In the creative universe, hip-hop is unrivalled for provoking squabbles. East Coast versus West, Biggie versus 2Pac. Jay-Z versus Nas. Kanye West versus, well, just about everyone, except for Donald Trump. The most common beefs – who shot who, who was involved in which relationships, who ripped whom off – have inspired more feuds, violence, deaths and, it should be added, art than any other form, musical or otherwise.
The competitiveness can be ascribed to all manner of things. The do-or-die context of street culture, the rap-or-fail culture of freestyle MC battles, the influence of heavyweight boxing buffoonery and souped-up WWE dramatics. If we cast our net wider and more seriously: inveterate racism in the United States and a crisis of masculinity in which men mask their genuine sensitivities with macho over-correction.
Which brings us to Drake – born Aubrey Drake Graham – and his fifth album, Scorpion. As the headlines accompanying its release have made clear, Scorpion, which has already broken streaming records, has been forged from various grudges.
The most piercing example against Drake is Pusha-T's The Story of Adidon, which sampled that arch name-caller Jay-Z (and, really, he should talk) to accuse Drake himself of, among other things: being a self-hating racist (the cover art is a genuine but slippery photograph of Drake in blackface and a Jim Crow shirt); and a lying, absentee father waiting for a branding endorsement to publicly acknowledge his son's existence: "You are hiding a child, let that boy come home… Adonis is your son/And he deserves more than an Adidas press run, that's real /Love that baby, respect that girl... Let her be your world."
The usually poised Drake seemed unusually rattled by this, explaining (on Instagram, inevitably) the satirical intent behind his Minstrel impersonation. But his paternal tales, he poured into the lyrics in Scorpion, which is accompanied by "editorial" notes that summarise diverse critiques and make you wonder if Drake has elbowed caps lock by mistake. Here are some highlights:
I HATE WHEN DRAKE RAPS
DRAKE SINGS TOO MUCH
DRAKE IS A POP ARTIST
DRAKE DOESN’T EVEN WRITE HIS OWN SONGS
DRAKE DIDN’T START FROM THE BOTTOM
DRAKE MAKES MUSIC FOR GIRLS
DRAKE THINKS HE’S JAMAICAN
Two hundred years ago, English poet John Keats published a similarly defensive preface to a new work, Endymion, which he introduced by highlighting his own "great inexperience, immaturity, and every error denoting a feverish attempt, rather than a deed accomplished".
The critics killed him, to use Byron's word. But it was another line from Keats' nervous prologue that leapt to mind as I listened to Scorpion's whopping 25 tracks. "The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the character undecided."
Keats was 23, learning his craft at an alarming rate, but still a raw talent and an inexperienced, unproven young man. At 31, Drake is a veteran by comparison, both in creative and human terms: he can't stop boasting how much money he earns, how many women he has seduced (or vice versa); and how many millions hang on his every online utterance.
Nevertheless, Drake lyrics suggest he's every bit the man-child, caught between sensitive confessions and cloth-eared machismo. See 8 Out of 10's couplet: "Kiss my son on the forehead then kiss your a** goodbye/As luck would have it, I've settled into my role as the good guy." Doubtless Drake's "new" family is dysfunctional, but the newly revealed dad doesn't sound especially "good" here.
This lyrical confusion is enacted by Scorpion's musical schizophrenia: side A (if such distinctions exist in the digital age) is mainly rap; side B is sung. Drake the MC doesn't take long to establish his capacity for narcissism: "My Mount Rushmore is me with four different expressions" he drawls over opener Survival's heartbeat bass pulse. "Who's givin' out this much return on investment?/After my run, man, how is that even a question?"
From here, it's a hop, skip and a jump to Drake's toughness ("I've had scuffles with bad boys that wasn't pretendin'"), his unfairly injured pride ("I fell back a hundred times when I don't get the credit") and his immense wealth ("House on both coasts, but I live on the charts/I have tea with the stars and I swim with the sharks/And I see in the dark, wasn't this cold at the start").
At least this final admission hints that a sliver of self-interrogation underlies the surface bravado: "Think my soul has been marked, there's a hole in my heart." Similar world-weariness underpins Drake's bellyaching on the impressive, Mariah Carey-sampling Emotionless: "I can't even capture the feeling I had at first/Meetin' all my heroes like seein' how magic works." And perhaps he is thinking of Pusha-T when he adds: "The people I look up to are goin' from bad to worse/Their actions out of character even when they rehearse."
As Drake himself has suggested, his rapping is not everyone's cup of tea. His delivery can be attractively downbeat, but monotonic in sound and syntax, especially when compared to the nimble tongue-twisters of the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Danny Brown and Eminem. This droning works to his advantage on the relentless Nonstop, whose ominous bassline lends swaggering gravity to Drake's musing on the biz, success and keeping on: "This a Rollie, not a stopwatch, s*** don't ever stop."
But the basic absence of verbal sparkle and rhythmic variety can grow sludgy. Drake's a big one for hammering a point home. His repetitions can approach rhetorical power, for example on the album's central revelation on Emotionless: "I wasn't hidin' my kid from the world/I was hidin' the world from my kid." But elsewhere, on I'm Upset, it sounds like Drake has been hiding, too – from his responsibilities: "Thankful for the women that I know... Every month/I'm supposed to pay her bills and get her what she want… My dad still got child support from 1991."
