For All the Dogs

On January 21, 2023, during his free concert at the Apollo Theater, Drake teased the release of an album, saying he wanted to "strike up more emotions, maybe this year". He also responded to the negative reception of his previous few albums, stating: "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 [the fans]". On June 23, Drake announced that his poetry book titled Titles Ruin Everything, which was co-written with songwriter Kenza Samir and previously teased in summer 2022, would be released on July 14. One day later, full advertisements on the front-page of the New York Post contained an incorporated QR code. Upon scanning, the QR code redirected to a landing page with a picture of two puppies above a statement: "I made an album to go with the book... They say they miss the old Drake, girl don't tempt me. For all the dogs". Its title was soon officially confirmed by OVO and Republic. During his performance in Detroit on July 9 for the It's All a Blur Tour, his co-headlining tour with 21 Savage, Drake announced that Nicki Minaj would appear on the album. The track was later revealed to be "Needle", which appeared on Minaj's 2023 album Pink Friday 2 instead; Drake believed it did not fit the album sonically and gave it to Minaj. Drake then announced Bad Bunny would appear on the album during a performance in Los Angeles on August 13; he appears on "Gently". Eight days later, Drake revealed the album artwork, drawn by his son, Adonis. On August 22, Amazon Music announced on social media that the album would be released in three days along with praising Adonis for the drawing, but the statement was later deleted. On September 6, Drake confirmed the album would be released on September 22. Two days after the announcement, he shared a trailer video for the album, which was a flashback of his father, Dennis Graham, performing on the Canadian television series Stormy Monday with Danny Marks in the early 1990s. Exactly ten days after the announcement, he announced that the album would be delayed by exactly two weeks due to the ongoing tour and would be released on October 6. Drake revealed the tracklist on October 5, one day before the album was released. Singles The lead single of the album, "Slime You Out", which features American singer-songwriter SZA, was released on September 15, 2023. The song debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Drake his twelfth US number-one single and SZA her second. The second single of the album, "8AM in Charlotte", was released on October 5, 2023. The official music video was released through Drake's Instagram account on the same day. The song debuted at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. The third single of the album, "Rich Baby Daddy", which features American rapper Sexyy Red and SZA, was sent to Italian contemporary hit radio on October 13, 2023. The song debuted at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The fourth single of the album, "First Person Shooter", which features J. Cole, was sent to US rhythmic contemporary radio on October 24, 2023. The song debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Its music video was released on November 15, 2023. The fifth single of the album, "You Broke My Heart", was sent to rhythmic contemporary radio on November 28, 2023. The song peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. ==Music and lyrical themes==

The standard edition of For All the Dogs contains twenty-three tracks, with a playing time of over 84 minutes. On November 17, 2023, the For All the Dogs Scary Hours Edition was released with an additional six tracks, making the total playing time over 108 minutes. Composition and production For All the Dogs is a hip-hop record with production described as a "sterilised studio sheen" that wanders to "an earthy fusion of soul samples and boom-bap drums". The majority of the album's production was handled by Drake's OVO Sound in-house-producers, Noah "40" Shebib and Boi-1da, alongside production from Lil Yachty, Bnyx, Gordo, and Drake himself, among several others. Themes The themes on the album are reminiscent of several of Drake's previous albums, including Nothing Was the Same (2013) Furthermore, throughout the album, there is a radio show theme that slips in and out of focus. Several artists appear at the end of tracks as if they are hosting a radio station by the name of "BARK Radio". These artists include George Clinton ("All the Parties"), Sade Adu ("BBL Love [Interlude]"), and Snoop Dogg ("7969 Santa"). Drake raps on a warped sample of Frank Ocean's "Wiseman" about the ups and downs of a fallen relationship. The album's twenty-sixth cut, "The Shoe Fits" from For All the Dogs Scary Hours Edition, is more of an introspective track on the album. On the track, Drake confesses that he doesn't know how to rap like the "old Drake", which many fans long for. On the track, Drake takes a stand against domestic violence and toxic relationships, while also calling out the independent woman who primarily cater to men's needs. ==Artwork==

The artwork for For All the Dogs was revealed in August 2023 on an Instagram post, with the album title and "Cover by Adonis" as its caption, meaning that it was drawn by Drake's son Adonis. Adonis described his artwork as "a carefree piece of work". Drake called the work "an inspiration to his 2016 album Views". Drake dedicated the artwork to his 5th grade artwork which shows a cat with blue eyes. On August 6, 2024, Drake released 100 gigabytes of data including behind-the-scenes clips, tour rehearsals, and studio footage, including three unheard tracks under an Instagram page named "plottttwistttttt". The data was also uploaded to a website (100gigs.org). Among the 100 gigabytes of data, several unused artworks were uncovered for previously released Drake albums, including Certified Lover Boy (2021), Honestly, Nevermind (2022), Her Loss (2022), and a scrapped sequel of Care Package (2019). The website also has an unseen promotional poster for Drake's It's All a Blur Tour. Among the unseen artwork and posters, two unused cover arts for For All the Dogs were uncovered. ==Critical reception==

For All the Dogs was met with mixed reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received a weighted average score of 53, based on 13 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In a review of For All the Dogs Scary Hours Edition, Shahzaib Hussain for Clash wrote that Drake "finds pockets within the grooves and crevices, foregoing lustre and grandiosity in favour of an understated performance piece". Concluding his review, Hussain stated that "Drake is Drake’s only competition". HipHopDXs Nadine Smith wrote that despite the Scary Hours edition intending to "serve as evidence of Drake’s lyrical prowess and unchallenged dominance of the rap game", it instead makes him look "desperate" and "uncomfortable". Roisin O'Connor of The Independent wrote that the "surprise release helps shake off the toxic sludge he waded through on For All the Dogs". Year-end lists ==Commercial performance==

