Wasting Time
by Brent Faiyaz (featuring Drake)

Album: Wasteland (2021)
Charted: 34 49
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Songfacts®:

  • Over a lush, vintage-sounding Neptunes production, Brent Faiyaz croons about his love interest. The object of his affections lives a busy life with plenty of men after her, but Faiyaz pleads that he's the right guy. He says he will give her space when she needs it, but if the lady has some time to waste, she should waste it with him.
  • Drake steps in two-thirds of the way through for a verse where he addresses a prospective lover. He compares the woman to the main character in the 1983 novel and hit Netflix series, The Queen's Gambit.

    New piece around my neck, it's chest games
    'Cause shorty stay with calculatin' moves, like Beth Harmon


    The novel and TV series portrays orphan chess prodigy Beth Harmon as a very intelligent and competitive person.

    Drake drops some more chess references later on in his verse when he refers to his love interest's roommate:

    Checkmate, even though you hate that I even check her
    I'll still get an E for effort


    Checkmate is a chess term referring to the situation in which an opponent's king cannot escape, thus rendered powerless. This wins the game. E4 is the most common first move in chess. Drake said something similar in his Nothing Was the Same track "Tuscan Leather":

    Like aye, B I got your CD, you get an E for effort
  • This marks the first collaboration between both Brent Faiyaz and the Neptunes production duo of Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams. Drake previously rapped on the remix of N.E.R.D. and Rihanna's 2017 "Lemon" single, which was co-produced by Pharrell.
  • Faiyaz stylized the single artwork after the cover of Pharrell Williams' debut album, In My Mind.

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