Fair Trade
by Drake (featuring Travis Scott)

Album: Certified Lover Boy (2021)
Charted: 3 3
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Songfacts®:

  • I've been losing friends and finding peace
    But honestly that sound like a fair trade to me


    Here, Drake denounces fake friends who are stressing him out. Rather than letting these people grind him down, he's cutting them out of his life.
  • During the second verse, Drake addresses a prospective girlfriend. He warns the girl if they are to date, he expects her to be totally committed to him.
  • The topic of superficial friends is a frequent one for Drake:

    On the 2013 track "The Motion" he reflects on colleagues who ask him for favors, then ignore him when they don't need him anymore.

    On Nothing Was The Same's "Started From The Bottom," Drizzy proclaims a staunch moratorium on friends because of all the fake ones he's encountered.

    On More Life's "Fake Love" the Toronto MC calls out people who pretend to be his pals in order to benefit from his success.
  • Travis Scott raps the third verse, making several references to women and cars. The Texan also keeps on piste by recounting being a victim of phony friends.
  • This is the fourth collaboration between Travis Scott and Drake, following "Company," "Portland," and "Sicko Mode."
  • On the beginning, the bridge and the outro, this song samples Charlotte Day Wilson's "Mountains." Wilson is a Toronto R&B singer-songwriter who released "Mountains" as the lead single from her 2021 debut album Alpha. Because of the sample, Varren Wade, Babyface, D'Mile, Brandon Banks, Kyla Moscovich, Teo Halm, Marcus Reddick, Mk.gee and Wilson all get credited on "Fair Trade."
  • Travis Scott created the low-slung beat along with Oz (who also co-produced "Sicko Mode"), WondaGurl, Jahaan Sweet, and Patron.
  • Oz created the beat at home in Switzerland in the summer of 2021, then sent it over to Drake as part of a pack. A couple of days later, the Toronto MC sent him back an idea.

    It was one of four placements Oz landed on Certified Lover Boy. "My job is really flooding Drake with beats," the producer told Billboard. "He sent me the first idea back, and we went crazy on that, and he posted the song on Instagram. It's a lot of going back and forth."

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