I point to the song “Practice” on this album to demonstrate Drake’s penmanship.
But when it comes to being a hip hop artist, the pen is the most important aspect. He can sing, dance, and melt a heart with his Degrassi-learned stare. I can hear the Drake fans saying, “but Jordan, he opens up his heart and talks about women and love on this album.” True, Drake does have many a heart throb song in the album, but considering that most every successful pop artist spends time talking about lust and flings, this should be more of a clue to Drake’s intentions as opposed to genuine emotion. It is completely market and money driven, and therefore the artistic integrity of this album ranks pretty low. There is very little heart and soul in this album. He also realizes that young adults who are caught up in sexual angst and swagger run the market, and therefore sexual angst and swagger will sell. To me however, it feels like Drake is doing the things Wayne wanted to do but couldn’t accomplish with auto-tune alone. Some may say that Drake is redefining what it means to be a complete artist.
I do not really recall a classic hip hop album featuring more singing than rapping in the history of the artform. The fact that there is more “aaaaaaw”-ing and singing than rapping on a rap album is a complete joke. That does not make him a great artist and it does not make him a good rapper. Will there ever come a day when Tupac’s art becomes outdated? Will Biggie’s flow and stories be any less infectious and eye opening? Will NWA’s in your face lyrics be any less revealing of the realities of their time and city? Will the words of Slug become any less true in five years? The point I am trying to get at is if Drake wasn’t dropped in the middle of an era where money and vehicles were more important than societal advancement and intellectual processes in hip hop, this man would not sell.ĭrake does what sells, point and blank. And before anyone says how “that’s old school” or “that’s not how the game is anymore” I would like to pose a few questions. Drake takes no time to stay true to hip hop's original doctrine of fighting “the system", talking about societal injustices, or providing personal introspection. Yes, there are witty lines and somewhat clever similes throughout the album, but when you get into the subject matter of the songs it just all feels very empty. It should also speak to where the industry is at when this is considered to be the best product out there. The lyrical substance of this album can be summed up in a sentence, “I have money, cars, and fame and I like to pursuit different types of women, so the people who don’t like me get jealous.” The fact you can more or less sum up a whole albums worth of lyrical content in less than 25 words should speak volumes about the project. Unfortunately for Drake though, when I listen to a hip hop album I pay attention to the lyrics. So let me make this clear, I am a fan of the beats on this album. The instruments on this album will most likely feature many a rappers on mixtapes and remixes in the upcoming months which will speak to the quality of it’s production.
Both provide Take Care with beats that are on par with their other projects in the past. The two big names on this album, with regards to production, are Just Blaze and Lex Luger. There’s no over use of instrumentation or vocal transformation to make the album sound overly synthetic or robotic, but that’s to be expected when one is working with, quite possibly, the most powerful label in the game right now, Young Money Cash Money Billionaires. The lyrical concepts match with the beats and create a product that won’t cause a headache if played in the background. I’ll start first by getting into the production so all the Drake fans out there don’t label me as a “hater.” The production on this album is well done. However, seeing as this is a review, let us dive into the album and begin to dissect.
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