Drake is giving Taylor Swift her flowers via a surprising namedrop on his new album.
“Taylor Swift the only n—ga that I ever rated,” Drake, 37, raps on his new song “Red Button,” released with his For All the Dogs Scary Hours Edition album on Friday, November 17. “Only one could make me drop the album just a little later.”
The lyrics allude to Drake and Swift’s ongoing battle to become the most decorated musician on the Billboard Top 100, as they are in the one and two spot.
Drake and 21 Savage’s joint album, Her Loss, was pushed last year due to the release of Swift’s Midnights record. Initially, Her Loss was set to drop on October 28, 2022, but was moved a week later to November 4.
Swift’s Midnights had been released on October 21, 2023, and fans were quick to speculate that Drake moved his release to allow Swift, 33, more time on the charts.
While Midnights took over charts upon its release, Her Loss pushed it from No. 1 on the album chart in November 2022. That being said, Swift’s “Anti-Hero” was still in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, even after the release of Her Loss.
Upon sharing his successes, Drake did get backlash after fans were convinced he threw some shade at Swift over her Billboard chart success.
In November 2022, he shared an Instagram Story revealing that Her Loss was dominating the Billboard Hot 100 and covered had up the title of “Anit-Hero” with a series of emojis. At the time, fans accused him of being “petty.”
This is hardly the first time Drake has pushed back one of his album releases. Earlier this year, something similar happened with his For the Dogs album, which ended up being released around the same time as another one of Swift’s records.
Initially, the record was set to be released on September 22. However, Drake revealed that he needed more time to complete the album, moving the release date to October 6.
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“Okay my dilemma I am faced with is I either cancel shows to finish the album or I complete the mission and drop the album before the last show,” he wrote in a message to fans on September 16. “I owe you all these memories we are building and anywhere we have missed to date we will be spinning back for sure.”
Swift, for her part, dropped 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on October 27. With both album releases, Drake put two weeks between his and Taylor’s drops.
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