Take Care And Second Chances (Summer Grind Issue 2012)

The more forgiving of us are always willing to forgive follies and failures. I am personally thankful that my mother has been able to forgive both in me because I have made numerous ones. But I guess such is the nature of things.

To forgive.

To give a second chance.

Case in point, Drake.

I can admit that I was one of those people who counted Drake’s Take Care as an epic fail. That was a mistake. I am willing and able to say that.

What inspired that change?

Listening to the whole album. It can be noted that listening to selected tracks or only the singles will yield a skewed view of the actual music. Drake’s sophomore album is rather well put together when you get the chance to fully listen. When I sat there and had a moment to digest it as a whole I was fully impressed. I have like four tracks that stood out to me.

“Take Care” starts with the piano playing and Rihanna softly singing out a chorus that feels real rather like a personal indictment from her. Drake is fully on display as the heartbroken good guy, a role that this writer has filled on more occasions than I’d care to admit out loud or in print. This feels like something he probably said once that became a track.

“We’ll Be Fine” builds at the beginning and that sound plays throughout the beat as if a refrain. This song speaks in a voice that we love hearing from Drake-that bragging and eloquence laced with clever little punch lines. If I were to pick anything about the track I hated would be Birdman’s “feature”, which is nothing more than him talking nonsense about his usual fare at the end.

“Lord Knows” has the epic nature and characteristics of a mass choir. Here Drake addresses something that I feel is well placed given everything that people have been saying of him. There is some strong words given to those doubters as well as those who hate Drake’s music because he shows emotion and feeling in his rhymes. Here is the line that most stands out:

I’m hearing all of the jokes/ I know that they’re trying to push me/I know that showing emotions don’t ever mean I’m a pussy/Know that I don’t make music/For niggas who don’t get pussy/So those are the ones I count on/ To diss me or overlook me

“Practice”, a song that I initially hated, has grown on me. Something about hearing the Juvenile classic stripped down and reinterpreted is intriguing. Drake’s delivery is syrupy here, almost as if he’s been sneaking in the Texas rapper medicine cabinet and sipped on the lean.

Drake, this is my formal apology. Take Care is truly you taking care of your fans and loyal supporters…and even your one-time detractors. Thanks.


Courtesy of Lucius Black for Royalty Magazine

There’s Something About Drizzy…

To me Aubrey Graham is an interesting person. He went from being an original character on the hit teen drama Degrassi to being a Grammy nominated recording artist. You have to respect that. Honestly it’s quite a feat.

This young man came up on mixtapes and hype. Very few of us can forget Comeback Season or the ever popular So Far Gone. Even if the video for the hottest song on that mixtape (i.e. “Best I Ever Had”) was something of a flop, he was poised to be a new face in the world of hip-hop. I mean, he was on almost every song dropping those punch lines so perfectly. He and all his features made you really curious as to what the debut would look like. Even more, people wondered would he sign with Cash Money.

Of course he did and we all know what happened next.

Then came Thank Me Later. We thanked him then. That monster of an album was lead by the lead single “Over”. It also gave us the Kanye West produced “Find Your Love” and the very popular “Miss Me”.

Even with Grammy nominations, features, endorsements, interviews, and all the trappings of success surrounding him that usual question started playing through everyone’s minds-what’s next? I admit to being one of those people who always think that sort of thing when a new album is released. How much further could Drizzy Drake go? We were all wondering and waiting.

The features, production, and songwriting kept coming as we all sat on the edge of our seats in silent waiting.

Everybody remembers the leak of his entire Take Care album, right? Kudos to him for taking it in stride and just telling the masses to “enjoy”.

When it released, it was to mixed reviews. I have read reviews from both sides of the issue. Some people loved his sophomore effort and touted it as better than his debut. Others were highly critical of it, saying that Drake was soft and whines too much. Opinions are essentially based on who presents them so I cannot say who is wrong or right. All I can say what I think. My personal opinion is that Drake’s second album was pretty well put together. Granted there are moments when I am disappointed, the biggest being when he sampled the iconic Juvenile track “Back That Ass Up” for his song “Practice”. Other than that Take Care plays rather well.

But as with anything, success breeds haters.

Bloggers have made many a joke about Drake, going as far as to call him a “pillow whisperer”. This all compounds more onto that image people have of hip-hop artists being dangerous, tough, and thuggish. Drake isn’t that. People would do well to understand that.

Hip-hop artists have also been rather low on Drake, too.

The best examples of that would be two diss records from two well established artists. Those artists? Ludacris and Common.

Ludacris recently released a new mixtape. It is entitled 1.21 Gigawatts (Back to the First Time). One of the tracks on this really amazing mixtape is called “Bada Boom”. In this song he disses both Drake and Big Sean. Interesting, really.

Common has also released a diss track against Drake. I guess he’s not so enlightened that he can’t beef.

Hell, even Chris Brown’s “Marvin’s Room” remix is a low key shot at Drake. I mean, we all know the situations surrounding Rihanna and what not.

All this leads me to ask this: is there something about Drizzy? What about this guy engenders such hatred within fans, bloggers, and peers? Personally if I were Drake I would see it as an honor that two guys who’ve had such longevity in the game like Common and Luda saw fit to even mention me, good or bad. The rest I would chock up to people hating success and wanting to see you fall.

I hate to quote a movie here but a line from Spider-Man seems to fit here:

“But the one thing they love to see more than a hero is to see a hero fail, fall, die trying…”

Maybe that’s the same for rappers, too.