I’m not the target audience for a Drake album.  This is a fact that I’ve come to terms with.  I thought his first mixtape was pretty all right and I liked exactly three songs off of  his first album: “Miss Me,” “Unforgettable,” and “Up All Night” because Nicki Minaj torched that song.  There’s not a lot of radio rap that I find myself listening to.  This summer, however, Drake, Lil Wayne, and Rick Ross got together for a barn-burner of a track, “I’m On One.”  That song showed a bit of apathy and aggression (He made a Watch The Throne diss!) from Drake, which is something that is oh-so-necessary to his style.

If there’s one complaint that rap fans have about Drake, it’s that he’s too soft.  One choice Internet comment explains that, “If Drake weren’t rapping, he’d be selling moisturizer from a kiosk at the mall.”  Half of Drake’s whole persona is built off of the idea that he’s your girlfriend’s favorite rapper because your girlfriend doesn’t really like rap. But on Take Care, Drake’s got some rabbits to pull out of the hat.

The other half of Drake’s whole persona is that he’s sad.  He’s sad about everything.  He’s famous and should be having a great time by all means, but he’s a total sadsack.  The lead single off of this album, “Marvin’s Room,” is a drunk dial to an ex.  It’s the saddest thing on the radio since “Christmas Shoes.”  He’s not much happier on Take Care, but it’s nice to hear him having fun on songs like, “Headlines” and “Make Me Proud.”  He still says a few things every once in a while that just pull the whole party down, though.

“Headlines” has him talking about how someone criticizing him might “make someone around [him] catch a body like that.”  He’s talking about murder.  Drake just put a murder reference into a song.  This is new.  He also has a song called “Under Ground Kings”.  It has a UGK sample on the chorus, which caters to my tastes pretty well.  But once again, he says in the chorus, “I was a cold dude, I’m getting back to my ways.”

If you’re not familiar with Drake’s background, he was on Degrassi, a Canadian teen soap opera.  Hearing these threats and talk about being hard come off a little empty.  I believe Rick Ross taught us all a lesson when he was outed as a former corrections officer.  Your past matters when it comes to rap.  People who don’t like you will dig up whatever they need to make you look bad.  You don’t have to go far to find something that’s not “cool” in Drake’s past.

However, there’s one song on here that completely owns up to a part of Drake’s past that I love.  It’s one of the last tracks on the album, and it’s called, “Look What You’ve Done.”   It’s about the softest thing possible, his mother.  It’s a whole song dedicated to his mother and growing up without his father around.  It’s a departure from an attempt to put a front on, which is a welcome change.

Drake’s a rich man by now, and it’s nice to see that what makes him happy is that his mother’s doing well.  What makes me happy is to see that there’s a grip of great guest spots on this album.  Sure, Nicki Minaj shows up for a song, that’s a given.  It’s not a great feature though, same with the appearance that The Weeknd makes.  The Weeknd is just like Drake, in that all of his songs are about the downsides to the glamorous parts of life.  You’d think that this would make for some absolute excellent bummer of a song, but it’s not.  The bummer here is all the wasted potential.

To talk about some potential that isn’t wasted, let’s move to the track, “Buried Alive Interlude.”  It’s Kendrick Lamar, who released an outstanding mixtape/album this year called Section.80, who comes in and makes for a great surprise on an album where you wouldn’t necessarily expect him.  Speaking of people you wouldn’t expect, Andre 3000 is on this album and kills his verse on, “The Real Her.”  It’s one of the best verses this year, and I didn’t think I’d ever say that on a Drake review.

This isn’t the best album this year.  It’s not even the best rap album this year or the best mainstream rap album this year.  It’s an imperfect album from a lackluster artist who seemingly glides by based on recognition.  The highlights here are really songs that feature people or have a great beat, which is maybe half of the album.  Half of it is ultimately forgettable radio rap, but the other half is surprisingly solid.

5/10

By: Jay Papandreas

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