First Listen: Drake’s “6 God” Versus “Heat Of The Moment”

I guess I’ll start this off by acknowledging the portion of the readership that will automatically complain about more Drake coverage. If you’re sick of hearing about Drake 24/7, you’re not wrong. You’re just in the minority. This “all Drizzy all the time” climate is a byproduct of Drake’s popularity. When you appear on 72 songs featured on Billboard magazine’s “Hot 100” chart, you reach a type of transcendent popularity. Popularity and skill are two different things, but that’s a long-winded diatribe for some other writer. Now, on to the music. 

According to Mr. Aubrey Drake Graham himself, a hacker was allegedly sitting on two previously unreleased songs –“6 God” and “Heat Of The Moment.” So instead of low-quality bootlegs, this weekend brought about a properly mastered two-piece (and Drake as an angry strip club patron if you’re into that sort of thing). Can we pause for the cause to address this so-called “hacker?” Can anyone really imagine someone from Anonymous or a random 4 chan contributor bypassing all these naked actresses’ iCloud accounts to head straight for the unreleased Drake songs? Priorities! Anyway, the man with an emoji tattoo on his arm says people don’t read anymore, and he’s kind of right. Why wait for an album or some late commentary when we can talk about these songs right now? 

Which One Is Better? “6 God” or “Heat Of The Moment”? 

Omar:  Before listening to “6 God” or “Heat Of The Moment,” I took a little field trip to “Black Twitter.” We all know there are two Drakes. There’s the guy who annually has at least one verse on one the summer’s most popular mainstream Rap songs, and then there’s the guy who sounds like he just wants to wind down with a copy of 50 Shades Of Grey and a white wine spritzer while Calgon takes him away. If either of these tracks featured the latter iteration of Drake, “Black Twitter” would go in with the memes, and I’d know exactly what kind of tracks Mr. Graham unleashed upon the interwebs.

“6 God” is Drake in “Headlines” mode. This is the guy who dissed Common and beefed with Chris Brown before eventually reconciling. This sounds like the guy who allegedly throws racks while angrily exiting the strip club.  

Upon first listen to “Heat Of The Moment,” I don’t think phrases like, “Niggas we don’t need anymore” need to be sung breathlessly. I can’t fuck with it. I’m not saying it’s wack or anything. This song was just clearly made for an audience that doesn’t include me. I don’t like sing-songy Drake. I think his vocal range is too limited to try holding and bending the notes he’s attempting. Production-wise, 40 and Drake are wearing their ‘90s influences on their sleeves again. The tempo, drums and that random water drop sound effect are reminiscent of 112’s “Cupid.”

So those observations aside, it’s a really dope lyrical concept. There’s that vibe of existentialism mixed in with the type of teenage reckless abandon that spawns statements like, “I ain’t even got a strap, if you think we really need one I’m on it (pull out for what?).” In theory, only a teenager should be singing about this kind of stuff. But teenagers are dumb as shit and overly hormonal, so Drake is presumably approaching this having been over a decade removed from such moments himself. That’s both respectable and a way to get at his target demographic. I’m not mad at it, but I don’t ever plan on listening to it again. At worst, this keeps Drake in the news while he builds steam for the next album. At best, he’s got an accidental hit on his hands since there was a threat of this getting leaked anyway. Maybe this gets a video and Dennis Graham busts out that Wallace Scott/Whispers-style mustache. 

Winner: “6 God”, because “Headlines” Drake beats Calgon/wine spritzer Drake.

Andre: Everyone’s going to like “6 God” because he’s actually rapping, and he’s doing cool, Hip Hop things. But here’s why it’s not a song I can get behind: it’s a not so good version of “Lord Knows” off his alt-Hip Hop masterpiece Take Care and “Hot N*gga” sewn together by a mad doctor on the drink. The wild elongated phrases and semi-idiosyncratic straight talking is Drizzy trying random things. He doesn’t need to try random things because he’s one of the best music makers working today. So it comes off as cheesy to hop on the flow of a teenager who just started out. The hard baselines and boom-bap production is always welcome, but his voice just doesn’t quite carry when he chooses to hold a note in his rapping voice. It’s like you’re waiting for his voice to crack the way you did for your junior high friends when puberty hit. The concept is great, but you can tell it’s a rough beta he hurried out the door on the back of the “hackers” who had all three joints. I will also dance manically to it with a drink in my hand around people I only kind of need to trust in some dark place, so it’s not all bad.

The jewel of the two is “Heat Of The Moment”. And let me just say I don’t necessarily prefer this Drake to the one who sends goons or fights Chris Brown over Rihanna, but in every way this one stands out over the other. The 90s sounds don’t come off forced like Drake’s flow on the aforementioned, and he’s so in his velvety Jodeci element here that you can’t help but wonder when he’s just going to go ahead and make a straight up R&B album. Check these lyrics, “I‘ve seen some things / I wish we had met when I was in my teens / ‘Cause these days, I only know conditional love / I’m not used to settling down / I’m too used to switching it up…” And before he get’s too humble-braggish to kill your mood, he asks, “Who am I gonna be, when it’s all over?” Yo, tell me that you’ve never asked this exact question to yourself as you flung through your contacts list around 11:30pm? This album is shaping up to be a tale of two Drake’s and I’m here for it, sort of.

Winner: “Heat Of The Moment” because sing-songy Drake is sometimes the correct Drake

Justin: It’s difficult not to hope that the backstory behind the release of “Heat Of The Moment” and “6 God” is as reported, otherwise, it’s starting to sound like Drizzy’s leaning heavy on previous ideas. Like Take Care’s “Marvin’s Room” and “Look What You’ve Done” and last week’s leak, “How Bout Now”—“Heat Of the Moment” includes a fresh round of old voicemail messages, this time from his father and a woman that sounds like Nicki Minaj. Like Nothing Was The Same’s “Worst Behavior,” “6 God’s” arrangement is basically a collection of ad-libs and self-help lines like “Nobody really likes us except for us”—which is the first-cousin to “Muthafuckas never loved us!”

Away from feeling like a pair of retreads, the real winners here are the producers. 40’s mastered nostalgia in recent years, which is perfect for an era where Gen-Xers and Millennials alike appear to be pining for the 1990s. “Heat Of The Moment” journey’s there subliminally without the need of a glaring sample, like say Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.” And Boi-1da and Syk Sense’s controlled urgency and rib-cage rattling bass line are the most godly aspects of “6 God.” Neither song stands out in Drake’s collection. Neither sounds like he’s pushing the margins, which is maybe what excites most about the upcoming Views From The 6: Even when in cruise control, Drizzy’s still controls pole position.

Winner: “6 God” because everyone loves lines like “Nobody ever liked us except for us.”

RELATED: First Listen: Staff Reactions To Drake’s “How About Now” (Leak) [Editorial]

Omar Burgess is a Long Beach, California native who has contributed to various magazines, newspapers and has been an editor at HipHopDX since 2008. Follow him on Twitter@omarburgess.

Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant who’s contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Senior Features Writer for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.

Justin “The Company Man” Hunte is the Editor-in-Chief of HipHopDX. He was the host of The Company Man Show on PNCRadio.fm and has covered music, politics, and culture for numerous publications. He is currently based in Los Angeles, California. Follow him on Twitter@TheCompanyMan.