The Sauced Bulletin

I remember when Drake first came out I always heard him mentioned at the same time as Kid Cudi.  They were both young hip-hop artists with a penchant for slow, murky beats and emotional lyrics.  And not like forced, fake angry, straining for credibility Eminem-style emotion, but real-sounding emotion.  Identifiable emotions like when you’re sad and lonely at 3am and you know the girl you love is in somebody else’s bed.  Admittedly, Drake has cornered the market on this new morose rap thing, with Cudi falling behind because he’s too much of a stoner and not a very good rapper.  And rightfully so, because Drake has proven himself to be one of the more intriguing, artistically surprising rappers to come along since……well, since Kanye.  And while Take Care isn’t the bonkers epic of flawed genius that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was, it contains much of the same mood and it’s not crazy to think that Drake might aspire to such heights in the future.

It really all starts with the music.  The influence of James Blake can be felt all over this record, with icy synths and skittering electro beats floating along in the ether as Drake raps over them.  take the first track, “Over My Dead Body.”  A spacey piano line and drum machine hits set the tone with a processed vocal hook fighting to get words out over the background murmurs.  A beautiful synth line pops up every so often as the icing on the cake, not to mention a few great verses from Drizzy.  The song is absolutely gorgeous and maybe the best thing here.  Elsewhere the newest MVP of Drake’s collaborative family must be The Weeknd.  Present on a handful of tracks, The Weeknd’s pitch black hedonism fits perfectly with Drake’s “I’m the hot, I’m the greatest ever, but I’m not totally enjoying it” vibe.

And Drake has improved by leaps and bounds as a performer and lyricist.  He sounds comfortable, confident, but when he bears his soul, like on the cutting, drunk-dial ballad “Marvin’s Room,” you believe him completely.  Drake’s been criticized in the past for his “hashtag” delivery (which I always liked and thought was pretty funny), so some listeners will be glad to hear it’s largely absent from Take Care.  Instead, Drake has developed a flow that goes well with his nasally voice and lends gravitas to the narratives he likes to indulge in so much.  Oh yeah, and Drake also sings better on this record than on Thank Me Later, smoothing over the transitions between his pained falsetto and world-beating raps.

Overall, Take Care flows so much better than it’s predecessor it makes Thank Me Later feel like a cobbled-together mixtape.  The sequencing is perfect, rising from the murky beginnings to the crescendo 1-2 punch of “Make me Proud” and the fucking huge “Lord Knows,” then coming down slowly until “The Ride” closes things out.  The whole thing feels like a roller-coaster night out, with Drake guiding us through the booze-soaked highs and overly emotional (and sometimes totally inappropriate) lows that come with it.  Hopefully more people will start to overlook Drake’s Canadian TV past (DEGRASSI!) and accept him as an artist with an original approach and something to say, because Take Care absolutely deserves your attention.