Summer is ending but Drake is only just getting started. After weeks of teasing, the rapper has finally released For All the Dogs, his eighth studio album. His third record to be released in the last two years — following Honestly, Nevermind and the 21 Savage-assisted collaborative album Her Loss — arrives as a companion piece to Titles Ruin Everything, the poetry book he released back in June.
“I made an album to go with the book,” Drake wrote on the website for the poetry collection. “They say they miss the old Drake girl don’t tempt me. FOR ALL THE DOGS.”
For All the Dogs notably includes collaborations with Bad Bunny, J. Cole, SZA, Chief Keef, 21 Savage, Teezo Touchdown, Yeat, Sexyy Red, and Lil Yachty. Drake is an executive producer on the LP alongside Noah “40” Shebib, Oliver El-Khatib, and Noel Cadastre. Listen here via Tidal.
Prior to the drop, Drake revealed the 23-song track list, which kept featuring artists hidden at the time. Leading up to the record’s release, the rapper shared the music video for “8 AM in Charlotte,” on social media Wednesday night, and “Slime You Out,” a collab with SZA, in September.
The album was originally set for release on Sept. 22, but the rapper announced he was pushing it back to focus on his tour. Since For All the Dogs was first announced, rumors buzzed that it would be drop week for Drake. And every Friday that it didn’t arrive, anticipation for it rose, rather than faltered. The continued interest was likely linked to the rapper’s current arena run on the It’s All a Blur tour. While hinting about the return of the dearly missed “old” Drake, the Toronto native was hitting the stage multiple nights a week and running through the hits that his audience yearned for.
On opening night of the tour, Drake ran through more than 50 songs spanning more than a decade of his career, including “Marvins Room,” “HYFR,” “God’s Plan,” and his latest single release “Search & Rescue,” which was released in April and notably samples Kim Kardashian.
In January, months before the tour kicked off, Drake performed a special career-spanning show at the Apollo Theater in New York City. When 21 Savage joined him on stage, he mentioned that the pair would be out on the road together this summer and hinted at the release of a new solo album.
“I’ve thought about a bunch of things in life, but at this moment in time none of those things are stopping making music for you, so I’ll be here for you for a little bit at least,” Drake told the audeince. “I hope I can strike up more emotions for you. Maybe this year – I might get bored and make another one. Who knows?”