After Drake published IG captions as poetry in his new book Titles Ruin Everything: A Stream of Consciousness, he threw shade at the “random angry poets” criticizing him for swerving into their literary lane.
Source: Prince Williams / Getty
New Drake releases consistently enchant his die-hard fans and entertain the casual listener with their irresistible catchiness. When the rapper branched out into a new medium with his poetry book on Thursday, June 29, his writing didn’t quite curl over for many readers.
Drake is releasing a poetry book called ‘Titles Ruin Everything’. He is 36 years old.
— Tasneem (@lightbeams_) June 25, 2023
Some praised the new project as “profound,” while others put it on blast as a collection of puns and page breaks. Drake clapped back at the critics on social media, shrugging off the haters.
Drake responds to the criticism from ‘Random Angry Poets’ who heavily criticize his latest poetry book. pic.twitter.com/Tx7x9Ei1Wd
— 6ixunplugged (@6ixunplugged) June 30, 2023
“Randomly angry poets: blahagaggagegsvachjsksyavsvvehevehebwgabvqvqqvwvwv,” Drake wrote on his Instagram story.
Is William Drakespeare Trolling With His New Book Titles Ruin Everything?
What the poets say might as well be gibberish to Drake, who compared himself to the unbothered meme of Canadian sex educator Sue Johanson. The trouble with announcing that you’re nonchalant about something is that it looks like chalant-ing pretty hard.
“I don’t know if I have ever wanted people to buy or support something more in my life…our first book is available tmrw,” he wrote in an Instagram post.
Despite sounding sincere, it’s hard to tell how serious Drake is about any of this. In addition to regularly poking fun at himself, he’s turned trolling into performance art on a massive scale. The rollout for his joint album with 21 Savage Her Loss was an elaborate spoof of the music industry.
So I read Drake’s book and I already know I’m about to see every line as IG captions. ?
— The Megan (@MegYuup) June 25, 2023
The stunts went as far as a fake Vogue Magazine cover. They took the joke so far that publishing giant Condé Nast filed a $4 million lawsuit, which settled out of court. Is a book with one sentence or phrase per page just his next elaborate stunt?
Not to pile on the world’s most pile-onable man but “Titles ruin everything” is the ultimate dumb guy who thinks he’s smart title for a first book of poetry it’s almost too on the nose
— Jacqueline (horsejeans . bluesky) (@Horse_Jeans) June 25, 2023
me reading Titles Ruin Everything: pic.twitter.com/Tw5kyqczEV
— vay (@vaysinterlude_) June 24, 2023
Drake co-wrote the book with frequent songwriting collaborator Kenza Samir, giving it the familiar feel of his song lyrics scattered across the pages. That makes sense in light of the announcement that an upcoming LP, For All Dogs, will accompany the book.
#Drake says he has a new album OTW after releasing his poetry book, ‘Titles Ruin Everything’ ?? pic.twitter.com/fCf3QPPZJ5
— Genius (@Genius) June 24, 2023
“I made an album to go with the book. They say they miss the old Drake girl don’t tempt me,” Drake’s book website announced.
Check out the “random angry poets” dragging Titles Ruin Everything to get Drake in his feelings after the flip!
Professional Poets Slam Drake’s Book Titles Ruin Everything: “A Goldmine Of Mediocre Mic Drops”
Source: Prince Williams / Getty
For Drake’s target audience, the book full of quotable captions for social media is a hit. Professional writers aren’t fans of the Canadian rapper dabbling in their genre. Complex interviewed several award-winning authors and poet laureates for their review of the poetic Stream of Consciousness.
Drake’s poetry book is just an archive of all his captions.
— Tristen J. Winger (@TristenJWinger) June 24, 2023
“None of these strike me as poems, because they’re not even attempting to push against any unknown in order to offer something revelatory or at least somewhat beautiful,” said New York Times best-selling author and poet Hanif Abdurraqib.
Whether it’s intentional or not, he said Titles Ruin Everything is sincerely funny.
“Really, it’s kind of just a book of puns. Silly lil’ jokes. It is a struggle for me to tell how in on the joke he is… I’m not personally offended by anything that masquerades as poetry, because it happens so often in every possible arena of entertainment and consumption, but this is essentially a coffee table book of one-line jokes,” Abdurraqib continued.
Drake really sold a book of nothing but potential IG captions and ppl really bought it ? pic.twitter.com/DXwLCZzVoN
— ? (@pnkfridayvbz) June 26, 2023
Houston’s poet laureate Aris Kian agreed that the book is funny, but essentially “a goldmine of mediocre mic drops.”
“Where he could push himself to indulge in the silliness and sentimentality that even the purest of poets would forgive, he disintegrates into petty abstractions and instead gives us lines like, ‘You were in my dream last night / They call that a nightmare, right?’” Kian continued.
“Drake’s poems operate within an excess of white space, a reduced set of images and limited punctuation. The tools of tension, breath and play are only explored through the typical two-line set up/punchline format.”
Fans weren’t the only ones defending Drake’s new release. DJ Khaled showed some love on Instagram.
“The Boy’s special … Listen, The Boy different,” said in the video about Titles Ruin Everything. The minute you think you’ve figured out The Boy, the man writes a book,” the producer said.
“He’s giving you keys. Each key leads to the next key.”
Khaled read excerpts from a few of his favorite pages.
“See, I’m taking my time reading this. The man wrote a book … Listen man, once you think you figured out Drake, you played yourself.”
Whether Drake is a serious poet and we didn’t even know it or has
