The Beautiful Washed State of Aubrey Graham

The hooks on ‘Scary Hours 2’ are the same old hitmaking algorithm, but the verses show that 6 God might just be maturing

Photo: Karwai Tang/WireImage

Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.

Almost a year ago, I wrote an article about Drake. In it, I talked about how I’d identified so much with his music when I was 22 — but then, as we both grew into our midthirties over the next decade, he basically kept making music for 22-year-olds. The article, predictably, got held up by Drake fans as some sort of scathing takedown of his music and artistry. But that’s how the internet works. I also got a lot of “he just doesn’t make music for you, old man*” from twentysomethings — which was exactly my point.

Fast forward to this past Friday, when Drake dropped Scary Hours 2, an EP of songs meant to keep the buzz going for his gonna-drop-at-some-point album Certified Lover Boy. The material, finally, hints at a desire to evolve beyond being the hitmaker who drops TikTok dance anthems. Not everything has changed: The hooks are still full of catchphrases and tracks that immediately topped the charts because that’s what Drake does and will always do. He’s never going to suddenly become Phonte or Black Thought. But these first few tracks have some signs of maturity.

Drake is a 34-year-old dad who pays child support and drops his kid off at school and when he gets out of bed something in his body that aches and he doesn’t quite know why. We as millennials have reclaimed our chart-topping messiah.

On “Lemon Pepper Freestyle” with Rick Ross, Drake goes on a three-minute bar-fest that’s as sharp as anything he’s dropped in years. But more importantly, he talks about going to parent-teacher conferences. That’s right: Drake is rapping about some of the washed life of a thirtysomething. Okay, sure, he’s rapping about how the other moms there hit on him — but it’s a start. On “What’s Next,” Drake has a hook that includes “Well, summer, all I did was rest, okay? And New Year’s, all I did was stretch…