Over the past decade, Drake has given us multitudes through his music: singing Drake, rapping Drake, happy Drake, angry Drake, emo Drake, and every Drake in between. There have been great Drake songs and less-great Drake songs, and even some outright Drake clunkers. But it’s fair to say that no other rapper of his generation has been as consistent, or as consistently good. So what is Drake’s best song? What is his worst? (Worst!) And where do his other 188 songs* rank? Because nobody asked, we felt compelled to list them all, and write further justifications for our top 10 picks. Enjoy our very scientific ranking of Drake songs, in descending order. It’ll take you less time to read than to listen to Scorpion.
*The following list consists of songs featured on Drake albums or single releases. No mixtape cuts were included, nor were any of his innumerable features. We’re completists, not masochists.
Songs Only Drake’s Mom Likes
190. “Glow”
189. “Bria’s Interlude”
188. “Big Rings”
187. “Duppy Freestyle”
186. “Peak”
185. “Fireworks”
184. “Jaded”
183. “Finesse”
182. “Final Fantasy”
181. “Heat of the Moment”
180. “Nothings Into Somethings”
179. “Thank Me Now”
178. “Diamonds Dancing”
177. “Can I?”
176. “Free Spirit”
175. “Shut It Down”
174. “Can’t Have Everything”
173. “Live From The Gutter”
172. “Charged Up”
171. “Unstoppable (Remix)”
170. “I’m Ready for You”
169. “Since Way Back”
168. “My Side”
The Aural Equivalent of Drake’s Tattoos
167. “Two Birds, One Stone”
166. “Change Locations”
165. “Elevate”
164. “9”
163. “Weston Road Flows”
162. “Company”
161. “No Long Talk”
160. “Jodeci (Freestyle)”
159. “KMT”
158. “Grammys”
157. “I’m the Plug”
156. “I Get Lonely Too”
155. “Let’s Call It Off”
154. “Little Bit”
153. “Plastic Bag”
152. “Hate Sleeping Alone”
151. “Can’t Take a Joke”
150. “Jorja Interlude”
149. “Sooner Than Later”
148. “A Night Off”
147. “Preach”
146. “The Calm”
145. “Diplomatic Immunity”
The Stream Boosters
144. “Right Hand”
143. “Fancy”
142. “Practice”
141. “6 God”
140. “Pop Style”
139. “Digital Dash”
138. “Lust for Life”
137. “We’ll Be Fine”
136. “November 18th”
135. “Unforgettable”
134. “6PM in New York”
133. “4PM in Calabasas”
132. “Views”
131. “Ignant Shit”
130. “Used To”
129. “Gyalchester”
128. “Club Paradise”
127. “The Resistance”
126. “Dreams Money Can Buy”
Songs That You Would Not Quote on Your Instagram
125. “Fear”
124. “I’m Upset”
123. “Sneakin”
122. “Ice Melts”
121. “Star67”
120. “Cece’s Interlude”
119. “Say What’s Real”
118. “305 to My City”
117. “Survival”
116. “Cameras / Good Ones Go Interlude”
115. “Is There More”
114. “Days in the East”
113. “Congratulations”
112. “Brand New”
111. “Come Thru”
110. “Free Smoke”
109. “Draft Day”
108. “We Made It”
107. “With You”
106. “6 Man”
105. “Nonstop”
104. “Summer Games”
103. “Scholarships”
102. “Now & Forever”
101. “Wu-Tang Forever”
Songs That You Would Quote on Your Instagram
100. “Talk Up”
99. “Blue Tint”
98. “Show Me a Good Time”
97. “Portland”
96. “Sweeterman”
95. “Pound Cake / Paris Morton Music 2”
94. “Signs”
93. “Still Here”
92. “Get It Together”
91. “Karaoke”
90. “Mob Ties”
89. “U With Me?”
