Tracklist 

1. Over My Dead Body (7th) 10/10
2. Shot For Me (10th) 10/10
3. Headlines (12th) 9/10
4. Crew Love feat. The Weeknd (6th) 10/10
5. Take Care feat. Rihanna (16th) 7/10
6. Marvin’s Room (3rd) 10/10
7. Buried Alive Interlude feat. Kendrick Lamar (9th) 10/10
8. Under Ground Kings (4th) 10/10
9. We’ll Be Fine feat. Birdman (17th) 6/10
10. Make Me Proud feat. Nicki Minaj (15th) 8/10
11. Lord Knows feat. Rick Ross (5th) 10/10
12. Cameras/Good Ones Go Interlude-Medley (1st) 10/10
13. Doing it Wrong (14th) 8/10
14. The Real Her feat. Lil Wayne, Andre 3000 (8th) 10/10
15. Look What You’ve Done (2nd) 10/10
16. HYFR feat. Lil Wayne (11th) 10/10
17. Practice (18th) 5/10
18. The Ride (13th) 9/10
19. The Motto feat. Lil Wayne (19th) 0/10

Drake has built up a reputation as one of the most controversial, influential, and noteworthy artists of the last fifteen years. But, before all of this he was merely an up and coming Hip Hop artist from Toronto Canada just trying to find his place among the many notable and talented young rappers getting their careers started in the early 2010’s.

After a career in acting, in particular on the Canadian teen drama Degrassi:The Next Generation as Jimmy Brooks he began honing his musical skills gaining the attention of one Lil’ Wayne. Drake’s clear talent intrigued Wayne who signed him to his label Young Money.

With Wayne’s help he released his first mixtape So Far Gone. This mixtape was extremely successful receiving praise for its great rapping which utilized melodies previously only seen in RnB(https://www.rapreviews.com/2009/02/drake-so-far-gone). This melodic style was inspired by Kanye West’s 2008 808’s and Heartbreak and received some criticisms from die-hard Hip Hop purists who believed it wasn’t real rap.

Despite this new wave of people hating on him Drake released his debut album Thank Me Later in 2010. This album was praised by the general public for the most part but some critics believed it didn’t live up to his last release (https://www.rapreviews.com/2010/06/drake-thank-me-later). People were eager to see what his sophomore album would entail and they certainly would not be disappointed.

Take Care was released on November 15 2011. It’s album cover featuring a desaturated image of Drake sitting in a booth in a seafood restaurant in Toronto. The album has features from many notable legends of the music industry alongside promising new up and coming artists at the time.

The album begins with the gorgeous piano of the first track “Over My Dead Body” which samples the song “Sailin Da South” by Dj Screw. It features production from Noah “40” Shebib and an incredible melodic flow by Drake in both verses of the song. On the song Drake reflects about his career so far, rapping about the entertainment industry and the hate that’s been thrown his way. It serves as an incredible introduction to the album giving the listener an idea of the themes of the albums and the melodic rap style which mixes traditional RnB and HipHop elements.

These elements are continued on the second song “Shot For Me”, which has an extremely catchy well sung chorus as well as excellent rapping where Drake speaks about a failed relationship and where it all went wrong wishing his ex remembers him for their shared good times and not the negative aspects of the relationship. Its dynamic production was created by Noah “40” Shebib and it samples “Anything (Old School Version)” by SWV. 

The third track “Headlines” is one of Drake’s catchiest true party anthems, its incredibly addicting melodies and raps can get enlodged in your cranium all day after just one listen. Lyrically it features mostly one note bragging about Drake’s fame, status, and money but it does include a few clever lines about loneliness or perseverance. It was produced by Boi-1da and Noah “40” Shebib. My biggest complaint about this song would be the long closing instrumental stretch as it just goes on a bit too long. Although I have my issues with it overall this is one of Drake’s catchiest most unanimously adored songs throughout his entire career and an amazing addition to the incredible start of this album.

“Crew Love”, the next song on the album features The Weeknd, a newcomer to the RnB scene renowned for his incredible voice and extremely dark lyrical content. On this song he delivers a fantastic feature in a truly beautiful hook, yet somehow doesn’t steal the show as Drake delivers an incredible verse. All of this works wonders with the amazing production done by Illangelo, Noah “40” Shebib, and The Weeknd himself. The lyrical content of the song involves Drake rapping about drug use, growing up forging his own unique path, and problematic tendencies involving money. 

The 5th song is the title track and features legendary popstar Rihanna. Drake and Rihanna sing one after the other about a problematic relationship where both parties are afraid to be honest about their feelings. While incredibly catchy this song feels a little too poppy and generic, in particular I’m not the biggest fan of Rihanna’s contributions as I’ve never been the biggest fan of her voice. Drake’s parts are a lot better and feature many interesting shifts in production and melody that make the song far more dynamic and enjoyable as a whole. The Jamie xx and Noah “40” Shebib produced beat does feel a little too poppy but despite that it’s still quite good. Overall this song is quite good and catchy but suffers from a weak feature.

