Evil Ways

Evil Ways reunites Drake with J. Cole on the Scary Hours Edition appended to For All the Dogs (2023), notable because it followed closely on the heels of the album's First Person Shooter — the song whose 'big three' framing would become the spark for the 2024 Drake-Kendrick confrontation. Here the two collaborate again over the '40' and Boi-1da production that anchors the Scary Hours series, in a rap-forward register suited to the format. The track reads as a continuation of the peer-acknowledgment chemistry the two displayed on First Person Shooter, with both leaning into combative, self-assured bars. In retrospect the pairing is often discussed alongside that broader arc, given how consequential the Drake/Cole/Kendrick dynamic became in 2024. Within the brief edition the song functions as a marquee feature moment, reinforcing the set's competitive energy and the documented Drake-Cole partnership of this period rather than serving as a melodic single.