On Sunday (Nov. 26), it was revealed that Drake’s For All the Dogs Scary Hours Edition landed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. As reported by Billboard, the deluxe edition of the OVO star’s eighth studio LP earned 145,000 album-equivalent units, beating out albums by Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton and ENHYPEN.
For All the Dogs was first released in October with 23 songs and collaborations alongside Teezo Touchdown, 21 Savage, Yeat, SZA, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Chief Keef and more. One of the album’s biggest standouts, the J. Cole-assisted “First Person Shooter,” topped the Billboard Hot 100 and tied Drake with Michael Jackson’s record of No. 1 singles on that chart.
“How can I describe this album [For All the Dogs] to you? I’ll keep it short and sweet: Please don’t ask me what I feel if you can’t handle the real,” Drake said during a recent episode of his “Table for One” show on SiriusXM. “That’s probably the alternate album title, too.”
He continued, “I’m very, very proud. I’m very, very grateful that any of you are still interested in even listening to what the boy’s got to say. And I hope that we’ll find common ground once again. I do think you’re going to really enjoy this. I think I did my f**king job, if I do say so myself.”
Weeks after that live broadcast, Drake surprised fans by announcing the latest installment of his Scary Hours series, which brought forth six new cuts, including another with J. Cole titled “Evil Ways.” “I’ll say this to you: I feel no need to appease anybody,” he stated in a surprise trailer on social media. “I feel so confident about the body of work that I just dropped that I know I could go and disappear for, whatever, six months, a year, two years. Even though I’m not really, like, into the super lengthy disappearances for the sake of mystery.”