The album's more melodic, song-based second half may be no more profound, but sonically it is far more arresting. Peak's chilly synths and clipped beats lift the bar instantly, even more so when Drake's glorious, slightly Auto-Tuned voice floats in on a lovely melody.
You can't avoid Drake's verbal nonsense when he raps. When he sings, he could recite the phone book and make it sound meaningful – sort of. Peak, weirdly, is a hymn to English women: having exalted Princess Diana, he proclaims "England breeds proper girls". Finesse, rumoured to be about model Bella Hadid, is tedious enough to sound like a parody Drake Twitter account: "Should I do New York? I can't decide/Fashion week is more your thing than mine/I can't even lie, I'd rather stay inside/I can't do suit and tie." Somehow, the melancholic piano chords married to Drake's committed vocal elevates this beyond another vapid Insta post.
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But nowhere is his voice's ability to charm the birds from the trees – and elsewhere, presumably – better exemplified than on Summer Games. I still can't decide whether this poppy ode to Instagram romance is genius or tedious: "Yeah, you say I led you on, but you followed me/I follow one of your friends, you unfollow me/Then you block them so they can't see you likin' someone just like me." While there's a prurient thrill from eavesdropping on the world's biggest pop star grumbling about such trivia, it's trivia nonetheless.
And yet such is Summer Games' melodic bounce, combined with Drake's off-hand delivery, that you begin to feel unwarranted sympathy. "How can you be angry on a night in July/And be warm with me when it's freezin' outside/You're confusin' me, don't have me wastin' my time." Not since Alanis Morrisette's Ironic has someone sounded so baffled by simple contrast.
As befits a double album, Scorpion is at times egotistical, beautiful, bonkers and boring. Drake is so self-focused, you worry he isn't attending to anything except business – personal and economic. Little beyond Drake's sphere penetrates the windows he praises in a late track Blue Tint: there's a passing reference to the "President doin' us in", but that's it. He will be back, but this is more than enough for now.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
more from Janine di Giovanni
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The five pillars of Islam
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
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Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
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Specs
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Citizenship-by-investment programmes
United Kingdom
The UK offers three programmes for residency. The UK Overseas Business Representative Visa lets you open an overseas branch office of your existing company in the country at no extra investment. For the UK Tier 1 Innovator Visa, you are required to invest £50,000 (Dh238,000) into a business. You can also get a UK Tier 1 Investor Visa if you invest £2 million, £5m or £10m (the higher the investment, the sooner you obtain your permanent residency).
All UK residency visas get approved in 90 to 120 days and are valid for 3 years. After 3 years, the applicant can apply for extension of another 2 years. Once they have lived in the UK for a minimum of 6 months every year, they are eligible to apply for permanent residency (called Indefinite Leave to Remain). After one year of ILR, the applicant can apply for UK passport.
The Caribbean
Depending on the country, the investment amount starts from $100,000 (Dh367,250) and can go up to $400,000 in real estate. From the date of purchase, it will take between four to five months to receive a passport.
Portugal
The investment amount ranges from €350,000 to €500,000 (Dh1.5m to Dh2.16m) in real estate. From the date of purchase, it will take a maximum of six months to receive a Golden Visa. Applicants can apply for permanent residency after five years and Portuguese citizenship after six years.
“Among European countries with residency programmes, Portugal has been the most popular because it offers the most cost-effective programme to eventually acquire citizenship of the European Union without ever residing in Portugal,” states Veronica Cotdemiey of Citizenship Invest.
Greece
The real estate investment threshold to acquire residency for Greece is €250,000, making it the cheapest real estate residency visa scheme in Europe. You can apply for residency in four months and citizenship after seven years.
Spain
The real estate investment threshold to acquire residency for Spain is €500,000. You can apply for permanent residency after five years and citizenship after 10 years. It is not necessary to live in Spain to retain and renew the residency visa permit.
Cyprus
Cyprus offers the quickest route to citizenship of a European country in only six months. An investment of €2m in real estate is required, making it the highest priced programme in Europe.
Malta
The Malta citizenship by investment programme is lengthy and investors are required to contribute sums as donations to the Maltese government. The applicant must either contribute at least €650,000 to the National Development & Social Fund. Spouses and children are required to contribute €25,000; unmarried children between 18 and 25 and dependent parents must contribute €50,000 each.
The second step is to make an investment in property of at least €350,000 or enter a property rental contract for at least €16,000 per annum for five years. The third step is to invest at least €150,000 in bonds or shares approved by the Maltese government to be kept for at least five years.
Candidates must commit to a minimum physical presence in Malta before citizenship is granted. While you get residency in two months, you can apply for citizenship after a year.
Egypt
A one-year residency permit can be bought if you purchase property in Egypt worth $100,000. A three-year residency is available for those who invest $200,000 in property, and five years for those who purchase property worth $400,000.
Source: Citizenship Invest and Aqua Properties
Dark Souls: Remastered
Developer: From Software (remaster by QLOC)
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Price: Dh199
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
The biog
Favourite hobby: I love to sing but I don’t get to sing as much nowadays sadly.
Favourite book: Anything by Sidney Sheldon.
Favourite movie: The Exorcist 2. It is a big thing in our family to sit around together and watch horror movies, I love watching them.
Favourite holiday destination: The favourite place I have been to is Florence, it is a beautiful city. My dream though has always been to visit Cyprus, I really want to go there.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
Honeymoonish
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.