“Wants and Needs” by Drake (ft. Lil Baby)

When two rappers such as Drake and Lil Baby team up, it’s almost inevitable that the product of their collaboration will be braggadocious in nature. And that is what we’re dealing with on “Wants and Needs”.

You can view the lyrics, alternate interprations and sheet music for Drake's Wants and Needs at Lyrics.org.

The title, as generally implied, alludes to the type of lifestyles they’re living. And the easiest way to sum up the situation is as the two of them chillin’, doing as they please so to speak. Or as the chorus puts it they have ‘sins on their minds’ and the “M’s” (i.e. millions of dollars) to fulfill them, if you will. 

And this means for instance that they can have a number of different girlfriends simultaneously. Also they can afford big cars and travel to exotic locations. But again, the lyrics aren’t necessarily as materialistic as they are self-congratulatory. Or stated differently, it can be easily ascertained that both Drake and Baby think highly of themselves in light of the massive success they have achieved in the game.

So again, fans of these artists know exactly what to expect when they put a song out. Thus what really makes a song like “Wants and Needs” a worthy outing isn’t its redundant subject matter. Rather it’s more like the musicians at hand, especially Lil Baby at this juncture in history, are able to be a creative spin on the well-worn topic of rappers exalting themselves.

Lyrics of "Wants and Needs"

Release of “Wants and Needs”

This track is from an EP Drake dropped on the same date as the track, via OVO Sound and Republic Records, entitled “Scary Hours 2”. It consists of three songs altogether and is a sequel to another extended play he released back in 2018 entitled “Scary Hours”.

Drake officially dropped this track on the 5th of March 2021.

Composing and Production

Baby and Drake wrote this song, being assisted by the track’s producers – 40, Cardo and Dez Wright – all three of whom are regular collaborators of Drake’s.

Kanye West Diss?

There is a part of this song, at the end of the first verse, where Drake apparently gives a shoutout to Kanye West, aka “Yeezy”.  The way the two related lines read are as if he is making fun of the Christian act Kanye West has embraced as of late in a playful kind of way. 

However, there is a rumor, which many people seem to adhere to, that Drizzy is rather dissing Kanye by stating, in a roundabout way, that he has slept with West’s wife (at the time), Kim Kardashian. This rumor is founded primarily on two premises. First is that conspiracy theories of Drake having had sex with Kim K. aren’t anything new. 

Indeed Drake and Kanye endured a well-documented beef circa 2018. It was during that time where it was first speculated Drake dropped a couple of bars implying that he scored Kardashian (prior to her marrying Yeezus). And he allegedly did so via two tracks – his own “In My Feelings” (2018) and Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode” (2018), on which he was featured. 

At one point the beef, which also involved other actors (most notably Pusha T and Drake’s toddler son), appeared on the verge of getting quite serious. But seemingly things have died down significantly between then and now (i.e. the release of this track).

That being noted, apparently the way the above-referenced “Wants and Needs” lines are being interpreted by such adherents is as Drake having made an attempt, via the aforementioned tracks, to let Kanye know that he had in fact slept with Kim. This would be what he means in the song by “confessing (his) sins” to “Yeezy”. Then the following phrase, “he wouldn’t believe us”, would refer to West refusing to accept Drake’s confession.

Did Drake really have an affair with Kim Kardashian?

This is all speculation and is not the way the lyrics have been interpreted by the mainstream. The nature of the beef between Kanye and Drake is such that, if it is still extant at this point, neither one of them would likely attack the other directly regardless. 

So whenever one references the other, someone somewhere will likely be able to extract a conspiracy theory from it – at least until the two of them actually make peace publicly.

Is “Wants and Needs” Drake’s first collaboration with Lil Baby?

Drake (Toronto) and Lil Baby (Atlanta) have a collaboration history dating back to 2018. And at the time of the release of “Wants and Needs”, they are both amongst the top rappers in the music industry.

There are three other tracks prior to the release of “Wants and Needs” which feature both Drake and Lil Baby. They would be as follows:

  • “Harder Than Ever” (2018) which both artists headlined
  • “Never Recover” (2018) which they headlined alongside Gunna
  • The remix of Future’s “Life Is Good” (2020)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may also like...