“Marvin’s Room”, the 6th track on the album, serves as one of the moodiest and emotional songs on the album. It features a sampled voicemail from Drake’s ex-girlfriend that accompanies the haunting Noah “40” Shebib production. Drake melancholically sings about the loneliness and addictions he’s experienced with fame, falling into trappings of the many vices that come with being a popular music artist and how it’s impacted his mental health and relationships. It’s one of his most impressive songs lyrically especially for an artist not particularly known for deep lyrics. This combined with the fantastic production and performance from Drake makes it an extremely high quality song.

What follows is an interlude completely written and rapped by one Kendrick Lamar who was a brand new face in the rap game. It continues the themes from “Marvin’s Room” with Kendrick rapping about how the new fame music artists experience can change them and their art through corrupting them and allowing them to be consumed by the sex, drugs and material possessions that come with making it and forgetting all about what they originally stood for. This has aged particularly well as this is a pattern that’s seen in the stories of many music artists even arguably Drake later in his career. Kendrick being featured on this track is particularly interesting as just 13 years later him and Drake would have a beef in which Kendrick called out Drake for actions similar to those of the narrator of this song. Produced by Noah “40” Shebib and Supa Dups, it has a similar beat to Marvin’s Room helping to validate its status as an interlude and continuation of that song.

Immediately after “Buried Alive Interlude” you are hit with the incredible energetic Noah “40” Shebib and T-Minus production of “Under Ground Kings”. Drake then comes in with some of his best rapping on any song, with incredibly energetic and hungry flows. At first it comes across as brash, boastful and egotistical but what Drake is really rapping about is his hunger to be the best and the people who have helped him get to where he is now, specifically Lil Wayne whom he references numerous times. Thrown into the mix there are also a few more dark lines about the addictions mentioned in the previous songs but here they are glorified with Drake bragging about his drug use. The tone shift from the previous songs is something that I find to be particularly genius as a way to represent the dichotomy between the pros and cons that come with fame. 

Next up is “We’ll Be Fine featuring the rapper Birdman”. The production is done by Noah “40” Shebib and T-Minus, I’m personally not the biggest fan of it as it feels a little one note and generic but it’s not bad by any means. Drake has some decent rapping in both of his verses but his flow is a little repetitive and could have just been a bit faster. My favorite part of the song is the chorus which is extremely catchy and addictive, benefitting heavily from the distorted effects added to the vocals. Birdman on the other hand puts forth the single worst verse on the song, barely anything rhymes and it functions basically as just a montage of adlibs. Lyrically it’s not very complex, mostly focusing on Drake’s status and wealth which doesn’t work nearly as well as it does on Under Ground Kings. 

“Made Me Proud follows”, which includes a feature from Nicki Minaj. It functions as a similar song to “We’ll Be Fine” but surpasses it in every way. With far more passionate rapping from Drake, a great feature from Nicki Minaj that is obviously far superior to the tragic Birdman verse. The T-Minus production also works better here than the production of We’ll Be Fine and the chorus is just as catchy, but the song as a whole despite its quality is still a little too much of a club song and suffers from being right after “We’ll Be Fine” due to their similarities. The writing is not the greatest here as well with Drake just rapping about a girl and Nicki just bragging but good lyricism is not necessary on a song like this.

After that, comes “Lord Knows” featuring Rick Ross. The production done by Just Blaze instantly catches your ear featuring a sample of “Lord Lord” by Andrew Brown and National Baptist Service Choir. The beat is truly incredible which leads me to believe this song is the second best produced on the whole album. Drake raps passionately about his career featuring mostly bragging but with clever lines and a great flow as well as addressing the lots of hate he had received. Rick Ross’s feature is fantastic as well with great rapping and some hilarious lines. 

The twelfth song on Take Care is a 7 minute long interlude, “Cameras/Good Ones Go Interlude-Medley” has two parts which are obviously “Cameras” and “Good ones Go”. It is without a doubt in my mind not only the best song on Take Care but the single greatest song Drake has ever made. Produced by Noah “40” Shebib and featuring a small hidden feature from the Weeknd, it perfectly represents everything Take Care is as an album.

The first part “Cameras” includes gorgeous production with a sample of “Calling on You” by Jon B acting as the chorus. Drake methodically raps perfectly with the beat occasionally throwing in some more melodic elements. It’s absolutely incredible lyrically, with Drake rapping about how Celebrities must constantly confine themselves to a false persona in order to appeal to the media. He does this by invoking the image of cameras and rapping about how his relationship with a girl is glamorized with every single ounce of nuance or conflict removed making the relationship hollow. He speaks on how celebrity culture has trapped him in a box and how he has to carefully evaluate everything he says or does in order to not tarnish his image. It’s a complex song that plays perfectly into the themes of Take Care, those being how Drake’s new found fame has affected him as a person.

The second part “Good Ones Go” features much more minimalist and moody production similar to that of something like Marvin’s Room. Drake showcases his best singing on any song he’s ever made with emotional and raw vocals. The melodies he showcases are absolutely fantastic and can easily get stuck in your head. This part of the song is also where The Weeknd has a hidden feature of him humming which as simple as it is adds so much to the song. He sings about a previous relationship that went wrong which he’d like to rekindle due to how difficult it is to find a suitable partner. He practically begs her to give him another chance and not to move on. 

