Drake 0 to 100 new song: The rapper teases upcoming album. (AUDIO.)

Drake’s New Song Goes Deeper Into How He Started From the Bottom

Drake’s New Song Goes Deeper Into How He Started From the Bottom

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Slate's Culture Blog
June 2 2014 11:29 AM

Drake’s New Song Goes Deeper Into How He Started From the Bottom

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Drake

Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

The last time we heard from Drake music-wise, he was boasting over a sample of a Lauryn Hill classic and then lamenting over a woman who may or may not be Rihanna. Now he’s teasing an album due out in spring 2015 with a new song, “0 to 100/ The Catch Up.”

The six-minute ode to his own work ethic and success is a variation on the themes of last year’s “Started From the Bottom.” He raps about leaving the acting world—a reference to his Degrassi days—for the apparently more lucrative music business (“Wasn’t paying me enough, I needed something quicker”). He also compares himself to Forrest Gump.

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That awkward moment aside, Drake once again shows his talent for mixing cockiness and self-reflection—as when he rhymes about how his father’s unfulfilled promises of visiting him when he was a child prepared him to “be ready” for anything. And the beats—produced by Boi-1da, Noah “40” Shebib, and Nineteen85—are, like those on pretty much every Drake track, slick and catchy.

Aisha Harris is a Slate culture writer and host of the Slate podcast Represent.