A second appearance and a second failure to score more than a 4…
[Video]
[4.14]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: Considering how much overlap there is between Jersey club, Baltimore club, and Miami bass, Drake couldn’t have picked a better instrumental to rap over to trick fans into thinking that he’s repping their city (that people in the YouTube comments are also mentioning footwork is… distressing). The beat is lifted pretty much wholesale from a song that samples a remix of T2’s classic “Heartbroken” so this already feels mostly useless. Admittedly, those somber keys and the kick’s neutered physicality is a perfect fit for Drake’s moping but he’s barely trying here. Lately, he’s been really content to let his beats and samples do all the work so I’m not quite sure what anyone is taking away from his music that involves, well, him.
[3]
Micha Cavaseno: There’s a certain inter-dimensional logic here… After spending years in his Lonely Roadman concept, Drakk seemingly discovers Miami Jook from out of nowhere! Except its not nowhere, because he somehow discovers a tune that samples the vocals from bassline anthem “Heartbroken.” In his continued Alt-Anglophilia, the Canadian wonder manages to return himself back to the US discreetly. If anything “To The Max” feels like a throwaway club filler/roller track a la “Trophies” served a few years ago, but Khaled will accept anything, so why not? More interesting I suppose is the implications that after a good spell of time, Drakk is bored with thinking outside of North America (or just ran out of genres to stripmine for influence) and the hunt is bringing him back west…
[3]
Alfred Soto: The jungle beats and cocktail piano are pleasures in themselves until Mr. Wonderful decides bad singing and a colorless performance are what the doctor ordered.
[3]
Ryo Miyauchi: To DJ Khaled’s credit, there are only a handful of voices better in pop than Drake that can fit smoothly in a club track from Florida by way of New Jersey. But this does no one involved any favors: with one dialed-in performance, Drake’s there more for his name while the producers whom Khaled piggybacks get no name on this at all.
[4]
Edward Okulicz: Because what you want with a kinetic bass track that wants to light up the floor while caressing your feet is Drake doing his bad drawl-singing on top as if trying to both lull and bore you to sleep.
[4]
Stephen Eisermann: The beat is hot and deserves better than Drake, once again, wallowing in self-pity and mumbling about how his success hurts oh so bad.
[3]
Thomas Inskeep: The production on this (by Khaled and Cool & Dre), oh my god. It’s an improbable mix of drum’n’bass and Miami bass and it just makes me wanna shake my ass. Drake is just there, easily ignorable. But the track itself is leviathan. An instrumental is vital.
[9]