Maid of Honour (album)

Composition

Maid of Honour has been compared to Drake's albums More Life (2017) and Honestly, Nevermind (2022), which notably incorporated club, dancehall, and house music.^[12]

The album's opening track, "Hoe Phase", features a "moody" atmosphere that Pitchfork's Alphonse Pierre compared to Drake's So Far Gone mixtape,^[12] with its latter half incorporating Afrobeats and amapiano rhythms.^[13] Jeff Ihaza of Rolling Stone praised it as "a dazzling display of how dance music, unlike traditional hip-hop, thrives on fluidity".^[14] "Outside Tweaking" is a "bouncy" footwork track with elements of Jersey club;^[15][12][14] Stunna Sandy's guest appearance was praised by Pierre as "sound[ing] like a star".^[12] Awarded Pitchfork's "Best New Track",^[16] "Cheetah Print" is a hip house and electro song that samples Peggy Gou's "(It Goes Like) Nanana". Drake raps with robotic vocal effects;^[12] his flirts throughout the track were described by Walden Green of Pitchfork as "half-hearted [...] but in a charming way",^[16] and Craig Jenkins of Vulture argued his lyricism in the latter half was contradictory to Drake's claim that "'innocent Drake' [was] never coming back" from "Make Them Know" on Iceman.^[17] Sexyy Red appears halfway through the song for a "real freak" verse interpolating "Cha Cha Slide" into a "thottier version of the dance".^{[12][18][14][19]} "Which One" features an "island-tinged" Afrobeat and dancehall inspired instrumental.^[20] Narratively, it depicts Drake and Central Cee addressing respective love interests, with Drake noting how she stands out from her friends and enemies and Central Cee noting her physical appearance and sexuality.^[21] The Popcaan-featuring "Amazing Shape" is a "smooth" dancehall track, with Drake primarily singing in Jamaican Patois.^[12] Ihaza considered it an "upgrade" to Drake's 2016 song "Controlla", which was originally a collaboration between the two artists.^[14] "BBW" (a shortened form of the term "big beautiful woman") features elements of Mantronix-esque electro and techno,^[12] with a beat switch to "marauding" baile funk^[22] and an "explosion" of distorted synths in the second half.^[23] Pierre compared it to music at the Berlin nightclub Berghain;^[12] Kiana Fitzgerald of Consequence described the track as a "knockoff" of Drake's 2018 song "Nice for What" but for plus-size women,^[24] and singled out the lyric "So much ass [ash], you should be cremated" for criticism, a sentiment echoed by August Brown of the Los Angeles Times.^[25]

"True Bestie" features a Jersey club instrumental with influences of footwork^[12] and drill music, a fusion that Aron A. of HotNewHipHop commended as "feel[ing] surprisingly natural rather than trend-conscious".^[26] Chicago-based rapper Iconic Savvy is credited as a featured artist on the track due to a prominent sample of her 2025 song "PSA".^[27] Following the interlude "Where's Your Stuff", performed by TikTok creator youfoundivyy,^{[‡ 1]} "New Bestie" is a "classic Drake breakup anthem",^[12] with his "patois-inflected" vocal delivery in the song's Jersey club-inspired second half being called a homage to dancehall artist Vybz Kartel and "a callback to [Drake's] More Life era" by The Fader's Hajin Yoo.^[19] "Q&A" blends baile funk and sexy drill;^[12][28] Canadian producer APMelodies, who helped work on the track, said that Drake intended the instrumental to channel "summer ratchet vibes" and privately called it "a smash hit".^[28] A new jack swing song with elements of bounce music,^[12][17] "Stuck" features lyrics about being caught in a relationship limbo. Pierre and Jenkins compared the song to 1990s R&B acts Mint Condition and Keith Sweat, respectively,^[12][17] while Roisin O'Connor of The Independent considered it derived inspiration from (and served as a "blatant" musical tribute to) Michael Jackson.^[29] "Goose and the Juice" combines "gated reverb and AutoTuned pillow talk", according to Jenkins;^[17] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times compared it to the work of rock band MGMT.^[25] Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the Financial Times argued that the album's closing track, "Princess", which features emo-inspired singing and instrumentation, is Drake "trolling humourless rap purists. The last laugh [after the Lamar feud] is his".^[30] Pierre compared his performance to "a 16 year old with an XXXTentacion poster on his wall",^[12] while Robert Moran of The Sydney Morning Herald noted the track's similarities to the Pixies' song "Where Is My Mind?", describing it as "oddly endearing".^[22] Ihaza hailed it as Drake's "most divisive left turn yet".^[14]

