When combing through Drake’s dense catalog, it’s easy for some of the more bar-heavy or narratively dense tracks to get lost beneath the shadow of the chart-shattering records that make up most of his discography. As far as B-sides—less “important,” streamed, or acknowledged tracks in live shows—are concerned, Drizzy has some real heat lying in the depths of his albums, though.
What makes Drake’s B-sides special is the fact that most of them find the rapper really spitting, opting to exclude a hook to showcase his elite wordplay for an entire song. Tracks like “Say What’s Real,” “Is There More,” and “Weston Road Flows” immediately come to mind in that category, while other B-sides of his like “Cameras / Good Ones Go Interlude,” “Girls Love Beyoncé,” and “Losses” are more melodic and give Drake’s romantic woes and distrustful tendencies more context and color.
What all of these songs have in common is that they would sound amazing live. One of the most notable B-sides shows in recent memory is Jay-Z’s 2019 performance at Terminal 5. Hov had done B-sides shows before, but that Tidal presentation was special, with the legendary rapper performing some of his deepest cuts and even doing freestyle for the small crowd. Drake might be preparing to do something very similar with his two-day occupancy at the Apollo this weekend. The show was originally set to happen in November but has been moved twice already—first, because of the sudden passing of Takeoff and later, because of “production delays.” Now, nearly three months later, the Boy is finally ready to grace the legendary stage in Harlem and has been hinting on Instagram that the show might be a “trip down memory lane.” With hopes for a legendary weekend of Drizzy classics, below we rank Drake’s B-sides from worst to best.
