“Fair Trade” is the sixth track on Drake’s 2021 album ‘Certified Lover Boy.’ The song features vocals by Travis Scott, one of the frequent collaborators of Drake. In the song, both artists sing about their come-up in the industry and how they are above one step from everyone else in the game.
‘Certified Lover Boy’ is the highly-anticipated sixth studio album by Drake, released on September 3, 2021. Drake talked about the album in July; “we aim for that head. We don’t aim to please. Certified Lover Boy on the way. And that’s for anyone in the way.” This is his follow-up project to his 2018 album ‘Scorpion.’
The focus of the song is that all the wins Drake has got have been fair-trade so far. He did not hinder anyone else’s chances of being the greatest by foul means. Drizzy put in the work and it paid off. So, why are there so many haters around him?
Listen to “Fair Trade” by Drake Ft. Travis Scott
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Drake “Fair Trade” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review
Verse 1
In the first verse of the song, Drake talks about feeling young as ever even though he is pushing well into his latter 30s and being 15-years in the music industry. He calls out his competitors and sound-alikes to be fake and not impressing him anymore.
And the dirt that they threw on my name
Turned to soil and I grew up out it
Drake has received his fair share of hate throughout his career. However, the lesson here is that he turned all the mud thrown at him into the soil on which he grew to be a blossoming tree. This tree not only feeds Drake and his family. It feeds the entire industry and opens doors for new artists. It is time to recognize what Drake has given to the game.
Chorus
In the chorus, one of the coldest and realest lines of the album appears;
I’ve been losin’ friends and findin’ peace
But honestly that sound like a fair trade to me
This has been said a thousand times, but nothing is more important than your own inner peace. Do whatever it takes to cultivate peace within you. Real friends don’t just go away. So, if you lose a friend along your journey, they were never meant to be there. Shredding fake friends is a good thing.
Drake says that as he grew bigger, he kept losing friends and some even turned to enemies. But he is better knowing his friends and enemies clearly than having frenemies in his camp. So, to him, this is a very fair trade.
Verse 2
In the second verse, Drake sings about his family affairs. He realizes that not everyone loves him or even likes him. Then he seemingly talks to his partner about not having a stable relationship, partly to his fault and partly to her fault as well.
Lookin’ back, it’s hard to tell you where I started
Mama used to be on disability but gave me this ability
With these two lines, Drake throws back to his hit single “Started from the Bottom” from 2013 and also shouts out his mother who raised them up on disability checks. He is glad that he could turn their misfortune into a literal fortune.
In the last part of the verse, Drake seems to put all his beefs aside; “I hold no resentment in my heart, that’s that maturity.” In the line before, he addresses someone who is at the top. This could be a reference to the ongoing feud with Kanye West and Drake’s way of saying he is over it.
Verse 3
In the third verse by Travis Scott, the rapper talks about having no time or energy to deal with fake friends. He would much rather see them out of his camp than let them feed off his palms and bit him in the leg.
I broke bread instead of watchin’ n*ggas break down (Break it)
In this line, Travis Scott says that he put his hours in at his work when others were wasting their time on easy money schemes. In the end, slow and patient wins the race. However, even with all these wins, he is still hungry and for that, he is still getting paid big bucks;
I’m never content, two mil’ a event, I get it frequent
The music industry is war and all is fair trade in love and war.
Let us hear what you think about this song in the comments below. Check out the complete lyrics on Genius.