“Good Ones Go” is RnB Drake perfected and represents the more moody melodic emotional heartbroken side of this album perfectly. As a whole the two parts work in tandem to be the perfect Drake song, with amazing production, great writing, incredible singing, and some of the best rapping on the album.

Following is “Doing It Wrong” which is similar in nature to Good Ones Go as a moody RnB song. It was produced by Noah “40” Shebib, it’s obviously a similar beat to something like “Good Ones Go” or “Marvins Room” but it is distinguished from them by some Fantastic Harmonica towards the end. It has some great singing and is about a complicated relationship where both parties aren’t truly in love. It does suffer from it’s placement right after a superior RnB song and is a little one note but other than that it’s a great song.

Up next is “The Real Her” featuring Lil Wayne and Andre 3000 of Outkast fame who I personally think is the greatest rapper of all time. The first half of the song consists of Drake amazingly singing incredible melodies that are bound to get stuck in your head. The distortion on Drake’s vocals adds a ton to this section and helps it feel more emotional. The second half kicks off with Wayne’s verse which is a rare emotional verse from him and is fantastic with great writing. Then comes 3000’s verse which is absolutely incredible like every other feature from him throughout his career. Though it doesn’t match up to the height of something like his feature on Kanye West’s “Life of the Party” or Frank Ocean’s “Solo(reprise)”,  it’s still an impeccable feature. The song as a whole is fantastically written with Drake singing about his experience meeting a woman for the first time and immediately feeling connected to her. Wayne and 3000’s rap about their experiences with relationships, 3000’s verse is particularly beautifully written. The minimalist production from Noah “40” Shebib brings the song together and adds to its overall quality. 

While Drake isn’t really known for his storytelling ability on tracks with rappers like the Coles and Kendricks being more known in the space, Look What You’ve Done the 15th song on the album is an absolutely incredible storytelling song and is Drake’s best written song ever. The beat, produced by Noah “40” Shebib and Chase N. Cash consists of just piano with no drums; its beautifully simplicity allows the listener to focus on the lyrics more. In the two verses Drake tells two stories of two different people he looked up to and who have helped him achieve fame. The first verse is about his complicated relationship with his mom and how they overcame obstacles in their relationship and the second is about his uncle who stepped in as a father and mentor figure when Drake’s dad wasn’t there. He uses these stories to address a variety of topics such as young love, the importance of family, and his abandonment by his father. Not a single line is wasted and I believe this song showcases how Drake has had such an effect on many teenagers, with this particular song being something almost everyone can relate to. It closes out with an emotional voice mail from his grandmother which ties in the themes of family.

Following that emotional masterpiece comes HYFR featuring  which is one of the most energetic songs on the album with great T-Minus production. Drake has his fastest verse ever while still properly enunciating every word(unlike something like Eminem’s Rap God) which is absolutely fantastic. The chorus is very catchy and doesn’t get old as it’s not repeated too often. Wayne has a great feature with some clever lines but it doesn’t surpass Drake’s verse. Both rappers write about complex relationships but the lyrics obviously aren’t the main focus. 

Next is Practice, produced by Noah “40” Shebib. The beat isn’t my favorite as it’s a little repetitive and the singing is kind of weak. The chorus is rather catchy but the lyrics are hot trash and it’s very offputting to hear Drake requesting to be called “Big Daddy” over and over again. This song is probably my second least favorite on the tracklist as a whole.

The Ride comes next, which has incredible production done by The Weeknd and Doc Mckinney that is the center of the quality of the track. Drake passionately raps about fame, money and success perfectly tying everything on the album together. This leads me to believe that this should have been the last song on the album since it acts as a great closer. My only issue with this track is it sort of slows down towards the middle and end of the song but that’s just a nitpick.

Finally comes The Motto which just plain shouldn’t be on the album. It’s repetitive, boring and annoying. Lil Wayne’s verse on the second half is utter garbage and one of his worst ever especially for someone with overall quality features. The lyrics are relatively meaningless, the production is bland and boring and it absolutely baffles me why this song is as popular as it is. It leaves you with a sour taste in your mouth being the last song making me wish it simply didn’t exist.

Despite how trash the Motto is, Take Care is a fantastic album and my favorite Drake album. It combines fantastic rapping, singing, production, and lyrics (some of the time and of course all of these do not apply to The Motto). It’s an incredible snapshot of an artist thrown into the midst of newfound fame and success with everything that comes with it. 

At the start of the review I included the tracklist ranking every song and giving every song a score out of 10. A 10 meaning a song I can’t find any flaws with and a 0 meaning a song that is irredeemable and shouldn’t exist. As you can see most of the songs on this album are fantastic with just 3 not being great in my opinion. Due to this I would definitely recommend this album and would give it a strong 8/10 with the best song being Cameras/Good Ones Go and the worst being The Motto.