By Odeisel
Monster hits and one of the greatest mixtapes ever created such lofty expectations that his debut crumbled under the weight. This time around, he got his weight up with the ambitious Take Care, an album capable of converting all but the staunchest of haters.
The melancholic atmospherics of producer Noah “40” Shebib are still everpresent on the disk, but this time they are mitigated by strong offerings from other producers that prevent the drowsy malaise of moody gloom from taking over.
Producer T-Minus appears three times, each breaking up the 40 flavor with aplomb. “Underground Kings” adds some gully to the album with a brooding bottom and a winding top with Drake going hard and Nicki Minaj does her damn thing on “Make Me Proud” with hard femme rhyming and none of the Sybil trickery that colors her usual music. Boss Weezy features on “HYFR(Hell Ya Fuckin’ Right).” Drake goes stream of consciousness and hyperspeed on the first one with a flow we haven’t heard from him before and kills it. Wayne sounds conspicuously close to Drake’s flow on this one but I’ll let you tell it. All three tracks knock hard and space out the moody music.
Just Blaze creates arguably the hardest beat of the year on the Rick Ross collaboration “Lord Knows.” Choirs are crooning, drums are booming and piano key sare plunking and Drake abandons all emo for a harder delivery and manhandles the beat next to a Ross that’s so impatient, he drops his trademark “ughs” throughout Drakes run only to close the song like a hammer (more Mjolnir than MC). Much maligned for his emotional rhymes, Drake drops a few words for the haters:
I’m hearing all of the jokes i know that they trying to push me I know that showing emotion don’t ever mean I’m a pussy/Know that I don’t make music for niggas that don’t get pussy so those are the ones I count on to diss me or overlook me…A lot of niggas came up off of a style I made up but if all that I hear is me then who should I be afraid of…
Not that 40 doesn’t have that fire. Opening salvo “Over My Dead Body” is brilliant with the dichotomy of its soft layers (courtesy of Canadian pianist and singer Chantal Kreviazuk) and defiant sentiment, courtesy of Drizzy himself, with tight bars like, “on these white women like Seal n***a, slave to the pussy, but I’m just playing the field, n***a.” Stevie Wonder’s legendary harmonica adds a layer to Shebib’s somber construction on “Doing It Wrong,” an otherwise “normal” 40 track.
Conversely, 40 weaves a slick SWV sample into the fabric of “Shot For Me,” while Boi-1da injects some high energy into “Headlines.”
Kendrick Lamar hops on the back end of 40-produced “Marvin’s Room” for the “Buried Alive” interlude. The former chronicles a drunken phone most people have made shitting on your ex’s new flame. The latter is synth-laden spazzing laden with smoothly-delivered bitterness towards your new dude. Shebib also produces the Weezy and Andre3000 track “The Real Her” which features an Andre coming close to his former prime but still lacking that fluidity that made him sublime.
Just Blaze creates arguably the hardest beat of the year on the Rick Ross collaboration “Lord Knows.” Choirs are crooning, drums are booming and piano key sare plunking and Drake abandons all emo for a harder delivery and manhandles the beat next to a Ross that’s so impatient, he drops his trademark “ughs” throughout Drakes run only to close the song like a hammer (more Mjolnir than MC). Much maligned for his emotional rhymes, Drake drops a few words for the haters:
I’m hearing all of the jokes i know that they trying to push me I know that showing emotion don’t ever mean I’m a pussy/Know that I don’t make music for niggas that don’t get pussy so those are the ones I count on to diss me or overlook me…A lot of niggas came up off of a style I made up but if all that I hear is me then who should I be afraid of…
Even with all the pyrotechnics of the guests and the producers, the star of this album is Drake himself. The kid spits agile flows, flaunts clever lyrics and tight bars while finding the perfect balance between his trademark crooning and rapping; using one to set up the other like a Larry Holmes jab. He pulls Lex Luger into his world, not settling for the trap music Luger normally makes and the result is the scintillating “Camera/Good Ones Go” which sounds nothing like anything we’ve heard from Luger.
You’re already familiar with his simping but you aren’t ready for the soul-baring “Look What You’ve Done,” where Drake shares his family story on his rise to stardom and wraps it all around a spare piano and a loosely constructed but precise flow. It is expert songwriting and laser sharp execution that places Drake in a class no one in his generation can touch.
Take Care is a couple songs too long and it should have ended with “Look What You’ve Done.” That said, even when you include the 80’s house music sounding Rihanna featured title track, the range he displays on this album is startling. It’s not perfect but the highs more than compensate for the lows (Although my stomach still hurts from Drake’s rendition of Juvie’s “Back That Ass Up” on “Practicing.”) Haters will find a reason for hate but detractors may find themselves converted.
out of 5
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really good review