Drake posts unreleased track "Trophies"

By August Brown

Dec. 30, 2013 11:24 AM PT

It’s hardly the most high-profile surprise holiday-season release from a major hip-hop and R&B star, but now we have a new Drake track to send us off into the new year.

The singer/MC posted his previously teased cut “Trophies” (posted below, with a bit of profanity, so proceed accordingly) on his October’s Very Own Soundcloud today. The track didn’t make the cut for his lauded, woozy album “Nothing Was the Same,” despite the fact that he’d used it in a video trailer previewing the LP.

The track is a team-up from his longtime producer Noah “40” Shebib and Hit-Boy and Hagler. It’s a little more strutty and fanfare-laden than “Nothing’s” gauzy pleas. Big stabs of sampled horns drive the track while Drake shifts from his LP’s emo ruminations to old-fashioned boast mode.

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“This is not a love song,” he sneers, as if to remind his crowd that he will not be Starbucks-Drake-Hands-ing us any time soon.

But it’s not all trumpet blasts and swaggering -- he also riffs on his parents’ divorce and obligations to look after Toronto. If you’re a good girl who acts so different around Drake, this is the sound of his victory lap.