Review of Drake’s “Take Care”
Review of Drake’s “Take Care” We have arrived at Ben Stiller’s sophomore album “Take Care”. Oh this isn’t Ben Stiller? Well isn’t he Jewish? Doesn’t he act? Oh… Oops. *shrugs*. If you’re a Drake stan, you might not want to read this review any further because you may confuse the FACTS about ‘ol girl with hate. So if you don’t mind, I would like to go ahead and get into it. *Does Drake’s frantic hand wave* The first single off this album is “Headlines”, which I must say was a great way to bring in her sophomore studio album. She addresses her haters and lets the world know that she’s not playing any games this time around. The production by Boi-1da doesn’t hurt either. Now, lets address the lies that will be a popular theme during this review. “You gone hype me up and make me catch a body like that”, uuuummmm, Drake and catching a body goes together like cocaine and waffles… wait a minute, IT DOESN’T. Also “Soap Opera rappers sound like All My Children”, but, but, isn’t this coming from the most sensitive rapper (Besides Young Berg of course) in Hip Hop? O-k. Just tell me when I’m lying. But overall, this song is dope, I like it, and he got the message across that she wanted, that the old aggresive rapping Drake is what you wanted, well here she is and you already know how serious she gets. Mission accomplished. The next single is “Marvin’s Room”. I think we’ve all heard this song enough to understand what it’s about. No need to get into it. But I think every male AND female has gone through this scenario. Is it a good song? Yes. But it gets played out very easily. The latest single is “Make Me Proud” featuring Nicki Minaj. This song is cool. I love this beat (produced by T-Minus). I personally feel like this song is just an album filler. You could take this song off and the album would be just as good, if not better. It plays on the rumors of Drake and Nicki being in their homosexual relationship (Nicki being the stud). She’s proud of Nicki’s success while Nicki let’s it be known what her success are. Drake could also be talking about one of his MANY ex’s or just an imaginary woman as well. Either way, I dig it. I feel it would’ve been better had it been Nicki’s song but whatever, it isn’t. One of my favorite tracks is “Cameras” which includes one of the few samples from 90’s R&B on this album (Jon B’s “Calling on You”). This record is about how the media may perceive some things about Drake and how it affects his personal life. She gives us two different perspectives. One she shows us how the media works in his favor with lines like, “Word on road/ is the click about to blow/ You ain’t gotta run and tell nobody/ they already know…. How you mean?/ How you mean?/ Thought you knew about the team.” But then he uses lines like, “She looks like a star/ but only on camera/only on camera/ only on camera/ Don’t listen to the lies/ I swear they’re all lies”, to show how the media is not always 100% correct and how is love interest shouldn’t believe EVERYTHING. Basically Drake is using the media to his advantage whether they’re wrong or right. I see what she did here. My next favorite is “The Real Her” featuring Lil Wayne and MOTHER FUCKING 3 STACKS! This song plays to the sensitive stereotype she has created for herself. It’s a slow tempo track about niggas in the strip club having a different experience than just a good time. It’s more about trying to understand why the stripper/young lady is stripping and how she feels performing this occupation and how the last thing Drake is doing is judging her. Wayne’s verse nothing special to me. I honestly don’t know why he was even on the song. Drake’s sensitive side is perfect and Andre’s classy storytelling ability is a perfect narration for what the song wanted to bring to the listener. Wayne was unnecessary. Andre’s verse is just INCREDIBLE. “The city will remember ya name/ you throw that hoe a scholarship”, is a metaphor stating that the city will remember you simply because of how much money you threw in the club AND in a literal sense, that if she’s a college student and you pay her tuition, people you remember you as well. So whether positive or negative, you’re remembered. Also, everyone’s favorite, “Now the both of us/ are color blind cause the other side looks greener/ Which leaves your turf in the Boise State/ can’t see a play or the team cuz” PSSSSSHHHHH!!! Andre’s one of the greatest! I wish I could explain further but I’ve still got to make up my bed from this morning, but ya’ll get the picture. “Underground Kings” is one dope ass record as well. It’s basically