I’m not really sure how I feel about Drake and his music. I’m not one of the haters who refuse to admit anything he puts out as being good simply because he sings a lot or because he raps about his emotions but I’m also not one of those Drake fans who swear that Thank Me Later was amazing (it wasn’t), who quote every single song in their Facebook statuses or Twitter feeds (please stop) or say that Drake is the best rapper out there right now (he’s not). I feel as if this shouldn’t be the case because I’m from Toronto. Being from T.O. and not loving Drake is like being Canadian and not loving hockey or Tim Hortons. It just doesn’t fit. With this being said I was still excited to hear what Drizzy had to offer on his second album Take Care which got released yesterday. I decided to write this review a week after downloading the album which like most every other high-profile rap/hip-hop album in the last few years (except for Watch The Throne), it ended up leaking early (Why does this only happen in this genre of music? Why don’t we ever hear of a Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift or Rihanna leak? Makes no sense) giving people everywhere an early listen to one of the most anticipated albums of 2011. This was to prevent myself from making any rash decisions on the album (I would have given Watch The Throne a 30/10 if I had posted a review right after listening to it for the first time)
If you don’t like Drake’s style of mixing rap and R&B then you won’t like this record. Simple as that. This CD won’t attract any new Drake fans but it certainly won’t make him lose the fans he’s already got. The album has a definite feel to it with most of the CD featuring fairly downbeat tempos coupled with emotionally charged lyrics. There are some features on the album with the highlights being two song-stealing verses from Kendrick Lamar (the best rapper out that not a lot of people know about) and Andre 3000 (no need for an explanation here) and the lowlights being any Wayne verse. He is not the same as before and seems to have fallen off since coming back from jail. The Carter IV was/is bad but this is understandable. Why did we think he was going to come out with an All Eyez on Me type of album? No other rapper has done what Tupac did so successfully (coming out of jail with a classic album) since then and you know why? Because he’s fucking Tupac and no one else is.
Here’s a track-by-track review of Take Care.
