After a high level of activity last year, Drake has entered 2018 with more music for listeners. He has dropped two new songs, “God’s Plan” and “Diplomatic Immunity” on an EP entitled Scary Hours. These are his first new tracks of 2018 and his first solo tracks since Signs that dropped back in June 2017.

The EP is intended to be added to as the year progresses, becoming a full-fledged project by the end of the year. This would be similar to what Kanye West did with his 2016 album The Life of Pablo, which is still getting updates to it over a year after its release.

The first track “God’s Plan” is produced by Cardo and is essentially an anthem about trying to stay winning in life and ignoring the haters in the process. A snippet of the track was circulating the internet to positive reception before the full song dropped.

The track is full of quotables but the main one that sticks out is the “I only love my bed and momma, I’m sorry” line. Built to be used as an Instagram caption until the end of time, that line more importantly shows Drake’s true values at this stage in his career. The song is also built for the radio, so there’s still times where Drake is holding back on the song.

The song broke a single day streaming record on Spotify and that alone was enough for the song to debut #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, which makes “God’s Plan” his second #1 single as a lead artist.

The second track “Diplomatic Immunity” is produced by Boi-1da and is about Drake just pouring out his thoughts about the past year. The song is notable for having no hook and more bars than “God’s Plan” or his other more radio-friendly tracks. Nonetheless, the song debuted at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100.

He’s touched on the subjects on both of his songs for a long time now. But what makes these songs different from the other ones in his catalog is how he approaches these subjects. Both songs have more of a hunger to them than on most of the songs on “Views” or even “More Life.” He’s feeling the pressure of both the general public and critics and is pouring that out in his music.

What makes “Diplomatic Immunity” better than “God’s Plan” to me is that “Diplomatic Immunity” is more focused and raw than “God’s Plan.’ Both songs are great in their own right though, it just depends on what kind of Drake you want to hear, emotional Drake or cocky Drake.

Now with two successful songs to start off 2018 already under his belt, it will be interesting to see what Drake does next. Whether he adds more to Scary Hours or ditches his original idea and works on an entirely different project, I’m expecting great things from Drake in the near future.