In Drake's home country of Canada, For All the Dogs debuted at number one on the Billboard Canadian Albums, marking Drake's fourteenth number-one album in the country. The album earned a total of 514.01 million on-demand streams in the debut week, that resulted in the largest streaming week of 2023 for any album and the fourth-largest ever. With For All the Dogs, Drake extended many of his Hot 100 chart records, including the most top-five hits (41), top-ten hits (76), top-20 entries (132), top 40 hits (199) and overall charted titles (320). After the release of the deluxe edition, For All the Dogs: Scary Hours, the album returned to number one on the Billboard 200, with 145,000 album-equivalent units. For All the Dogs debuted at number two on the new Billboard Top Streaming Albums chart dated October 28. The following week, the album reached number one on the chart. As of December 27, 2023, For All the Dogs was the eighteenth best-selling album of the year according to Hits, moved a total 1,121,000 album-equivalent units, including 13,000 pure album sales, 53,000 song sales, 1.422 billion audio-on-demand streams, and 49 million video-on-demand streams. Still according to Hits, the álbum moved a total 1,371,000 album-equivalent units in 2024, was the eighteenth best-selling album of the year. For All the Dogs also gave Drake his sixth number-one album in the United Kingdom and marked his second chart-topping album in less than a year, following his collaborative album with 21 Savage titled Her Loss (2022). In its second week, the album remained in the top 10 in the UK and fell to number three. ==Track listing==

Notes • signifies a co-producer • signifies an additional producer Sample credits • "Virginia Beach" contains samples of "Wiseman", written by Christopher Breaux and James Ho, as performed by Frank Ocean. • "Calling for You" contains samples of "Livin Without You", written by Nohelani Cypriano and Dennis Graue, as performed by Nohelani Cypriano; a sample of "Calling 4 You (Freestyle)", written by Francis Leblanc, as performed by Fridayy; and an uncredited sample of "Shake it to the Ground", written by Charles Smith and Ryeisha Berrain, as performed by Blaqstarr and Rye Rye. • "Daylight" contains uncredited samples of dialogue from Scarface (1983), written by Oliver Stone, as performed by Al Pacino. • "First Person Shooter" contains samples of "Look Me in the Eyes", written by Joe Washington Jr., as performed by Joe Washington and Wash; and "Redemption", as scored by Snorre Tidemand. • "IDGAF" contains samples of "The Tunnel", written by Norma Winstone and John Taylor, as performed by Azimuth. • "7969 Santa" contains samples of "I Don't Like", written by Keith Cozart, Tavares Taylor, and Tyree Pittman, as performed by Chief Keef and Lil Reese. • "Screw the World" contains samples of "If I Ruled the World", written by Robert Earl Davis Jr., as performed by DJ Screw; which itself contains samples of "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)", written by Nasir Jones, Kurtis Walker, Samuel Barnes, and Jean-Claude Olivier, as performed by Nas and Lauryn Hill. • "Drew a Picasso" contains samples of "The Motion", written by Aubrey Graham, Noah Shebib, and Sampha Sisay, as performed by Drake. • "All the Parties" contains an uncredited interpolation of "West End Girls", written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, as performed by Pet Shop Boys. • "8am in Charlotte" contains samples of "A Faithful Spirit", written by Nichol Eskridge of the Polyphonic Music Library. • "Rich Baby Daddy" contains an interpolation of "Dog Days Are Over", written by Florence Welch and Isabella Summers, as performed by Florence and the Machine. • "You Broke My Heart" contains samples of "Stoned Love", written by Frank Wilson and Kenny Thomas, as performed by the Supremes. ==Personnel==

Credits adapted from Tidal. Musicians • Drake – vocals • 40 – keyboards (tracks 1, 3, 9, 13, 14), drums (1, 3, 13, 14), bass (9) • Harley Arsenault – drums, keyboards (1) • Monique Avant – vocals (3) • Baby M – additional vocals (3) • JayStolaa – drums (3) • PowrTrav – drums (3) • Cash Cobain – drums (3) • Gent! – drums (3, 15), keyboards (15) • Adonis – additional vocals (5) • Vinylz – drums, keyboards (6) • FnZ – drums, keyboards (6) • Coleman – drums, keyboards (6) • Boi-1da – drums, keyboards (6) • Tay Keith – drums, keyboards (6) • Oz – keyboards (6) • Teezo Touchdown – additional vocals (8), background vocals (18) • Nyan Lieberthal – additional vocals, keyboards (8) • Snoop Dogg – additional vocals (8) • Alex Lustig – keyboards (8) • Dalton Tennant – bass, keyboards (9) • Noel Cadastre – bass, drums, keyboards (9) • JeRonelle – additional vocals (10, 11, 23) • Eli Brown – drums, keyboards (13) • Sauceboy – drums (13) • Young Troy – drums (13) • Tommy Parker – drums (13) • TheBoyKam – drums (13) • Dnny Phntm – drums (13) • Steven Vidal – drums, keyboards (14) • Lil Yachty – background vocals (15) • Bangs – drums, keyboards (15) • Bnyx – drums, keyboards (15) • Chief Keef – additional vocals (16) • June Audrey Raisen – additional vocals (22) Technical • Chris Athens – mastering • Dave Huffman – mastering (1–8, 10–23) • Noel Cadastre – mixing (1–11, 13, 15–20, 22, 23), engineering (all tracks) • Noah Shebib – mixing (1–3, 10–14, 17–22) • Hector Castro – engineering (9) • Oupsing – mixing assistance (1–8, 10–23) • Jad El Khoury – engineering assistance (9) ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==