Honestly, Nevermind

Honestly, Nevermind
File:Honestly, Nevermind - Drake.png
Studio album by Drake
Released	June 17, 2022 (2022-06-17)
Genre	House Baltimore club
Length	52:32
Label	OVO Republic
Producer	&ME 40 Alex Lustig Beau Nox Black Coffee Esona Tyolo Gordo Govi Ginton Johannes Klahr Kid Masterpiece Nyan Rampa Richard Zastenker Sona Tay Keith Vinylz Vlado Wondra030
Drake chronology
Certified Lover Boy (2021) Honestly, Nevermind (2022)
Singles from Honestly, Nevermind

Honestly, Nevermind is the seventh studio album by Canadian rapper and singer Drake, which was surprise-released on June 17, 2022, through OVO Sound and Republic Records. The album includes a sole feature from 21 Savage, and production from a variety of producers, including Gordo, Black Coffee, and 40.

A stylistic departure from Drake's previous releases, Honestly, Nevermind adopts house and Baltimore club.

Honestly, Nevermind was a commercial success, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 with 204,000 album-equivalent units. It became Drake's eleventh US number-one album and broke several streaming records for a dance album. Its singles, "Sticky" and "Massive" debuted within the top-ten in the Billboard Hot 100, while "Jimmy Cooks" became Drake's tenth US number one song.

Background and promotion

On March 4, 2021, Drake had announced the launch of Sirius XM channel Sound 42, with OVO Sound Radio as its flagship program, marking the show's return since it aired between July 2015 and October 2018 on Apple Music. On September 3, 2021, Drake released his sixth studio album, Certified Lover Boy, after delaying its release multiple times. Spawning two singles, the album went on to receive mixed reviews from music critics, and had debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.

On the afternoon of June 16, 2022, OVO Sound announced on Twitter that Drake would be premiering his own radio show Table For One on Sound 42 later that night at 11:00 PM EST. A few hours later, Drake made a surprise announcement on Instagram that he would be releasing his seventh studio album, Honestly, Nevermind, later that midnight. Broadcasting not long after the Game Six of the 2022 NBA Finals, Drake premiered the singles "Confusion" and "I Don't Care" on the show.

The album is dedicated to American fashion designer Virgil Abloh, who died in 2021. The album's only feature, 21 Savage, appears on the closing track of the album, "Jimmy Cooks".

A music video for "Falling Back" was released alongside the album. Directed by Director X, the official music video sees Drake marrying 23 different women. Canadian-American professional basketball player Tristan Thompson makes an appearance as his best man.

The album's first two singles, "Sticky" and "Massive" were sent to rhythmic contemporary radio and contemporary hit radio, respectively, on June 21, 2022.

Composition

Honestly, Nevermind is a dance record driven by house and Baltimore club influences. The album includes elements of Jersey club, hard techno, R&B, amapiano, ballroom, and Drake's traditional style of hip hop.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	73/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Clash	7/10
Entertainment Weekly	B–
Evening Standard
Exclaim!	7/10
The Guardian
HipHopDX	3.9/5
NME
Pitchfork	6.6/10
Rolling Stone

Honestly, Nevermind was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 73, based on 13 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 6.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.

In a positive review, Robin Murray of Clash called Honestly, Nevermind a "puzzle that will take a long time to fully unlock" and "a devastating about-turn that will fascinate and frustrate in equal measure". Tim Sendra from AllMusic enjoyed the album, saying, "Honestly, Nevermind is a welcome development in the Drake saga, a left turn off what was starting to seem like an endless stretch of trap-heavy highway. The destination is still sad and self-involved, but at least the scenery is colorful and never boring". Vivian Medithi of HipHopDX said, "He stopped making the Drake album we want him to make and made the Drake album Drake wants to make. Locked in with producers he trusts and letting his guard down, he sounds more focused and balanced than he has in years". The New York Times's Jon Caramanica wrote, "A small marvel of bodily exuberance – appealingly weightless, escapist and zealously free. An album of entrancing club music, it's a pointed evolution toward a new era for one of music's most influential stars. It is also a Drake album made up almost wholly of the parts of Drake albums that send hip-hop purists into conniptions". Writing for Rolling Stone, Jeff Ihaza stated, "The album achieves something mischievously unguarded: a collection of blissful dance tunes constructed for embrace and abandon. Drake takes a leap further into uncharted realms than any of his peers, offering a refreshing sign of what's to come". Variety critic Alex Swhear said, "As a standalone Drake album, it's deeply refreshing, and a dose of vibrant pop likely to reverberate through the remainder of the summer". Louis Pavlakos of Exclaim! said, "Hints of the album's atypicality are apparent from its opening minutes, for better or worse. "Falling Back" makes for a questionable lead-off, as Drake's falsetto has never been particularly strong, but Honestly, Nevermind rarely falters from there".

