Take Care Review

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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.

OutKast: Top 10 by the Top 2

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A few days ago my good friend and fellow colleague here at Millenium SnE sent me a text that made my heart skip a beat(no homo). Luka told me that I should be proud of him, for he was listening through some OutKast classics. [Quick sidenote: Luka claims to like all rap music, but realistically he has Eminem on such a high pedestal that no other rappers even compare. He also likes to disrespect OutKast because, in my opinion, they’re the best thing that ever happened to rap music.] I was totally shocked to hear this and didn’t really know how to respond. “That’s sick bro, what songs are you listening to?” I asked. He told me that he found some random guys “Top OutKast Song List” on google and was listening through them in order. 2 thoughts dawned upon me: Firstly, I was offended that he hadn’t asked me for MY list of OutKast’s best songs, and secondly, I realized that it would be really difficult yet extremely fun to actually take the time to put together such a list. Whether you’re into lyricism like me, or you like a rapper’s flow, OutKast has it all. It isn’t hard to see that with song titles like “Skew it on the Bar-B” and “Spaghetti Junction,” their creativity is simply unparalleled by any rap/hip-hop artist, EVER. So without wasting any more time talking about how great they are, let’s get to it! Luka, this is my Top 10 OutKast songs and the reason people should pay more respect to Andre 3000 and Big Boi list.



10. Jazzy Belle – An eerie beat that pretty much every rapper would fail at spitting on, Big Boi and Andre tear apart with clever word play and versatile flows. Jazzy Belle is a track about the rap game, depicted as a woman. It’s easy to get lost in the way they wrap the words around the spooky beat, but the meaning behind the song is still deep and very potent.

Best Line: “Talk bad about her n**** guaranteed to snap like bra / strap, sticking together like grandma and grandpa-pa”

9. Chonkyfire – One of the most sampled OutKast tracks, Chonyfire is just pure....well, fire. You start off listening to Andre and Big Boi going hard on the track, but half way through, the beat slows down so Big Boi can rip into all of the whack MCs in the game. Chonkyfire is so unusual and creative that you almost don’t understand what is going on, until Big Boi lets you know that the reason it’s so weird is to let the industry know that OutKast is the only group that can come up with songs like that.

Best Line: “Overcast, but on behalf of OutKast, I cordially / invite you to an emotion filled theatre / bring your umbrella cause young fella it gets no weirder”

8. Babylon – All I have to say about this is they sampled what sounds like a Celtic 12th Century Hymn...and still ate the track up.... Yeah.

Best Line: “While we ranting and raving bout gats / n**** they made dem gats / they got some shit that’ll blow out our back”

7. Da Art of Storytellin’ (Part 1) – It is pretty widely accepted that Slick Rick is one of the greatest story tellers and lyricists of all time. To pay tribute to his most famous album (Da Art of Storytellin’), OutKast immortalized the name by coming up with their own lyrically brilliant track. Telling a story of the Ghetto world around them, OutKast show that they too are on another level lyrically.

Best Line: “I asked her what she wanna be, she said ‘Alive’ / it made me think for a minute, I looked in her eyes / I could have died”

6. Two Dope Boyz (In A Cadillac) – One of my favourite OutKast beats, bar none. One of the best bragging tracks, Andre and Big Boi explain why they really are the truth. On only their second album, they showed with their insane flow that they really are Two of the Dopest Boyz in the game.

Best Line: “Yeah tight like nuts and bolts, sluts and hoes they get evicted / I’m dealing with queens in my castle, ain’t worth it to risk it”