William Wordsworth once said that poetry is “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings… recollected in tranquillity.” At the time, he probably wasn’t thinking about an international superstar settling down to tap a few lines into his Notes app after years of touring, churning out best-selling records, and teaching teenage boys the tenets of emotional manipulation, but here we are. Drake has written a book of poetry. It’s called Titles Ruin Everything: A Stream of Consciousness, and it sees Drake go by his full name, Aubrey Graham, because it’s serious stuff.

How did we find out about Titles Ruin Everything? Well, for many of us, it was thanks to DJ Khaled, a kind of modern poet in his own right (see: meditative mantras such as “Tell em to bring out the whole ocean”). Armed with an advance copy, the record producer took to social media to share his first impressions and give us a peek inside the book itself, which spans 168 pages. Most of those pages contain less than a single sentence, but still... “The man wrote a book! He wrote a sentence!” DJ Khaled exclaims, as if he simply cannot fathom how Drake managed it.

It might seem strange that Drake has waited until now to share his powerful feelings with fans through the medium of verse, but poetry has been having a moment the last few years. Rupi Kaur (whose pithy lines and reckless disregard for saving paper seem to have inspired Drake’s own efforts) has infiltrated Urban Outfitters counters and TikTok feeds for several years, while Amanda Gorman performed at the inauguration of Joe Biden, and Ocean Vuong has a deal with A24. Even Jeremy Corbyn has published an anthology.

Arguably Drake’s biggest competitor isn’t human at all, though. In the last year, AI models like ChatGPT have shown an alarming aptitude for creative tasks. While poetry was once seen as the last shred of humanity we could cling to in the face of complete obsolescence, it’s now clear that machines may be able to recollect their spontaneous overflow of feelings (or fake it) just as well as you or I.

Don’t believe it? Well, as Drake – sorry, Aubrey Graham, working with songwriting collaborator Kenza Samir – shares his debut collection with the world, we’ve devised the ultimate test. Some of the poems below have been generated by impersonating Drake via AI Bing, which runs on the cutting-edge OpenAI model GPT-4. The rest have been written by the real Drake, who runs on white wine spritzers and a tortured soul. Can you tell which is which? (And yes, these are the whole poems.) Questions and answers below.

DRAKE OR AI? A POP QUIZ

1. I don’t chase money, money chases me / I’m living the life that you wish you could see

2. I’m a terrible texter, but a great writer / Hate confrontation, but a great fighter

3. Hearts break as much / as they beat

4. You say you love me, but you always switch up / You’re not the one for me, you’re just a hiccup

5. Some days I got it all figured out / but most days I never learn

6. I don’t follow trends, I set them / I don’t have enemies, I have lessons

7. You’re always talking, but you never listen / You’re always missing, when I need your attention

8. She suffers from main character syndrome if you ask me / I told her I’m going crazy, she said without me?

9. You’re nothing / to write home about

10. First of all, / I don’t have time to go around telling every loser I come across / “I’m sorry for your loss”

11. You’re not thuggin you’re kidding... / one sided beef is not beef... it’s chicken

ANSWERS

1. AI.

2. Drake.

3. Drake, again.

4. AI.

5. Drake.

6. AI.

7. AI.

8. Drake.

9. Drake.

10. Drake?

11. Drake. Really makes you think.