If you've been following along over the last week or so, I've been going through Drake's ENTIRE streaming discography in a NCAA March Madness style bracket eliminating songs along the way. We started with over 230 songs, narrowed it down to 54, and now we're finally down to just 16.
As a reminder here are the songs and the respective groups they came from:
- Group 1: (Too Much, Energy, Cameras/Good Ones Go, Teenage Fever)
- Group 2: (Jaded, The Ride, Weston Road Flows, Jodeci Freestyle)
- Group 3: (Passionfruit, 0 To 100/The Catch Up, Tuscan Leather, Marvin's Room)
- Group 4: (Star67, Jungle, Hold On We're Going Home, The Motto)
We also started with 14 albums and the Top 16 songs only has representation from 6 of them:
- Take Care (4)
- Nothing Was The Same (3)
- If Your Reading This It's Too Late (3)
- More Life (2)
- Scorpion (1)
- Views (1)
- Non-album singles (2)
Without further ado, let's get into this Top 16 bracket. We once again took all of the songs and put them into a pool, ordered them by streams and matched them up appropriately. This is what the bracket looked like.
(1) Passionfruit vs (16) Jodeci Freestyle
"Passionfruit" is the 4th most streamed song in Drake's discography and the most streamed song left in the bracket. I previously praised "Passionfruit" for the warmth and overall fun feeling this song exudes. The year the song came out I'd play it almost every time the weather in Toronto got really nice, it had that much of a hold on my musical rotation at the time. "Jodeci Freestyle" was such a moment for both Drake and J. Cole though. The both of them brought the best out of each other with the end result being verses full of clever bars, a level of introspection into their respective careers, and a hefty dose of braggadocio. 16th seeded "Jodeci Freestyle" advances to the Top 8 here.
Winner: (16) Jodeci Freestyle
(8) Jungle vs (9) Too Much
It's obvious "Jungle" is the better song here. But I can't completely throw "Too Much" in the dirt because in its own right it is a fantastic song. It's got an absolutely sensational hook from Sampha and the minimalist beat provides a wonderful canvas for Drake to get reflective on his personal and family struggles making mention of his stresses, anxieties, and his mothers illness just to name a few topics. It really is a great song. "Jungle" however just might be one of the best R&B songs in Drake's discography. When you combine the slow, smooth, atmospheric beat with his vocal performance and storytelling on the track it, it's hard to deny that it's the winner of this matchup.
Winner: (8) Jungle
(4) Marvin's Room vs (13) Weston Road Flows
Another iconic Drake track featured in this matchup. "Marvin's Room" to some might be the song that they think of when you ask them to name one by Drake. And for good reason. He really provides one of the best performances of his career; perhaps not it terms of sheer lyrical quality, but something about the emotion in delivery and the fact he isn't afraid to recount the heartbreak he experienced really combines for an all around superb track. "Weston Road Flows" is perhaps the best display of rapping on Views. I previously praised the ability Drake has on this track to keep the listener captivated for 4 minutes straight as he constantly changes up his flow and rhyme schemes to produce an enthralling track. It's a great song but "Marvin's Room" is "Marvin's Room" and it advances here as well.
Winner: (4) Marvin's Room
(5) The Motto vs (12) Cameras / Good Ones Go
I love the arrogant side that Drake shows on "The Motto" especially contrasted with the more emotional and downtempo songs that were all over the rest of Take Care. Even though Drake only has a single verse on this song, he delivers so many high impact and quotable bars in the just over 50 seconds it takes to get through it all. And as I said before, the man really got us saying "YOLO" off of this song alone. Iconic. That being said, I genuinely believe "Cameras / Good Ones Go" is one of the best deep cuts in Drake's discography. The opening line of "word on road, is the clique about to blow" is such a fitting precursor to the trajectory of the both his and The Weeknd's careers after this album. "Cameras" has such an incredible bounce to it thanks to pocket Drake's lyrics occupy in the beat. "Good Ones Go" is an incredibly heartfelt song in its own right and you can really feel the emotion in this as well. I can't deny the impact of "The Motto" but strictly from a musical standpoint "Cameras / Good Ones Go" is the better of the two.
Winner: (12) Cameras / Good Ones Go
(2) Hold On We're Going Home vs (15) The Ride
This matchup is another case of a pop hit taking on a deep cut in Drake's discography. "Hold On We're Going Home" is a smooth and catchy fusion of R&B with retro synths and percussion that are heavily disco inspired. The lyrics are accessible and easy for masses to learn and become familiar with, there isn't anything musically that pushes the envelope and is overall just a safe (albeit very fun and good feeling) pop record. Conversely, "The Ride" is buried right at the tail end of Take Care and features Drake delivering deeper introspective lyrics that are much more in line with some of themes he discusses through the rest of the album. Verse two has him getting deeply personal about his early days in the music industry and some of the lengths he had to go through in order to portray the conventional image associated with rappers. His storytelling and poetic flows on the track with its beat carried by a sample from The Weeknd clearly puts it in the winning position in this matchup.
Winner: (15) The Ride
(7) 0 to 100 / The Catch Up vs (10) Jaded
Before I even got too deep into this bracket I had a friend tell me that I can't let the fact that I think so highly of "Jaded" make me make a poor decision in a matchup it's involved in. That being said, I think I have all the reasons in the world to rate it so highly. I genuinely think that outside of the outro to "Diamonds Dancing" it's Drake's most overt display of blatant resentment towards a woman he was involved with. Drake outright admits he's both hurt by and jaded towards this woman which he repeatedly expresses throughout the entire track with the help of Ty Dolla $ign and his adlibs. Listen to some of the things he says on verse two. Nasty work. "0 to 100 / The Catch Up" is a great display of Drake and his arrogant and boastful side and his goat themed bar was insanely clever. The back half of the track in the "Catch Up" also has some really clever one liners as well but I think when compared to the raw emotion (and pettiness) on "Jaded" it comes up slightly short.
Winner: (10) Jaded
(3) Teenage Fever vs (13) Tuscan Leather
This is a pretty difficult match up truthfully. We've got Drake in his pure R&B bag with "Teenage Fever" and him delivering a 6 minute intro comprised of numerous different flows and instrumentals on "Tuscan Leather". Without a doubt the quality of rapping is superior on "Tuscan Leather" as Drake really shows out his abilities dropping poignant bars with multiple flows as he discusses his ascent in the rap game. His play on Ellen's last name is great, his alphabet bar is pretty good, and I really enjoy the line "I just set the bar ni--as fall under it like a limbo" and his constant questioning of how long he's spent on the intro both in terms of performance and likely preparation in writing. "Teenage Fever" is no slouch of a song either. Drake's voice over the percussion light and synth heavy backing instrumental is a wicked combination. I'm such a huge fan of Drake when he accepts that he's got a great ear and voice for R&B and I genuinely think "Teenage Fever" is one of his best displays of that. I do however also think that "Tuscan Leather" has the edge.
Winner: (13) Tuscan Leather
(6) Energy vs (11) Star67
Winner: (11) Star67
And there we go, from the Top 16 Drake songs narrowed down a Top 8. Do you agree with these results? Any changes you would have made here? Let me know! Follow @3TrackSet on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to keep up to date.
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