When you break down Drake’s mile-long catalog, a lot of his songs are radio hits about winning this thing we call life. But on the other side, he’s often nothing more than another guy with a lot of heartache and exes.
Drake’s ability to pour his heart out in his music has given him his fair share of both supporters and detractors. He’s essentially made a career out of highlighting what it’s like to be in that weird stage of relationships when you’re deciding if you’re going to actually move on or take another backslide into bae-town. Hell, that was pretty much the running theme of Take Care.
But in case you’re going through one of those “should I leave or should I stay?” situations that we’ve all been through before, here are some of Drake’s best songs on the subject to help you work your way through it.
“Marvin’s Room”
“Marvin’s Room” is the official theme song of the salty ex-boyfriend. There isn’t an ounce of shame in this track as Drake drunk dials his ex to pour his heart out. He’s somehow coherent enough to figure out that her new guy must not be around though. In one song, Drake exemplifies why your significant other doesn’t trust you around your ex.
“Hotline Bling”
There’s always at least one Drake track near the top of the charts and the one that currently holds that title is “Hotline Bling.” While everyone was initially distracted by Drizzy’s carefree and off-beat dancing in the video, some have noticed that it’s just a song about him missing an old flame – or maybe just a regular booty call. It’s not really clear.
“HYFR”
Keeping up with Drake’s exes takes about as much work as a part-time job. He often names different women in different cities that were part of some long-ago affair before things went bad. In “HYFR,” he’s mainly pining after an old love that’s getting her tuition paid off by some poor schmuck in Atlanta. And let’s not forget the “All my exes live in Texas like I’m George Strait” line that had everyone looking around the Lone Star State for the 6God’s ex-lovers.
“Shot For Me”
A common coping mechanism for people just out of a break-up to convince themselves that their exes’ new love interest isn’t as good as them in some way. In “Shot For Me,” Drake takes that one step further and tells his ex that he’s better than her new guy in a long list of ways. He even tells her that he made her who she is and doesn’t want her to forget it.
“Practice”
An important step in getting into a monogamous relationship is coming to the understanding that that’s what you want. Based on “Practice,” that’s not what Drake wants at all. Instead, he’ll convince himself that all of the other partners his lover’s been entertaining while he was away were just practice for him. If this sounds a little delusional to you, you’re not alone. If you’ve said this in your own life, you’re also not alone.
“Hate Sleeping Alone”
While sharing a bed with someone can lead to your arm falling asleep, accidentally catching an elbow to the face and night-long fights for the covers, you start to miss all of that when there’s no one there to do it. Drake takes that feeling of loneliness in “Hate Sleeping Alone” as he goes through temporary fill-ins because he misses the person he’d really like to be sleeping next to.
“Come Thru”
Congratulations. You’ve made it to the point in the breakup where you’re not talking to your ex on a regular basis. But the problem now is that you still think about them a lot. It’s a natural part of the process and you may even find yourself relating to Drake in “Come Thru” when he daydreams about pulling up to his exes house and making a day out of it.
Note: Don’t do that. Showing up unannounced is almost never a good idea.
“Own It”
“Own It” is one of those Drake songs that we’re pretty sure is about Rihanna – who knows how many really are. It even touches on how she didn’t reach out when Chris Brown, the other part of their famous love triangle, had it out for him and questions if she meant it when she said she loved him.
“Unforgettable”
Starting a track off with an Aaliyah sample is a strong sign it’s heading straight to one place, Feelingsville, U.S.A. In “Unforgettable,” Drake starts off by admitting that he’s recently single and missing his ex. He even gives the telltale sign that he’s going through it by trying to remind himself that there are plenty of other fish in the sea that he’s perfectly capable of catching.
“Good Ones Go”
A lesson we can all gain from Take Care is that you can’t spend too much time stringing someone along. While Drake sings about taking forever and a day to get ready for the woman of his dreams in “Good Ones Go,” he’s hoping she won’t get engaged or married to someone else before then. Sounds more than a little selfish, doesn’t it?
“Look What You’ve Done”
“Look What You’ve Done” is a somber tune partially because it’s a very detailed account of Drake’s past, including lost loves and his adventures surrounding them. But it also heavily samples the late Static Major, who wrote for some of the best R&B acts of the late 1990s. And then it ends with his grandmother telling him how much she loves him. For once, Drake, the unofficial king of subliminal messages, actually names his exes while he looks back on his past.
If you don’t well up a little bit when listening to this, you may be broken.
Honorable Mention
“All Me”
Apparently Drake’s had a problem with moving on for a while now. If “All Me” is anything to go off of, he even went back to have a rendezvous with his old babysitter — a dream many of us once had, but moved on from as we got older.
