Jack Harlow released his sophomore album, Come Home The Kids Miss You, on Friday (May 6). While the public sits with the record, some of us who stay tapped into Rap Twitter (for better or worse) have already played one of its standout tracks a handful of times.
On April 13, an untilted Drake and Harlow collab leaked onto the timeline. The song would turn out to be “Churchill Downs.” This was significant for two reasons: Celebrating how much better Drake’s leaks sound than his officially released music is a cherished tradition online, and people have been quietly comparing Harlow to the OVO honcho for some time.
Reactions to Drake’s verse were overwhelmingly positive, with Twitter users saying he “blacked out” in his guest spot and “cleaned up” his Kentucky-born collaborator. One person even suggested the feature is already “verse of the year.” None of these are overstatements. The Boy went that crazy, and the feature might be his best guest verse in years.
To put this into context, Drake, a prolific feature artist, doesn’t often provide verses to people who are known for their bars. As somewhat of a Hip-Hop chameleon, this means over the past few years he’s found himself rapping far below his capabilities alongside the likes of Gunna (“P Power“), Young Thug (“Bubbly“), Migos (“Having Our Way“), Lil Yachty (“Oprah’s Bank Account“), and even Trippie Red (“Betrayal“). The sole outlier in this trend is the stellar verse he rapped on Nicki Minaj’s “Seeing Green” last year.
Somehow, Jack Harlow, a serviceable lyricist despite getting the “Renegade” treatment on his own song, inspired Drake to rap like we all know he can in this recent guest appearance. What came from that inspiration is an exercise in rhyming that was more surprising than it should have been.
Read on to see the best lyrics from Drake’s “Churchill Downs” verse.