Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Emma Chance | Celebrity | July 14, 2023
Drake’s first book of poetry, Titles Ruin Everything: A Stream of Consciousness, cowritten with the rapper’s longtime collaborator Kenza Samir, was published via Phaidon last month and promptly sold out.
The book is composed of single-line “poems,” each laid over a two-page spread. Things like “You love to get pretty for people / who don’t know the truth about you.” Add a little line drawing in the corner and Rupi Kaur would sue for plagiarism.
There’s also a QR code in the front matter that links to a new album, which is supposed to serve as a companion piece, with a dedication that reads, “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.”
The reviews so far have been tepid.
DJ Kahled basically roasted Drake in a video in which he read lines from the book dramatically and held the nearly blank pages up to the camera, while repeatedly saying “The man wrote a book,” and “I’m not making this up!”
Drake sent Khaled his poetry book pic.twitter.com/jbBvLsxnYl
— Drake Fan Page (@DrakeDirect_) June 27, 2023
Samuel Hyland of Pitchfork said that Drake’s poems “could have functioned as an Instagram caption, a tweet, a lyric, or, perhaps best of all, a fleeting, unshared thought.”
Award-winning poet Hanif Abdurraqib called it “essentially a coffee table book of one-line jokes,” and Houston poet laureate Aris Kian a “goldmine of mediocre mic drops.”
Drake was unbothered by the bad reviews, posting a response on his Instagram stories in which he called Abduraquib and Kian “randomly angry poets.”
At least they’re poets, though.
