On November 4, Drake and 21 Savage dropped their album titled Her Loss. The album includes 16 songs, with one feature from Travis Scott for a play time of one hour. Overall, the album feels like a fan mashup since Drake’s two previous albums gained popularity due to 21 Savage’s appearances on Certified Lover Boy’s Knife Talk and Honestly Nevermind’s Jimmy Cooks. The concept was a recipe for greatness, however, the execution was less than stellar. 

Out of the 16 tracks, there were only a few that stood out, those being Privileged Rappers, Circo Loco, and Spin Bout U. The overall concept can be viewed as a group project. Though the album had many songs with both artists, they each had their solo songs. However, it feels as if 21 did a lot of the heavy lifting regarding Drake’s inconsistency, as it seems that Drake constantly strayed from expectation in most if not all categories. The album was originally supposed to premiere October 28 but due to one of the producers catching COVID the album was pushed back. This,  in theory, would’ve given Drake and 21 Savage more time to really look over the album and make revision if needed, however that wasn’t the case.

 On 21’s part, he did as he’s done before in putting out a consistent product that people like. So far it seems like he’s on a hot streak ever since his last album, Savage Mode II. Drake on the other hand seems to have been on the struggle bus ever since his last EP in Scary Hours 2, when fellow rapper Lil Baby seemingly stole the song Wants and Needs from Drake going ballistic on his verse. Since then, Drake has released arguably his worst albums, Certified Lover Boy and Honestly Nevermind.  

Though it may seem bleak it’s not all bad, and there are a few positives to go over. Firstly, the whole concept of a collaborative album is interesting and really rare to find. The other part to that is that it has been seen that these two artists work well together, so from a fans perspective it’s really the best of both worlds. Another thing that was well done was that certain production elements were done well as far as sampling, melody, and beat. This gives the album diversity as no two songs really sound the same and give an array of different sounds for listeners to enjoy. Finally, the advertisement for the album was really well executed. It seemed wherever you went you’d always see pictures, sound snippets, and reminders about the album’s release. 

Now, the negatives. Despite the album featuring a variety of sounds, it felt like a double edged sword as the album really held no consistent theme causing every song to feel random. Every song felt random and didn’t feel consistent. A second observation is that for a ‘collaborative’ effort, every 2 out of 3 words on the album came from Drake according to RapTV. This really pushes the narrative that the album wasn’t a real 50/50 split and that 21 might’ve been an afterthought as far as involvement in the process. And the thing that really was the final nail in this album’s coffin was that fans seem to really be turning on Drake in the sense that they’re waking up to his decline and that his music may never reach the same level of quality it once had. 

With all that being said Her Loss isn’t a horrible album; it’s just a bit of a letdown considering all the factors that inflated the hype around it. All in all the album is a solid 5.5/10; not necessarily the worst possible case, but definitely far from what it could’ve and quite honestly should’ve been.