Drake has a long history of being silly. Remember when he went viral for bringing a lint roller to his courtside seats at a Raptors’ game? And then invented the lint roller dance in the “Hotline Bling” video? Drake is at his most lovable when he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He contains multitudes, though, and right now one of them is: published poet. And, boy, are these poems silly.
Titles Ruin Everything is the new offering from Aubrey Graham and longtime songwriting and composing partner Kenza Samir. It was published by Phaidon Press out of London, and graciously bestowed unto me by Word On Road founder Megan Sumpton, courtesy of Drake Related.
The book opens with a QR code that reveals a statement from The Boy himself: “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.”
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Over the phone, New York Times best-selling author, MacArthur Fellow, and award-winning poet Hanif Abdurraqib tells me that he’s “not that interested in gatekeeping what is or isn’t ‘poetry,’” but, he says, “None of these strike me as poems, because they’re not even attempting to push against any unknown in order to offer something revelatory or at least somewhat beautiful.” Abdurraqib says the therapist poem is emblematic of his perception of Titles.
“Some of these are so absurd that they’re actually funny,” he says. “But it’s hard to tell if he also understands that they’re bending into absurdist humor, and understands that there will be people who find it profound? Or if he’s convinced himself of the profundity.”
There will undoubtedly be people who share blurry photos to Instagram with Nobu Vegas tagged as the location and a caption unironically from the book: Your taste in men isn’t exactly Michelin star. They might even add their own bar to complete the rhyme.
“Really, it’s kind of just a book of puns. Silly lil’ jokes,” says Abdurraqib. “It is a struggle for me to tell how in on the joke he is… I’m not personally offended by anything that masquerades as poetry, because it happens so often in every possible arena of entertainment and consumption, but this is essentially a coffee table book of one-line jokes.”
The kind of poetry I’d like to see from Drake would be more along the lines of his “30 for 30 Freestyle”; lyrics where he is, sure, doing a little posturing, but is also doing some honest inner reflection and even getting vulnerable. You know, putting some distance between his current self and his younger self, rather than making us feel like that gap is closing. He does something similar on “Too Much,” an all-timer and a meditation on how much he’s grown since his first sold-out show in Houston.
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