88. “Madonna”
87. “Keep the Family Close”
86. “Ratchet Happy Birthday”
85. “Trust Issues”
84. “Sandra’s Rose”
83. “Light Up”
82. “I’m Goin’ In”
81. “All Me”
80. “Don’t Matter to Me”
79. “Fire & Desire”
78. “Girls Love Beyoncé”
The “Aaliyah Would Be Proud” Tier
77. “Paris Morton Music”
76. “Lose You”
75. “After Dark”
74. “Summer Sixteen”
73. “That’s How You Feel”
72. “Teenage Fever”
71. “The Real Her”
70. “8 out of 10”
69. “Uptown”
68. “Hype”
67. “Faithful”
66. “Redemption”
65. “9AM in Dallas”
64. “30 for 30 Freestyle”
63. “The Motion”
62. “In My Feelings”
61. “The Ride”
60. “Houstatlantavegas”
59. “Over My Dead Body”
58. “Own It”
57. “Too Good”
Songs to Blast at the Cheesecake Factory
56. “Sacrifices”
55. “Childs Play”
54. “Blem”
53. “Passionfruit”
52. “Find Your Love”
51. “Shot For Me”
50. “How Bout Now”
49. “Madiba Riddim”
48. “Make Me Proud”
47. “Emotionless”
46. “Buried Alive Interlude”
45. “Miss Me”
44. “Connect”
43. “Feel No Ways”
42. “Successful”
41. “5AM in Toronto”
40. “10 Bands”
39. “Jungle”
38. “Doing It Wrong”
37. “From Time”
The “OK, Now I See Why Rihanna Dated Him” Tier
36. “Under Ground Kings”
35. “You & the 6”
34. “Fake Love”
33. “Crew Love”
32. “Up All Night”
31. “Do Not Disturb”
30. “Over”
29. “Look What You’ve Done”
28. “Tuscan Leather”
27. “No Tellin’”
26. “The Language”
Songs Drake Was Talking About When He Said, “I Got All the Hits, Boy”
25. “Forever”
24. “One Dance”
23. “Furthest Thing”
22. “Lord Knows”
21. “Know Yourself”
20. “Energy”
19. “Trophies”
18. “Controlla”
17. “Jumpman”
16. “God’s Plan”
15. “HYFR”
14. “0 to 100/The Catch Up”
13. “Back to Back”
12. “Headlines”
11. “Started From the Bottom”
Started From the Bottom Now We’re Here
10. “Nice for What”
As noted in the self-effacing album description for Scorpion, “DRAKE MAKES MUSIC FOR GIRLS” has long been a critique levied at him by hip-hop macho men. It’s never been completely accurate—Drake has sung and rapped ad nauseam about women, but “Nice for What” stands alone as his first full-fledged anthem for the ladies. Its message and music video helped it shoot to no. 1 on the Hot 100, but the beat is what will guarantee it at least a full decade of club and radio rotation. It’s yet another example of his tendency to lean on sounds others pioneered, but “Nice for What” displays its New Orleans bounce influence (and that genre’s bellwether, Big Freedia) so proudly and prominently that it’s hard to call it appropriation. Mixing that raucous energy with a soulful Lauryn Hill sample was the cherry on top, helping “Nice for What” find that sweet spot between classic and contemporary. —T.C. Kane
9. “Best I Ever Had”
An entire generation of Canadians had to reevaluate their pop cultural touchstones when “Best I Ever Had” dropped in early 2009. Up to that point, Aubrey Graham’s rap aspirations were well-known to superfans of Degrassi: The Next Generation, but his talent and legitimacy still astonished. The best sense that he wanted to give up acting came from Aubrey’s episode of Degrassi Unscripted, the teen show’s mash-up of Cribs and a behind-the-scenes program. He showed off his mother’s house, including the basement, which included a table that Drake made. Matted onto it were record covers from Frank Sinatra, Barry White, and Notorious B.I.G., among others. Drake was a teen actor with a passion for decoupage.
He also proclaimed in his mother’s basement: “I write songs … I do music.” The third act of the episode showed him rapping in a music studio. That small segment did not suggest that he would become one of the most famous people in the world, but “Best I Ever Had,” five years later, did. It’s catchy, it has slogan-worthy lyrics, it’s a vibe. His skills and lyrics have improved in almost every way, but “Best I Ever Had” presaged one of the most impressive rebrands in pop culture. —Juliet Litman
8. “Worst Behavior”
This is by far the best angry Drake song, to the tune of 26 F-bombs and the gleeful, unbridled defiance of a kid who has, after years of drubbings, finally beaten his older brother in 2K. It’s a four-and-a-half minute mean mug that dares—no, is begging—you to look back. Drake’s so mad he didn’t even use the Canadian spelling of “behavior”! When Drizzy invokes the Mase flow on the final verse, any of his remaining haters are left to choke on their own bile. Hold his phone. —Donnie Kwak
7. “Legend”
For the record, I never watched the lengthy “Jungle” video, so—at least to me—“Legend” was exactly as melodramatic and self-important as it was supposed to be. Six years prior, Drake was just a curiosity, a Canadian who wore peacoats and NikeTalk denim while aping Little Brother. With If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, if not before, he’d reached the rarefied air of surprise-drop relevance, of the sort only your Beyoncés, Jays, and Kanyes were breathing. “If I die I’m a legend” was now a thing he could say. And singing it over a syrupy sample of Ginuwine’s “So Anxious,” but not totally hamming it up, is the sweet spot in which Drake performs best: emotional but not quite sensual; ahead of himself; and just the right amount of goofy. —Micah Peters
6. “Hotline Bling”
