“I lost him in 2009”: The tragedy that inspired Drake’s ‘Do Not Disturb’
Drake is no stranger to using samples within his music. Take ‘Jungle’ off his If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late mixtape, which samples Gabriel Garzón-Montano’s “6 8”, or something more popular like ‘Emotionless’ from Scorpion, sampling Mariah Carey’s classic 1991 song ‘Emotions’.
He did the same in 2017 for ‘Do Not Disturb’ off his More Life “playlist.” The record samples a track from Snoh Aalegra called ‘Time’, which also appeared on her debut album Feels that same year. The Swedish singer wrote the song about her father, who passed away when she was a teenager, having not known him very well throughout her life.
“The song is about my dad — I lost him in 2009,” she told The Fader. “I didn’t have the tightest relationship with him when I was young because my parents got divorced when I was very young. I only got more in touch with him when I was 18, and he passed just a few years after that. I always regret the time I didn’t get with him and that’s what the song is about.”
‘Time’ was written and produced alongside Leven Kali. Aalegra eventually found her connection to Drake through Boi-1da, who produced ‘Do Not Disturb’ alongside Noah ’40’ Shebib and Allen Ritter. Given that Drizzy’s dad, Dennis Graham, was a big part of More Life, Aalegra felt it made perfect sense to combine their worlds.
“Tonight, listening to More Life, it kind of hit me: Drake’s dad is on the cover of his project, and he celebrates his dad,” she said at the time it was released. “It’s about life and celebrating life. It’s so crazy that my song ‘Time’ is about me not having enough time with my dad. So, I feel very connected to the project, even though this was more like me and Boi-1da collaborating.”
She continued, “I thought it was a really special moment on his album. It’s the last track and he’s unloading a lot. It’s really special to be a part of that. I’m unloading on the original song as well, so it just felt like it came full circle. Drake is super versatile. He always has a lot of emotional moments on his albums. I’m super emotional and try to bring that same amount of catharsis to my music, so I think it’s a good fit.”
‘Do Not Disturb‘ samples Aalegra’s lyrics, “Silence keeps cloudin’ me/ Hand on my heart/ And I, I wish time never mattered,” throughout the song. It serves as the final track on the album and finds Drake, like he so often does, spitting one long verse without a chorus.
In the final lines of the song, he raps, “I want to see my dog, but his grandmother’s his surety/ He can’t even dip out to see me in an emergency/ My life is centred ’round competition and currency/ Takin’ summer off, ’cause they tell me I need recovery/ Maybe gettin’ back to my regular life will humble me/ I’ll be back 2018 to give you the summary/ More Life.”