The Singles Jukebox

Congrats to the Raptors, here’s your trophy, I guess…

[Video]
[3.86]

Alfred Soto: Hey, guys. It’s been a while. I don’t expect you to compete with “Stay Schemin’,” but I expect more than the throttling of a title mantra. What to do with the Maybachs and money? 
[5]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: The compelling thing about earlier Drake/Rick Ross collabs (“Stay Schemin”/”Lord Knows”/”I’m On One”/etc.) was their shared commitment to the fraudulent display of power. For the two of them in the early 2010s, the fakeness of their fake-gangster posturing was the appeal above all. Their boasts were more extravagant and nonsensical than more realist types (the Freddie Gibbses of the world), and the panache with which both men delivered them was unmatched. (On “Lord Knows” Drake talks about looking through a girl’s phone on a date, and Ross brags about being in a sauna full of Jewish men, and yet both lines sounded indescribably cool to me in middle school.) “Money in the Grave” keeps the grandeur (the title itself is a ridiculous, pharaoh-like declaration), but the context of it all weighs it down. Drake no longer has any claim to his prior status as a striving underdog — he’s too much of an actual kingpin for his fake kingpin shtick to sell. Rick Ross, on the other hand, is a has-been who hasn’t quite realized it yet, a lame duck ruler whose boasts only work because of Meek Mill exec producer credits and unearned confidence.
[3]

Andy Hutchins: Can’t take it with you, bruv. And there are some things you should keep to yourself, like a song ostensibly about (or at least theoretically linked to?) your Raptors winning a title that sounds as tired as any Drake song ever has. “Money in the Grave” sounds more like the moment of exhaustion after the victory parade than the champagne-soaked locker room revelry, and it would not be hard to convince me the use of the unremarkable beat and the repeated shoutouts to its model producer, Cydney Christine, has everything to do with Drake’s amorous ambitions and nothing to do with anything else. At least Ross’s equally sleepy verse leaves a clue as to how difficult Zion Williamson references are going to be going forward.
[2]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Serious Rapper Drake is a fun guy.
[3]

Jibril Yassin: Mob Drake — a persona that is grating as it is engaging — is clearly on autopilot here, sounding content to spew half-truths and fake come-ons knowing that Rick Ross will do the MVP work necessary to elevate “Money in the Grave” to a solid standing. Thankfully Ross doesn’t disappoint, sounding as magnanimous as ever. But given the two’s past track record, it’s easy to feel underwhelmed by the mass of big noise, signifying nothing.
[5]

Iris Xie: I don’t really want to like this, but I feel compelled to do so because of the sheer force of being saturated by Drake’s omnipresence in the past decade. A slightly haunting organ and backbeat, a pretty clear snare drum, and Drake having his easy cadence with punctuated endings and beginnings. I wouldn’t skip it, but I would think, “Fucking Drake” while debating about him at a party, while admitting to myself that it’s comforting to hear something so consistent and familiar over the years.
[6]

Stephen Eisermann: The memes that came from Drake’s performative reactions are way better than the mutual masturbation that is this track. We get it — you’re both rich; next time, Drake, just give us more New Orleans bounce and less moody gloating. 
[3]