Themes

Ihaza argued Maid of Honour's varied sound, which includes electro, dance and house alongside dancehall, Afrobeat, hip-hop, UK rap, and grunge,^[11] explores increasing cultural literacy and rising multiculturalism in Western societies, writing: "The album's underlying argument is not that identity no longer matters, but that culture itself has become too unstable, interconnected, and diasporic to survive [any] authenticity politics". He also wrote that by Drake being "strangely honest" about rising multiculturalism on Maid of Honour, it recasts Lamar's critiques of Drake as "inauthentic" during their feud to actually demonstrate "[Drake's] prudent understanding of [culturally changing] times".^[14] This was echoed by Moran, who said that Maid of Honour "is determinedly global" and hinted its diverse content as denoting cultural pluralism, writing that "Maid of Honour might be the ultimate expression of Drake as cross-cultural agitator".^[22] Tom Breihan of Stereogum likened the use of interjections across the album to drag-ball culture, writing it "suggests a level of comfort with queerness that [an artist like] Drake has never approached before".^[31] Speaking of the albums broadly, Jenkins also commented on their multicultural influences, saying each of them "dabble in Arabic phrases" and "nod to [Drake's] Muslim associates", concluding the albums "[acknowledge] Toronto as home to countless faiths and races, to Black and Arab experiences" and ensure "appeal to all the proverbial political aisles".^[17] Murphy also noted the album's blend of multicultural experiences, highlighting "Cheetah Print"'s use of "Cha Cha Slide" (which is commonly played at bar mitzvahs) being interpolated "as an instruction" on how to perform the West and Central African-derived twerking dance.^[11]

Track notes

• "Road Trips" features additional vocals from Teezo Touchdown.^{[citation needed]}
• "Stuck" features additional vocals from Qendresa.^[51][8]

Sample and interpolation credits

• "Hoe Phase" contains a sample of "Give It All You've Got", written by Derrick Rahming, as performed by Afro-Rican.^[12]
• "Road Trips" contains a sample of "Swangin' and Bangin'", written by Cedric Hill, as performed by E.S.G.^[24]
• "Cheetah Print" contains samples of "(It Goes Like) Nanana", written by Kim Min-ji, as performed by Peggy Gou; "Popular", written by Demiko Wilson and John Earl Julian, as performed by Born Bad!;^[49] and interpolations of "Cha Cha Slide", written by Willie Perry, Jr., as performed by DJ Casper; "It's My Party", written by Walter Gold, John Gluck, Jr., Herb Weiner, and Seymour Gottlieb, as performed by Lesley Gore; and uncredited interpolations of "Rich Baby Daddy", written by Aubrey Graham, Janae Wherry, Solána Rowe, Diamanté Blackmon, Richard Zastenker, Johannes Klahr, Benjamin Saint Fort, Douglas Ford, Shivam Barot, Yuval Chain, Florence Welch, Isabella Summers, and Thomas Schaeferdieck, as performed by Drake featuring Sexyy Red and SZA.^{[16][49][better source needed]}
• "Which One" contains uncredited interpolations of "Work", written by Robyn Fenty, Graham, Jahron Braithwaite, Rupert Thomas, Matthew Samuels, Allen Ritter, and Monte Moir, as performed by Rihanna featuring Drake; and "Wannabe", written by Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Emma Bunton, Geraldine Halliwell, Victoria Adams, Matt Rowe, and Richard Stannard, as performed by the Spice Girls.^[29]
• "Amazing Shape" contains elements of "Who Am I (Sim Simma)", written by Anthony Davis and Jeremy Harding, as performed by Beenie Man.^[29]
• "BBW" contains a sample of "Work", written and performed by Denise Belfon.^{[49][better source needed]}
• "True Bestie" contains a sample of "PSA", written by Alzoria Sanders, as performed by Iconic Savvy.^[27]
• "Where's Your Stuff Interlude" contains a sample of a TikTok video by youfoundivyy.^{[‡ 1]}
• "New Bestie" contains an uncredited sample of "One Dance", written by Graham, Paul Jefferies, Ayodeji Balogun, Noah Shebib, Errol Reid, Luke Reid, Kyla Smith, Corey Johnson, and Logan Sama, as performed by Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla.^{[49][better source needed]}