Drake & 21 Savage’s Her Loss Was Good, Outside of That One Line [UPDATED]

After Her Loss was delayed a week, the highly-anticipated collaborative album from Drake and 21 Savage is out. And I must admit, I enjoyed almost everything about this album even before it was released, outside of that Megan Thee Stallion Line, which I’ll get to later.

Before we get to the music, the rollout for this album was particularly entertaining. Leading up to the release, the rap duo posted hilarious parodies of what a typical press rollout would look like for any other rap artist in the music industry.

It started with a fake Vogue magazine cover of Drake and 21, which looked legit, but in reality, wasn’t. Throughout the week, the hip-hop stars shared these comedic clips of interviews and performances they were doing leading up to Her Loss.

One clip seemed to tease the rappers doing an NPR Tiny Desk, which got fans, and me, excited as NPR does a great job of producing those performances. But, NPR Music shot down the faux performance with the quickness.

Another clip showed the duo being interviewed on The Howard Stern Show, talking about their relationships with women and other explicit topics.

21 Savage had a clip of his own that showed the rapper doing his own Vogue “What’s in My Bag” video, which is a clear parody of GQ’s “Ten Things I Can’t Live Without.”

I know these clips have nothing to do with how the actual music was going to sound, but it made me very confident about what I was going to hear when the album finally dropped in the wee hours of the morning. And I gotta say, I was not let down, for the most part.

I had a lot of fun with this album. No, it’s not Drake or 21 Savage’s best rapping by any means, but damn do both artists have standout moments that many hip-hop fans will enjoy.

The project has 16 tracks and clocks in at just above an hour. While both artists are known for having a multitude of cameos on their solo projects, this project included only one, Travis Scott.

When it comes to the album’s content, it stays true to the title and hears both artists rapping about the many different relationships they’ve had with a variety of women. To no surprise, Drake is the standout on every song he appears on, sorry 21. As Drake once famously rapped in 2013, “Every song sounds like Drake featuring Drake.” He’s stayed true to that promise.

Drizzy’s magnum opus was on “Middle of the Ocean” where we hear the Canadian king absolutely rap his ass off for five minutes straight.

21 Savage also had standout moments of his own. He and Drake played off of each other well and saw each rapper experiment with the other’s flow in a way I wasn’t expecting. For example, 21 Savage was clearly inspired by Drake’s timestamp songs on “3AM on Glenwood,” which is a very well-written track.

The album was good, and I enjoyed almost every song, outside of that one song with that one line that completely conflicts with my enjoyment of the project.

“Circo Loco,” is an upbeat track that sees the Toronto artist immediately taking shots at one of hip-hop’s most disrespected artists, Megan Thee Stallion. Less than 30 seconds into the song, you can hear Drake rap, “This bitch lie about getting shots, but she still a stallion/She don’t even get the joke but she still smiling.”

This is an obvious reference to Megan Thee Stallion’s claims that Tory Lanez shot her in both of her feet in July 2020. Why did Drake have to include that line? The same man who claims to be a “feminist” on this album is also saying he doesn’t believe that she was shot. Make it make sense.

The line wasn’t funny, witty, cool, or creative, it was just pointless.

Look, for the most part, I’m a fan of Drake and his music. But there was absolutely no reason to include this line that protects a man who is currently on house arrest waiting for his criminal trial to begin. Like Tory Lanez is the man you’re capping for?

The line added nothing to the track or album and I wish Drake left it off for his sake and most importantly, Megan’s.

As a result, that one bar is making me completely question my Drake fandom and whether I should listen to this album ever again.