Dreamy synths and lullaby vocals reminiscent of Old Drake—like, Thank Me Later / So Far Gone era Drake… Energizing beats that make you nod your head on beat with closed eyes and pouted lips. An unexpected but refreshing combo. Drake’s house era kicked off earlier this summer when he dropped Honestly, Nevermind, the perfect tape for summer nights. But does listening to Falling Back feel more like dancing under the Ibiza sunset or trying on pants at H&M?
In the weeks following the late June drop, the Twitter timeline overflowed with strong opinions on the album, with surprising variety in opinion even among avowed Drake fans. Some loved the new sound and, like myself, felt the Drake vocals + house beat combo worked. Others weren’t as fond. A common criticism was that the album’s instrumentals reduced it to “Zara music”—commercialized music that would be played neutrally in a store but not for personal enjoyment.
Others took to Twitter to call the album “some White people shit,” suggesting that Drake stay within the bounds of Black music, i.e. rap and R&B. To these critics, house music intuitively fell outside those bounds—they were soon corrected. More than 50 years after the birth of the genre, the misattribution of house music, like many other music genres created by Black people, was brought to mainstream attention by Drake’s album.
Although not necessarily a dedicated house album (the last two tracks “Liability” and “Jimmy Crooks” don’t even use house beats), it’s the house instrumentals and repetitive vocals that distinguish it from Drake’s previous projects. If Drake’s vocals were instead put over a more familiar Afrobeats or Dancehall inspired beat, there wouldn’t be much to say. Drake is known to borrow from many different sounds throughout the Black diaspora, birthing his many different eras. His borrowing of regional sounds created Dancehall Drake, Grime Drake, and Bounce Drake. House Drake is, in theory, not far off—house is a Black genre, but the unique trajectory of house obscured its Black roots. A Chicago club called the Warehouse (the genre’s namesake) popularized the characteristic electronic drum beats that birthed many sub-genres throughout the decades. House has been created, shaped, and popularized by Black artists. There’s the house scene in New York, Detroit’s spin on house (a.k.a techno). South Africa created amapiano, which Drake tried out years before Honestly, Nevermind when he sampled DJ Black Coffee’s song “Superman” in “Get It Together” with Jorja Smith.
House found a new life once it reached Europe, marking the beginning of the disconnect between the genre and its Black origins. The genre certainly continued to branch out in Europe, with the creation of French touch for example, but that shouldn’t make it a “white genre.” Despite being born in the US, the “Zara Music” and “White people shit” misconceptions of house are far too common. It may be because it’s not as widespread throughout the States outside of big cities, at least outside of the soulless retail setting. And, like the rock genre, for example, whose White fans created a subculture with White people as the face of rock, house’s roots have been lost in translation. But there’s more to house than its permanent tenure on shopping mall speakers or edgy White crowds in Europe—house is by and for Black Americans. With Honestly, Nevermind, Drake, perhaps unintentionally, reminded the US mainstream music scene that there is a history to culture.