Scorpion’s tale
Drake’s explosive new album addresses secret son, social media and Paul Anka
TORONTO Drake often boasts about his chart successes and wallows in heartaches, but on his latest album, Scorpion, the Canadian superstar has delivered a confessional like never before.
The rapper/singer unleashed an explosive 25-track album onto streaming music services that appears to confirm he secretly fathered his first child — putting to rest a rumour circulating on gossip websites.
Scorpion also offers some humbling observations on how social media is eating away the life of Drake, 31, and those around him:
HIS SON
Drake looks to be committing to fatherhood as he comes clean on speculation that he was keeping a secret child away from the public spotlight. Those rumours picked up steam in May when a spat between Drake and fellow rapper Pusha-T escalated into the dis track The Story of Adidon, where the U.S. rapper called out Drake for failing to take responsibility as a dad. Drake dodged the topic when it first emerged, but he addresses it numerous times throughout his album.
On the song Emotionless he says, “I wasn’t hiding my child from the world. I was hiding the world from my child.” Other songs that reference his son include 8 Out of 10 and the closer March 14, where he directly addresses the boy (“I only met you one time, introduced you to Saint Nick.”) and confesses he’s “embarrassed” to tell his divorced parents he’s “a co-parent” too.
PAUL ANKA
Fans were baffled when it was confirmed the Ottawa-born crooner was in the studio with Drake earlier this year. It turns out they were putting a new spin on an unreleased Michael Jackson track Anka had produced. They reworked It Don’t Matter to Me into Drake’s mid-tempo Don’t Matter to Me, a brokenhearted love song punctuated by Jackson’s unmistakable voice on the chorus.
SOCIAL MEDIA
The pressures of Instagram life might be wearing away at Drake’s patience these days. Even though he’s known for frequently updating his Instagram Story with slices of his lavish lifestyle, the rapper confesses on Can’t Take a Joke that nasty posts from anonymous strangers eat away at him (“My comment section killin’ me. I swear I get so passionate, y’all do not know the half of it.”). He revisits the soul-crushing side of social media on Emotionless when he recalls several women he knows who live through the lens of their phone cameras trying to “post pictures for people at home.”
CANADA
Surprisingly few mentions of Drake’s Toronto hometown turn up in the lyrics on Scorpion, if there are any, but he does slip in a quick reference to the whales at Niagara Falls amusement park Marineland. Other than that, his Canadian roots are mostly referenced through mentions of the United States. He talks about bringing his closest friends stateside when he works and makes a cryptic reference on Sandra’s Rose to having “some real demons across the border fence.”
LIFE’S PURPOSE:
Between the boasts about his rap skills and competitive nature, Drake pauses to consider what the pursuit of fame and fortune actually means in the bigger picture. The question rings most strongly on Is There More, which throws his corporate deals and an endless parade of women into focus to ask, “Am I missin’ somethin’ that’s more important to find? Like healin’ my soul, like family time?” He doesn’t reach a conclusion on the song, which assures Drake still has plenty of conflicts to explore.