Drake – "Honestly, Nevermind" Review: The House Album Nobody Asked For
- Daniel Rasul
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Quick Verdict
Honestly, Nevermind is the most divisive album on this list because the argument for and against it is genuinely complicated. Released as a surprise in June 2022, Drake abandoned rap almost entirely in favour of house, amapiano, Jersey club, and dance music for 13 of its 14 tracks. Critics were generally positive — Metacritic: 73. Rap fans were not. The Ringer described it as a full-on house record with virtually no rapping. Rate Your Music users called it homogeneous, banal, lifeless, and boring. Album of the Year found it a breezy vibe that never really pops off. The consensus among hip-hop listeners was that this felt like a stunt rather than a genuine artistic statement — a pivot away from the scrutiny following Certified Lover Boy rather than toward anything that truly needed to be said. Jimmy Cooks is excellent. The other 13 tracks are a house DJ set you did not ask Drake to make. Rating: 3/10.
At a Glance
Album Details
Table of Contents
Context: The Surprise Pivot Nobody Asked For
Certified Lover Boy had arrived in September 2021 to mixed reviews — critics described it as a creative nadir, indistinct and bloodless and never-ending. Nine months later, without any prior announcement, Drake dropped Honestly, Nevermind on June 17, 2022, just hours after announcing it on Instagram. The surprise element was not the problem. If You're Reading This It's Too Late had been a surprise drop and it was excellent. The problem was what was inside. Rather than answering CLB's critics with focused rap, Drake delivered a full house and dance album executive produced by South African house mainstay Black Coffee, with almost no rapping across 13 of its 14 tracks. The Ringer immediately noted this was a full-on house record, not a rap album with a few extra 120 bpm tracks. Variety called it a corrective — an admission that CLB's conservative tendencies were buckling under creative pressure. Whether it was corrective or reactive, the rap audience that had built Drake's career found almost nothing here to hold on to.
Production and Sonic Landscape
The production on Honestly, Nevermind is where the album's defenders make their strongest case. Gordo, Black Coffee, and frequent Drake collaborator 40 construct a coherent sonic world of pulsing house music, amapiano textures, Jersey club bounce, and Baltimore club energy. Several critics acknowledged the album sounds like a nearly empty nightclub at midnight — desolate, subdued, atmospheric. Massive in particular was called a bona fide rave weapon by Rolling Stone — pure and well-executed big-room house. AllMusic praised the colourful scenery even while noting the destination was still sad and self-involved. The tracks blend together by design, cultivating a cohesive ecosystem. The problem, as Rate Your Music and Album of the Year both noted, is that a cohesive DJ set does not a satisfying rap album make — and the production, while accomplished in its genre, does not compensate for the near-total absence of Drake's primary artistic skill.
Drake as a Singer: The Album's Central Problem
The Ringer identified the album's core gamble precisely: it puts Drake's singing voice upfront to a shocking degree, even by his standards. He is no one's idea of a dynamic crooner, preferring to hide in the mid-register behind sing-songy purrs or island intonations. On previous albums he had compensated by surrounding himself with better singers — Jorja Smith, Rihanna, Majid Jordan. On Honestly, Nevermind, he goes it almost entirely alone for 13 tracks. Rate Your Music reviewers described the vocal performances as drenched in pitch correction and audio processing, with no emotion, no emphasis, and no progression. A reviewer called Texts Go Green the epitome of such banality — a narrative so aimless it feels like Drake complaining while half-asleep. Whether you experience the album as a vibe or an endurance test depends almost entirely on your tolerance for Drake as a primary vocalist without the rap scaffolding that usually holds his melodies up.
Best Songs on Honestly, Nevermind
"Jimmy Cooks" (feat. 21 Savage)
The album's closer and its only traditional rap track — the one moment where Drake actually raps, and 21 Savage shows up to deliver the menacing verse that closes the album on a delirious high note. The Ringer compared its function to the Bound 2 role on Yeezus — the more conventional finale to an unexpected pivot — and noted its inclusion felt like Drake hedging against the possibility that nobody was ready for an all-singing house record. Whether cynical or not, it works. Jimmy Cooks became Drake's eleventh US number-one song and the only track off the album with genuine replay value as a rap song.
"Massive"
Rolling Stone called Massive a bona fide rave weapon — pure and well-executed big-room house. It is the album's strongest dance floor moment and the track that makes the clearest case for why Drake attempted this pivot in the first place. The five-minute runtime moves with enough energy to hold attention, and the production justifies itself in a way most of the album's tracks do not. Billboard predicted nightclub DJs would put it on rotation, and they were not wrong.
Weakest Moments
The album's fundamental weakness is not any individual bad track — it is the uniform sonic palette that makes one track indistinguishable from the next across most of its runtime. Calling My Name, Liability, and Currents are the tracks most cited as forgettable, but the problem applies broadly. Album of the Year noted there are no highs or lows — the album stays on medium the whole time. Rate Your Music called it a homogeneous, banal, unlovable record. DJBooth found no mesmerising melodies, no infectious flows, no alluring beats across the 16 tracks — just an album without ambition. The most withering assessment may be the simplest: Honestly, Nevermind is a decent club playlist that Drake did not need to make, from a rapper who had more urgent things to address.
Final Verdict and Rating
Honestly, Nevermind earns a 3/10 rather than lower because Jimmy Cooks is great, Massive works as a dance track, and the production is genuinely accomplished within its genre. But as a rap album from the biggest rapper in the world at a moment when genuine artistic statements were being made around him, it scores where it scores. The Ringer captured the essential failure: rather than answering CLB's critics with back-to-basics bars and beats, Drake returned with a dance record. Nobody was stopping him from making that record. But putting it on this list is about measuring the gap between what Drake is capable of and what he chose to deliver. The gap here is significant. Final Rating: 3/10.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Honestly, Nevermind a good album?
As a house and dance album, it has competent moments. As a Drake rap album, it is almost entirely absent. Metacritic scored it 73 from critics who assessed it as a dance album. Rap fans rated it significantly lower. Your verdict depends entirely on what you came to Drake for.
What are the best songs on Honestly, Nevermind?
Jimmy Cooks with 21 Savage is the album's clear highlight and its only proper rap track. Massive is the album's best house moment — a genuine dancefloor weapon as Rolling Stone put it. Texts Go Green and Sticky are the most-streamed remaining tracks.
What is the rating for Honestly, Nevermind?
Our rating is 3/10. Jimmy Cooks, Massive, and the genuinely accomplished house production earn points. The near-total absence of rapping from a rapper of Drake's calibre, the uniform sonic palette across 13 nearly identical tracks, and the sense this was a pivot away from scrutiny rather than toward artistic necessity keep the score where it is.
References and Further Listening
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