In Review: Drake's Take Care

Who knew the month of November would be blessed with some great releases in rap music. Drake's Take Care, Mac Miller's Blue Slide Park and my underdog favourite Pac Div's The Div. I'll tackle the latter 2 releases later this week but today I'll just be tackling Drake's sophomore effort.

1/5 of this group had to consolidate to form Slaughterhouse.

Deciding to review Drake's work before the other two independent releases is a telling of Drake's popularity as of late. And as of late, I'm talking about the last 3 years. If you are to take away the established rap artists of the earlier half of the 2000s, your Lil Waynes, Jay-Zs, Eminems you’re only left with Drake who has established a popularity that extends just beyond smaller rap circles. To extend the argument, take a look at the XXL Top 10 Freshman classes over the last 3 years. Focusing on just the success stories out of those lists, it would appear that 2008 Freshman Lupe Fiasco, and 2010 Freshmen Wiz Khalifa and late bloomer J. Cole can be considered close in terms of success to Drake over a similar time period. That's if you are to determine success by record sales, twitter followers, and YouTube views (Considering its 2011, is it fair to say the last 2 matter more than record sales?) But can mainstream success parlay into the final production of Take Care?

Let me start off with is: This is not a rap album. I'm not here to take a fake Ghostface take on it. I'm actually quite appreciative of Drake's work and will not penalize it simply because of the album's inability to conform to some of the typical rap standards. What makes Drake's album different and not just this album but his whole body of work has been an infused use of emotion through his lyrics. This is something more attributed towards R&B records rather than rap albums. So Far Gone definitely had this feel and as it was most people's first experience with Drake. They were able to gather that Drake wasn't a typical rap artist because of this. At the same time, he doesn't deviate from the typical rap standard in lyrics with aspirations of big dreams/cars/money, and of course women. It's what Drake talks about after that makes people quick to point out he isn't really a rapper. It's the ability to explain the 'what' and 'why' of his actions and in certain instances the regrets and mistakes of making particular decisions. He blames his popularity and himself, but is unapologetic for letting it all out on his songs. This is what was missing from Thank Me Later, while it was an album that plenty of songs for the girls (and guys) to swoon over with its club inspired rhythms from the productions sounds of Boi-1da. Even if Boi-1da can be considered Drake's production talent for the dance inspired anthems, Drake doesn't shy away from displeasure with his first studio album. In a recent GQ interview before the release of Take Care, when asked to rank his studio releases he'd rate Thank Me Later behind both So Far Gone and Take Care simply because he never got out some of his emotional details in his songs. If not an exclusive rap album, settling on the label of 'Rap/R&B' maybe more appropriate. 

The production of this album falls in line with the artist's lyrical train of thought, as Drake's right hand on the production table Noah "40" Shebib, has been typically the main instrument for getting out the emotional tunes on Drake's tracks. On Take Care, 40 is responsible for up to 14 of the 18 tracks featured on the album. Compare that to Drake's first album Thank Me Later, where "40" is featured on 8 of the 14 featured tracks. In recent interviews, "40" had been interviewed on his production techniques and sampling inspirations. He is quick to point out that Drake and him are both kids of the 90s and grew up on a lot of the R&B of that time period. The fact that the music they produce now is going to be a product of their growing up. The question then remains is why we don't see it more of this type of R&B is quite puzzling. R&B has yet to achieve the status they had back in the days of Boyz II men, and R. Kelly. Only the likes of Alicia Keys come to mind in terms of similar success but of a lesser degree. The push away from this type of R&B coincides with the resurrection of gangster rap brought to us by the 50 Cent at the turn of the 2000s with Get Rich or Die Tryin'. It's funny how that these two genres are so closely related and understanding this relationship is definitely up for further exploration. With gangsta rap fading out by about 2005, the genre of rap/hip-hop whatever you want to call it has been in an exploratory stage. No dominant sub-genre has been able to take hold of it but somehow when Drake produces his art form is probably seen as the one ripest for criticism from across the board.

At the end of the day, this is one of those albums where the artist has produced something truly of their own love. To speak specifically to his lyrics isn't something that should be taken lightly considering the subject matter which is slowly drawn out over synths and soft drum loops. Maybe it's for show or maybe it really is into the emotional mind state of a 25  year old dealing with too much fame. Nonetheless, the sales will continue and so will the criticism. To that, this artist has two words for you.