Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach is the opener of For All the Dogs (2023), built on a warped, slowed sample of Frank Ocean's 'Wiseman' (a song originally tied to the Django Unchained soundtrack) and credited per Wikipedia to Harley Arsenault with 40 as co-producer. On release many listeners assumed it was a veiled diss aimed at Pusha T — a read the press subsequently treated as debunked — and the prevailing interpretation settled instead on a wistful account of a relationship's rise and collapse, with the title city as emotional shorthand for distance. As a sequencing choice it sets the album's nocturnal, water-logged tone: rather than a bombastic statement single, Drake opens in atmosphere, letting the muffled sample and a half-sung, half-rapped cadence establish the introspective register the project keeps returning to. It positions 40-adjacent texture as the album's sonic anchor even before the harder rap cuts arrive.
Sources & verification
Citations below were matched specifically to "Virginia Beach" and For All the Dogs. Drake Universe catalogs songs by album placement, verified collaborators, producers, samples, and themes, and avoids unsupported lyric-level claims.
- Billboard Canada: For All the Dogs Hot 100 chart weekBillboard Canada · 2023-10-21 chart — Dated reference for the first artist with at least 300 Hot 100 entries claim.
- Billboard: For All the Dogs debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200Billboard · 2023-10-15 — Dated chart report for For All the Dogs debuting at No. 1 — Drake's 13th No. 1 album.
- Complex 360 with Speedy Morman: Drake (2024)Complex / YouTube · 2024-02-28 — YouTube upload of Drake's For All The Dogs Scary Hours Edition Complex feature.
- Wikipedia: For All the DogsWikipedia · 2026-05-18 — Primary reference for For All the Dogs release date, rollout, per-track producer and sample credits, BARK Radio guest outros, reception aggregates, and chart/streaming records.
- Wikipedia — For All the Dogs (incl. Scary Hours Edition)Wikipedia · 2023-11-17 — Scary Hours Edition release date (Nov 17, 2023), six-track listing, per-track producer/sample credits, and reception (Clash 6/10, HipHopDX 2.7/5, The Independent) used for Scary Hours 3 ground truth.
- Drake Releases New For All the Dogs Scary Hours Edition: ListenPitchfork · 2023-11-17 — Dated confirmation of the surprise Scary Hours Edition release on November 17, 2023.
