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Drake · S5 E3
Wu-Tang Forever
Not a diss, not a sample flip. A tribute and proof that Drake can rap when he wants to
September 2013. Drake titles a song "Wu-Tang Forever" and every hip-hop purist braces for sacrilege. Instead they get six minutes of the most introspective rapping of his career.
Kendrick Lamar feat. Drake, Poetic Justice (2013). Before Nothing Was the Same proved Drake could rap alone, this track put him next to the best lyricist of his generation. Drake doesn't flinch.
Poetic Justice, Kendrick Lamar feat. Drake (2013)
Scoop DeVille samples Janet Jackson's "Any Time, Any Place" and turns it into something hazy and warm, a slow-motion love letter over West Coast drums. Kendrick tells a story about a girl who writes poetry to cope, while Drake floats in on the second verse with a lighter touch, singing about a relationship that's already falling apart. Listen for how the two styles sit next to each other without competing: Kendrick tells stories, Drake confesses feelings, and neither one blinks.
The Six-Minute Statement
While "Poetic Justice" showed Drake could share a track with Kendrick, "Wu-Tang Forever" proved something bigger. Nearly six minutes long with no radio-friendly hook, it was one of the longest tracks on Nothing Was the Same and the most demanding. Drake carries the entire song alone, switching flows and shifting topics like he's having a conversation with himself in real time.
“I appreciate it... that's what we meant when we said, 'Wu-Tang is forever.'”
— RZA, Rolling Stone interview, 2013
The Title
Wu-Tang Clan's 1997 double album was about loyalty, legacy, and the weight of success. By borrowing the name, Drake wasn't comparing himself to the Clan. He was saying: the paranoia, the brotherhood, the fear that everything could disappear, I feel all of that too.
TAP TO REVEAL: Did Drake ask the Wu-Tang Clan for permission to use their name?
Park Hill, Staten Island, New York
The housing projects where Wu-Tang Clan formed in 1992. Known as "Shaolin" in Wu-Tang mythology, it's the ground Drake's song title pays tribute to.
Wu-Tang Forever: The Details
What is the Wu-Tang Clan's nickname for Staten Island, the borough where they formed?
The Language, Drake
From Nothing Was the Same. If "Wu-Tang Forever" is Drake at his most contemplative, "The Language" is Drake at his most aggressive. The beat hits harder, the delivery is sharper, and the bars are unapologetically confrontational. Together, these two tracks prove that NWTS Drake could out-rap anyone who still doubted him.
The Language, Drake (2013)
Read the lyrics while you listen. "I don't need love, I'm the Language." Three and a half minutes of Drake refusing to explain himself to anyone.
The Proof
"Wu-Tang Forever" settled a question that had followed Drake since the mixtape days: could he really rap? Not sing, not vibe, not ride a hook, but actually rap for six minutes with nothing to hide behind? The answer was on the album, and it ran long enough to leave no room for argument.
Drake proved he can rap alone. Now Jay-Z flies in to deliver a verse on the album's closing track, and together they build something that sounds like a coronation. Next: Pound Cake, "cake cake cake," and the bars that turned doubters into believers.
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