Take Care Review
Before I get into the song by song, I just gotta put this album into perspective. Every Drake project has had a overarching theme that defines points in his career. Room For Improvement showed him as a young eager spitter who wants to make a name for himself in Toronto and painted him as humble yet competitive. Comeback Season painted him already taking over Toronto as the lead act in his city and trying to put the city on his back as he tries to put his foot into the door of the mainstream hiphop scene. So Far Gone had Drake on the "cusp of greatness" in the mainstream as the "Next Big Thing" and chronicled his adjustments to fame. Thank Me Later was his step into the limelight as a top Hip Hop act and had him still adjusting to fame and him wanting the most from his craft.
So it seemed like a sophmore slump was inevitable. Was he still gonna whine about fame? Well as he said in a interview this album is about his current position where he likens himself to a king. It displays a more confident Drake now that he has credentials under his belt, yet being still the same emotional herb we all know. He considers himself in my own words, a young OG in the rap game. Keep the themes of the album in mind while listening to it.
1. Over My Dead Body
You'd expect a harder sound with a title like that, but then again this is more Drake's lane. 40 seems to be the best at caputuring that. The sample is actually on point with the content of the song too.
The theme of his king like confidence mixed with his emotional vunerablity is highlighted in THE FIRST 2 bars. "I think I killed everybody in the game last year, man fuck it I was on though. And I thought I found the girl of my dreams at the stripclub, mm-mm fuck it I was wrong though" It sets the tone for Take Care perfectly.
His bars are real. He paints his position of his career perfectly, his high expectations, people trying to bump him out of the way for the next "next big thing" in hip hop etc. Lyrically he's uses the typical unique Drake style thowing in some sung bars with his flow. He's got some punchlines ranging from great (the slave / Comeback season line), to mediocre (the Dim sum double entendre....kind of a reach. Same with the Kevin Hart line) to bad (the paint drying line). Nothing too bad to take away from the song though.
Rating 5/5: Sets up the album perfectly, real as fuck, and good lyrically.
2. Shot For Me
The first singing drop. I fully expected simping but in the first bitch he's actually.....stunting on a bitch?! He attributed all of this girl's persona to him as he "made her who she is". That was actually kinda trill. Kinda fits the themes of Take Care too, especially if consider that this is Drake we're talking about; a pioneer in the field of simping. The hook is good, not great. The beat does a lot for the hook behind the scenes.
So what happened in the second verse where he on some half simping half breakup song shit? His tone was catchy in the lyrics but he didn't say anything noteable. This verse actually takes away from the song.
Then he does a little spoken word drop at the end that was a lot better than the actual verse. Huh? The beat sounds very R&Bish, but it sounds great. Sequencing wise, tthe song does a cheap move by sampling the next song. But it works.
Rating 3.5/5: It sounds good but drops the bar in the second verse. Defnitely gonna end up as one of those songs everyone likes but me.
3. Headlines
Fantastic song, great choice for a single. Captures the spirit of Take Care very well covering people's worries that he was falling off, his newfound confidence (he was feeling himself enough to even talk about catching bodies haha) and how he isn't threatend by emerging rap acts. 40 and Boi-1da came through on the beats, Drake came through on everything else, singing wise as well as lyrically. This marks the first switch up in flow on the album as well as probably in 2 years for Drake in general. And it's worth the wait.
My Rating: 5/5 I got nothing bad to say about this song.
4. Crew Love ft. Weeknd
Let's get this out of the way: This song belongs to The Weeknd. This should be on his mixtape with a Drake feature. Doc Mckenny and Weeknd did such a fantastic job with the beat and vocals that I wouldn't rate this below a 5 even if a Lil B verse was at the end of this. The beat has a eerie and airy feel while Weeknd sings about groupies giving attention to him because he and his crew are blowing up.
As much praise as I give to Weeknd for his job, Drake actually did well on this. His verse is about him providing for his friends and family in appreciation of all the things that the do or would do (shoot people) for him. The verse was good, just....this is Weeknd's song.
My rating 5/5: A great song to smoke and zone out to.
5. Take Care ft. Rihanna
Man what the fuck is this?
This sounds like some B.o.b. or Bruno Mars shit. Rihanna's hook isn't catchy. Drakes verse content wise is on some simping tip.
The saving graces of the song? The beat has an island feel to it, there was like some tribal dance sounding sample thing at the end, Drake's singing wasn't bad on this and he flowed well.
Isn't good enough for me to give it at least two stars though. Easily the worst song on the album. It's even worse when you think about how perfectly Club Paradise would have sequenced in this spot.
Rating 1.5/5: I hope Rihanna at least topped him off to justify this bullshit.
6. Marvin's Room/ Buried Alive ft. Kendrick Lamar (Combined rating 4/5)
These were combined I guess for disc space reasons, but I'll review them seperately as well
Marvins Room: Emotional Drake makes his first appearance on Take Care in full speed. Marvins Room has Drake getting drunk and calling an ex to shit on her current boyfriend and to urge her to remember their old relationship. It's a herblike concept and it doesn't fit with Take Care theme-wise. (it was added because of it's popularity though so I understand) Though this song shows that Drake is a fantastic songwriter. This is anything but the typical R&B track and it may capture many guys in a moment of herb-like weakness. The production captures the mood of "pathetic slag bitching to his ex" well too. This song isn't that great though
Rating: 3/5
Buried Alive: It's a straight Kendrick drop and since it's surgically attached to Marvins Room, it really makes you think twice before hitting the skip button on track 6. I don't listen to Kdot, but he's got a great flow for this song. The production along with this voice adds a creepy feel for the song.
The best part? What it does for the Take Care as an album. The song is actually about Drake, more specifcally Kdot's first encounter with Drake. Kendrick's worries and take on fame sound eerily similar to Thank Me Later Drake with lines like "The reason why my best friend said she love me more than life, But I live a double life and need to let her go". He describes how he met Drake that he only identifies as "the canadian" or "Mr.OVOXO" which is a great touch. He makes the encounter sound so epic with lines " Hit me on the cellular, thought he was gonna sell me a, false word Like the rappers I know" and "A reality living in the matrix, We talk casualy about the industry, And how the women be the tastemakers for the shit we makin’, Then he said that he was the same age as myself, And it didn’t help cuz it made me even more rude and impatient".
This is the OG status Take Care is pushing in the song speaks volumes for it.
My Rating 5/5: Pay whomever came up with the idea for this.
7. Underground Kings
The beat is chill but not particularly smooth. This was one song that production couldn't carry Drake.
Drake rose to the challenge though. This flow is his typical one, but this song is full of quoteables. This song focuses on Drake in the underground and his inspirations to get where he is. He refrences Wayne's music as an influence, Yo Gotti stunting as an inspirtation and his talent that other people saw as the go ahead that school wasn't for him. This is one of those rapping ass nigga songs, and Drake comes through and kills it.
My Rating 4.5/5: He comes through on the lyrics. Just didn't have a "It" factor to push it 5/5 for me. I blame the beat I guess.
