version includes six additional tracks, presented as a separate EP (extended play) titled Scary Hours 3.
On the song “Red Button”, Drake – born Aubrey Graham – name-checks his fellow musicians. First, he hails Swift as the only artist he views as an equal, at least when measuring their respective successes.
“Taylor Swift the only n**** that I ever rated / Only one could make me drop the album a little later,” he raps.
Later in the track, Drake brings up West, with whom he and Swift have both had historical disagreements.
“Every time that Yeezy called a truce, he had my head inflated / Thinkin’ we gon’ finally peace it up and get to levitatin’,” he raps.
West and Swift’s opposition began at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009, when he stormed the stage during her acceptance speech for “Video of the Year”. Interrupting the then-19-year-old, West declared Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” music video the rightful winner over Swift’s “You Belong with Me”.
Meanwhile, Drake’s feud with West – also known as Ye – has been an on-and-off feature of their careers since 2009.
The Canadian star appeared to rekindle the beef earlier this year with “Search & Rescue”, in which he samples a conversation between West’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, and her mum Kris Jenner.
“I didn't come this far, just to come this far and not be happy,” Kardashian tells Kris in an episode of their reality series, Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
However, Drake’s father seemed to attempt to quell rumours that the rapper was taking a swipe at West, stating he was “not trolling anyone, it’s just a song”.
In The Independent’s four-star review of Scary Hours 3, music editor Roisin O’Connor describes the release as a rare case of the rapper showing some love and admiration for the women in his life.
She writes: “His grievances on For All the Dogs seemed exclusively directed at women, causing some to wonder whether we’d ever see a return to his puppyish, boy-next-door type. Scary Hours 3 isn’t that, but it does even the playing field somewhat, not least by praising the women in his life and castigating the men.”
In comparison, For All the Dogs, released in October, received a two-star rating from The Independent and was widely criticised for its negative references to women.
