Final thoughts/overall first impressions?
Eric: Joe Budden got dissed on “Stories About My Brother,” but he’s going to absolutely love Scary Hours 3. These songs, full of great rapping over beats from producers like The Alchemist and Conductor Williams, fill in a lot of what Joe (and others) said was missing from FATD. If you combine the best songs from FATD and Scary Hours 3, and trim some of the fat, there’s a great Drake project in there. I just wish he was a little better at self-editing from the jump.
Jessica: Truthfully, I didn’t know what to think when Drake decided to drop more music shortly after the release of For All The Dogs. And when I first hit play, I will admit that I didn’t immediately hear the magic. But after giving it a moment, I can appreciate the simple and slick production, as well as Drake really tapping into his rapping bag and giving fans bars, sharp jabs, and storytelling. I do think his hand was forced in dropping new music early due to the mild response to FATD the first time around, but in the end he delivered and showed he’s still in the game.
Jordan: Drake excels when he shows us his talent instead of just telling us he’s talented. It was abundantly clear in the days that followed For All The Dogs release that Drake was reading all of the criticism about the album, and he responded to the negative reviews with bars here on the deluxe. The Toronto rapper never lost his ability to rap, he just chose to feed his R&B fans on the original version of his latest album, and he soothed the hip-hop heads with the deluxe. The pettiness and bashful feelings towards women are still there as well, but instead of masking those sentiments with melodic ballads, Drake raps plainly about not being the younger version of himself that looked at life differently. That’s the honesty that For All The Dogs lacked, and what makes Scary Hours 3 special.
Ecleen: I’m here for the succinctness of this project. Overall, we now have a mammoth project with some definite unnecessary excess, but this second disc/new addition is a reminder that less really is more sometimes and that overthinking doesn’t always equate to productive thought or insightful discoveries/evolution. Sometimes we gotta be like Dolly and write two great songs in a day and chill for a minute.
Kemet: Overall, Drake did what needed to be done here. If you view this EP in combination with the entirety of For All The Dogs, yeah, it’s a lot of songs. But every era/phase of Drake was presented at a high level. If you wanted hard bars, you got that. If you wanted soft melodies, they were there. If you wanted hits, this project didn’t go without, even down to the deep cuts. The list goes on.