her just stating why she’s one of the best in the game right now and how that she’s getting back to that “underground Drake” that we all know and appreciated without all that female hormone shit. I fuck with this track heavy. Now, my favorite record on this album and in my opinion, Drake’s best song that he’s ever made, from top to bottom, “Look What You’ve Done”, a song about her grandmother produced by Surf Club’s own Chase N. Cashe (Surf Club includes Hit-Boy and CNC). If you’re familiar with this Static Major (RIP) sample you know that its just a clip of him in the studio vibing off of raw emotion, so it makes sense that Chase kept the sample raw and just has Drake telling his experiences that she’s had with Grandmother. It feels like Drake was in the studio with Static and their all just feeling the music. What I love most is that Drake isn’t OVER confident like he is on other songs on this project, she just states facts, ” I see Pain killers on the kitchen counter/ I hate to see it all hurt so bad/ but maybe I wouldn’t have worked this hard/ if you were healthy/ and it wasn’t so bad” and “Wayne calls up my phone/ conversation wasn’t that long… He’s thinking of signing me/ I come home/ We make a mixtape with 17 songs/ Almost get a Grammy off of that thang”. I fuck with this Drake hard body. Honest, confident, and just flow, no singing. (Not saying is songs with her singing aren’t dope). There is not one whack song on this project but I don’t know what the fuck “Take Care” featuring Rihanna is doing on the album. This shit doesn’t even go with the vibe of the album. It just fucks up the flow. She should’ve just given the record TO Rihanna. The intro “Over My Dead Body” is aite. Drake uses a lot of creative double entendres which I can always appreciate but he threw me off as soon as he opened his mouth, “I think I killed everybody in the game last year”, well guess what nigga?! YOU. THOUGHT. WRONG! Nigga last year Kanye dropped the BEST hip hop album and possibly THE album of the year with “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and Eminem sold a fuckin SHIT LOAD of albums as well with a MONSTER record/single with Rihanna. That white boy won like three Grammys, and so did Hov. Soooo, yeah. Next. “Shot For Me” is a nice record as well. A LOT of females feel/like this cut and understandably so. She sounds so bitter, like a little 14 year old girl who just got dumped by her boyfriend but then ended up dating the highschool quarterback. The SWV sample is dope though. “Crew Love” is that shit. I fuck with it. “We’ll Be Fine” is MY SHIT! Give me a couple shots of 1800 and this might be the greatest song of all time! Haha. With “Lord Knows” I feel so bad for Aubrey and Ross. Smh. The amount of classics that have been created over Just Blaze beats is crazy in itself. So as an artis you know you have to come hard as ever. Man, I’ve never in my life heard an artist just be overwhelmed by production like Drake was with this song. I don’t even listen to the lyrics in the song and the ONLY lyrics I did hear was something about her being trigger happy (-_-) and going in a bitch purse. *sigh* We gotta pray to Tim Tebow that Drake’s gets some testasterone soon. I see a lot of people love “HYFR”, but that song is just o-k to me. The beat’s hot though. “Practice” is funny because all the girls who don’t like The Hot Boyz’ “Back That Azz Up” feel like they can like this like it’s not the. Same. Fuckin. Song. Silly hoes. “The Ride” is also one of the best songs I’ve ever heard from Drizzy as well and The Weeknd did his thug thang too. Every song one “Take Care” i felt went along with the theme of the album as well as the title. After every song, whatever/whoever she was addressing, I felt like you could tell them “Take care” afterwards. One thing Drake always does, she only puts people who are better than him on his albums, whether they sing or rap. So the “Buried Alive Interlude” by Kendrick just embarassed the fuck out of Drake. I think she knows it too, hence the title. This is Drake’s second time where she doesn’t even have the best verse on her own album. All in all, “Take Care” is a good album (Would’ve been better had “Take Care”, “Make Me Proud”, and “Lord Knows” been taken off). I know everyone wants to know if this is better than Drake’s first album, “Thank Me Later”, and me personally, I think her debut is slightly better. But this album does kind of prove that Drake wants to be Aaliyah when she grows up. Anyways, I’m outta here. P.S. Can someone please give Destiny’s Child “Survivor” instrumental to Drake, she would KILL that shit!
