Drake 

                                                          Take Care

                                                            8.3/10

                                                      Recommended 

So, I’ll be honest with you: I’ve never been a Drake fan. Nothing about him or his music appealed to me. I found his voice aggravating as shit and I just tuned everything and anything about him out. But somehow (and thankfully) I heard the promo single for the Canadian rapper’s second LP, Take Care. “Marvin’s Room” was something I never really expected to hear from Drake. It was an instant hit with me and from then I’ve been a fan. 

While listening to Take Care I realized that I like Drake much more as an R&B artist than a rapper. Although his rhymes and flow are greatly improved on his second full-length, there are still a few cringe-worthy moments, but I’ll get to those later. The first string of songs sets the album up for being a strong record. Opener “Over My Dead Body” is easy to digest with the awesome lyric “Shout out to Asian girls/ Let the lights dim some.” The smooth, sexy and Weeknd-ish “Shot For Me” is a stellar track where Drake moans about girl problems and loneliness, which is a recurring theme on the LP. 

Take Care can pretty much be split into two parts: Drake’s loneliness and relationship issues and his success and how he’s coping with it. Now, these aren’t anything new for rappers or any musicians in general to sing about but Drake gets extremely personal here but still universal. The drunk-dial “Marvin’s Room” is like a page out of the rapper’s journal: “I’ve been in this club too long/ The woman that I would try is happy with a good guy/ But I’ve been drinking so much that I’m gonna call her anyway/ And say/ Fuck that nigga that you love so bad/ I know you still think about the times we’ve had.”

In the same vein, on the unbelievable song “Doing it Wrong,” Drake blows it out of the park. The haunting song is an anthem for those with broken hearts everywhere. “We live in a generation of not being in love/ And not being together/ But we sure make it feel like we’re together/ Because we’re scared to see each other with somebody else,” he honestly coos. On these downtrodden, helpless tracks Drake is undoubtedly at his best. They may not be the songs that get blasted through the clubs or top the charts but regardless the connection Drake is able to make is so rare. “Doing it Wrong” closes with an unexpected but more-than-welcomed harmonica solo by fabulous Stevie Wonder, which just makes you lean back and say “Wow. That just happened.” But there are some upbeat moments on Take Care. Namely the JamieXX sampled title track “Take Care,” which features Rihanna. Jamie’s disco/house/Balearic beats flow over Rihanna’s Barbadian vocals and everything just fits perfectly. The memory of Gil-Scott Heron seeps through as his vocals pop in and out throughout the sample. The track is lush and vibrant thanks to Drake’s production and rhymes.

There is a lot to experience on Take Care. The album is 17 tracks long and clocks in at almost an hour and 20 minutes. There is some filler but even those tracks have a few flashes of great moments, like “Underground Kings,” “We’ll Be Fine,” and the catchy “HYFR (Hell Yeah Fucking Right)” featuring Lil Wayne. 

Take Care shows Drake is a talented musician who clearly thinks things out, is progressive and knows what he’s doing. He is ambitious and has a keen ear/eye for production — he knows what will work and more importantly, knows what doesn’t work. I’m more interested in his non-clubby/upbeat stuff (except for a few tracks). When Drake reaches deep down in the black pit of his stomach he can turn out some fucking amazing R&B songs that I will be playing over and over and over again. 

Watch the video for the amazing “Marvin’s Room” below: