He raps about soft things, sings about hard things. In the future an album like this will be commonplace today, it’s radical. “Take Care” isn’t a hip-hop album or an R&B album so much as an album of eccentric black pop that takes those genres as starting points, asks what they can do but haven’t been doing, then attempts those things. It’s stranger than any Jay-Z album, stranger than every album by Mr. Given that he’s a fixture of hip-hop radio, making an album this outré demonstrates a perverse sense of confidence, and also ignores the received wisdom about consistency and incremental change. Still, “Take Care” is an astonishingly audacious way of spending his newfound currency. But Drake is turning stranger, and earlier in his career, far more quickly than they did, making it safe for others to follow. There are a few weirdo hip-hop superstars: the sometime Drake antagonist Kanye West, for sure, and also Lil Wayne, Drake’s label boss. Surrounded by peers who own diamonds but not mirrors, Drake is eager to dismantle himself, to show off his corroded insides. In a sea of tough new-money triumphalism Drake is a splash of the gothic. It’s undoubtedly bizarre, this turn of events. In order to fully assess his just-released second album, “Take Care” (Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Republic), it’s important to understand that Drake - the 25-year-old Canadian former child actor who both raps and sings, the self-flagellator nonpareil - is now mainstream hip-hop’s connective tissue. So it’s gone with Drake, hip-hop’s current center of gravity, his success a reminder of so many of the victories hip-hop has won in the last couple of decades: the right to be decadent, sure, but also the right to reimagine any style of music, the right to be emotionally complicated, the right to be unusual. Before long he’s the new normal everyone has to fit in around him. He inches closer and closer to the center, until the center starts moving toward him. He holds his ground until suddenly, despite everyone’s efforts, he’s standing tall. He is jostled from every side, knocked off balance. He struggles to be heard and then to find his footing. I would give this album a 9/10 for just staying real and because of how well Drake’s voice suits the music he performs.THE new kid is a bit of an oddball. He talks about his problems and his growth in music so you can understand him on a more personal level then some other artists out there today. This album isn’t controversial or dark, it’s the real Drake which is what I love. And to top the track off, it has a peculiar beat that makes it distinctive from other hip hop music. You really feel as if they are singing to each other rather than to an audience which is something you rarely find in duets. I’m a big fan of any song they do together and this one is another masterpiece by them. Their relationship offstage definitely influences their on stage duets and performances.
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‘Make Me Proud’ shows the Drake we all know and features the one and only Nicki Minaj. ‘Doing It Wrong’ is another song on the album that shows emotional vulnerability within situations Drake has experienced in his lifetime and a lot of passion is drawn from Stevie Wonder’s magical saxaphone playing skills right at the end of the track.
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Some critics may see his songs slightly boring and similar but when you listen to the lyrics you can lose yourself in the emotions that Drake brings out in his music and relate to many of the things he expresses. ‘Shot For Me’ presents a passion through the half beat and words that not everyone gets. We all know that Drake can rap but in one of his songs ‘Shot For Me’, the subtle, harmonious tone of his voice while he sings proves that his work can be very heartfelt and deep. He has a unique skill to bring in a dance beat and mix it so well that Drake is a genre all by himself. It’s no ordinary hip hop album Drake brings something new to the table.
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The tracks show a large contrast in sound from mellow calming tones in one song, to lively outgoing hip hop beats in another. This is a must-buy album! It’s one of Drake’s most successful achievements yet.