In a lukewarm review, Pitchfork's Alphonse Pierre wrote, "A breezy Drake dance album sounds great in concept, but the half-measure house beats and lackluster songwriting keep it from really popping off". In his review, Alexis Petridis of The Guardian states, "The Canadian superstar's new album is surprisingly full of house music, but his passive-aggressive complaints get dull". NME critic Kyann-Sian Williams said, "The Canadian's latest release surprises in many ways, ditching bland trap for house beats and some daring, if somewhat mixed, vocal takes". In a more negative review, David Smyth of Evening Standard opined that Honestly, Nevermind felt like "a minor work" within Drake's discography, going on to say that "[Drake] sounds like he isn't trying very hard".

In popular culture

The song "Texts Go Green" was used by Google in an Android advertisement to call on Apple Inc. to adopt Rich Communication Services (RCS), in reference to the song's premise of iPhone users being blocked on iMessage.

Commercial performance

Honestly, Nevermind debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 204,000 album-equivalent units, including 11,000 pure album sales. Its tracks earned a total of 250.23 million on-demand streams. The album is Drake's eleventh number-one album in the US.

Track listing

Honestly, Nevermind track listing
No.	Title	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Intro"	Kid Masterpiece	0:36
2.	"Falling Back"	&ME Rampa Lustig Beau Nox	4:26
3.	"Texts Go Green"	Sona	5:08
4.	"Currents"	Black Coffee Gordo	2:37
5.	"A Keeper"	&ME Rampa Wondra030	2:53
6.	"Calling My Name"	Gordo Klahr Zastenker Lustig Beau Nox	2:09
7.	"Sticky"	Gordo Ry X	4:03
8.	"Massive"	Gordo Klahr Zastenker	5:36
9.	"Flight's Booked"	Kid Masterpiece Lustig Beau Nox Govi	4:14
10.	"Overdrive"	40 Black Coffee Lustig Beau Nox	3:22
11.	"Down Hill"	40	4:10
12.	"Tie That Binds"	Gordo Vlado Ginton	5:36
13.	"Liability"	Nyan Suby	3:57
14.	"Jimmy Cooks" (featuring 21 Savage)	Tay Keith Vinylz Cubeatz	3:38
Total length:			52:32

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies a co-producer
• ^{^[b]} signifies an additional producer

Sample credits

• "Currents" contains samples of "Some Cut", written by Jonathan Smith, Donnell Prince, Lawrence Edwards, Jamal Glaze, Craig Love, LaMarquis Jefferson, as performed by Trillville, and also contains an uncredited sample of "Shake it to the Ground", written by Charles Smith and Ryeisha Berrain, as performed by Blaqstarr and Rye Rye.
• "Calling My Name" contains uncredited samples of "Oye Ohene", written and performed by Obrafour.
• "Sticky" contains uncredited dialogue from Virgil Abloh's 2017 "Everything in Quotes" lecture at Columbia University's GSAPP.
• "Flight's Booked" contains samples of "Getting Late", written by Marsha Ambrosius, Natalie Stewart, and Vidal Davis, as performed by Floetry.
• "Jimmy Cooks" contains samples of "Just Awaken Shaken", written by Ibn Young, as performed by Playa Fly; and also contains samples of "You Were Gone" written by Al Goodman, Harry Ray, and Walter Morris, as performed by Brook Benton.

Personnel

Musicians

• Drake – vocals
• Mukengerwa Tresor Riziki – additional vocals (track 4, 11, 12), background vocals (9)
• Wondra030 – piano (5)
• Alex Lustig – keyboards (6, 10)
• Beau Nox – guitar (6, 10), additional vocals (9) background vocals (10, 11)
• Emily Hemelberg – background vocals (10)
• Black Coffee – drums (10)
• James Bryan – guitar (10)
• 40 – keyboards (10)
• Nyan Lieberthal – drums, keyboards (13)
• Tim Suby – keyboards (13)
• Dougie F – background vocals (14)

Technical

• 40 – mixing (all tracks), engineering (4, 5, 8, 13)
• Luca Pretolesi – mixing
• Noel Cadastre – engineering (1–)
• Harley Arsenault – engineering (6)

Charts

Chart performance for Honestly, Nevermind

Chart (2022)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)	2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)	4
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)	2
Canadian Albums (Billboard)	1
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)	1
Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI)	11
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)	3
French Albums (SNEP)	6
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)	3
2
Italian Albums (FIMI)	6
Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan)	87
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)	1
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)	2
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	2
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)	1
UK Albums (OCC)	2
UK Dance Albums (OCC)	1
US Billboard 200	1
US Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard)	1
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)	1

Release history

Release dates and formats for Honestly, Nevermind

Region	Date	Label(s)	Format(s)	Ref.
Various	June 17, 2022	OVO Republic	Digital download streaming