That one of Drake’s most inescapable singles debuted innocuously as “Cha Cha Remix” on OVO Sound Radio speaks to the staggering power of its catchiness. The opening line—“You used to call me on my cellphone / Late night when you need my love”—was similar to so many of his past lyrics, but the juxtaposition of his forlorn reminiscing with the song’s infectious melody made for one of the most compelling singles in the entire Drake canon. The music video, which found him dancing in an intentionally meme-able fashion, was a brief glimpse into the self-deprecation that Views desperately needed a splash of. As many of his scorned missives tend to do, “Hotline Bling” gets ugly toward the end, as he scolds his ex for staying out late and not being a “good girl.” But it wouldn’t be a Drake hit if it wasn’t at least a little bit disturbing. —Kane
5. “Too Much”
I don’t know—Drake is just such a simp. He’s a brat who raps about his phone. It is wild to me, but also makes complete sense, that an entire generation of human beings would find Drake’s lyrical posturing not only relatable, but also cool and even romantic. The only Drake song that doesn’t sound like it was written and performed by a Reddit-dwelling “nice guy” who has dedicated his life and career to resenting girls he knew in high school is “Too Much,” featuring Sampha—the Nothing Was the Same song where Drake struggles out loud to make rap, as a profession, make sense to himself and everyone else in his life who isn’t a fellow rapper or a fan. “Too Much” is Atlanta before Atlanta, though yes, the song is explicitly about Houston. Sampha’s hook is mournful; his piano is downtrodden; but the bass and the drums restore Drake’s life force during the verses. “Too Much” is the only song where I’ve entertained the idea, however briefly, that Drake is who he says he is on the record. —Justin Charity
4. “Take Care”
Like all Drake/Rihanna duets, “Take Care” is elevated by real-life tension—I mean, we all saw that painfully uncomfortable VMA speech. But what makes the title cut from his 2011 album their greatest collaboration to date is that emotive production, courtesy of 40, Drake’s right-hand man, and crucially, Jamie xx, who flips a sample from a Gil Scott-Heron record he’d recorded earlier that year. (And yes, that’s Jamie’s bandmate Romy Madley Croft on guitar—making “Take Care” the closest Drake’s ever come to making an xx song.) Drake songs aren’t always known for their fleshed-out female perspectives, but throughout this he-said, she-said psychodrama of love and loss, Rihanna proves to be his worthiest sparring partner. —Lindsay Zoladz
3. “The Motto”
Drake has always treated celebrity with the practiced indifference of an Instagram star, but before that posture curdled into a dour bitterness, it was actually enjoyable. “The Motto” is mostly a song about being bored—“clubbing hard, fucking women, there ain’t much to do”—and turning that boredom into a flex. That Drake, rocking a North Face jacket and a nasally flow, could somehow stumble into this level of casual opulence meant that any one of us could achieve our party-lifestyle dreams, at least for three minutes on the dance floor. Lil Wayne’s gleeful feature provides the needed counterbalance to Drake’s too-cool demeanor, though. Life—only lived once, or so we’re told—can be so much fun, whether Aubrey wants to admit it or not. —Victor Luckerson
2. “Hold on, We’re Going Home”
At the time of its release in 2013, “Hold on, We’re Going Home” was the most anomalous track in his catalog. A synth-heavy pop track featuring Majid Jordan, “Hold On” evoked Hall & Oates and Miami Vice more than the 808-ish “I’m just here alone in the dark” R&B of Take Care. The single was mercilessly catchy, beautifully simplistic—lyrically and melodically—and romantically speaking, more self-assured than Drake’s default sourness. In 2018, it still feels like an anomaly. Drake’s since proven he can make more catchy hits (hi, “Hotline Bling”), but he hasn’t been able to recapture the warmth and urgency of “Hold on, We’re Going Home,” a bonafide classic pop song. —Andrew Gruttadaro
1. “Marvin’s Room”
“I’ve had sex four times this week / I’ll explain,” moans the budding superstar rapper on his blockbuster second album, with the dead-eyed despondence of a man reading aloud from his own obituary. It is no coincidence that Take Care’s gloriously morose centerpiece finds Drake at both his greatest and his most pathetic, drunk-dialing an ex and casting his young-superstar hedonism in the dourest possible light. (Consider how, say, Lil Jon would deliver the lines, “We threw a party / Yeah, we threw a party / Bitches came over / Yeah, we threw a party.”) The beat is a gorgeous nightmare loop, a woozy and vicious hangover blossoming into an existential crisis from which Drake still hasn’t recovered; the song’s strongest hook, which is the ghostly ex asking, “Are you drunk right now?” predicted Scorpion’s disquieting habit of outsourcing his heaviest emotional labor to sampled women who deserve better. (In this case, it triggered a lawsuit from the ghostly ex herself.) Drake has been chasing the dizzying high of this mesmerizing and unsettling anti-single for years. He has also been chasing the rock-bottom low. —Rob Harvilla
Special thanks to T.C. Kane and Virali Dave for research assistance.