Simpin Ain't Easy: The Official Thread For Drake's Sophomore Album, TAKE CARE

Being a nice guy doesn't make you a good artist.

i trust fennel cartwright's opinion

― buzza, Tuesday, November 15, 2011 1:48 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i trust fennel cartwright is a sockpuppet

there have been many cogent criticisms in this thread. no one has accused him of 'not being authentic enough' gtfo

see i think your self-absorbed nice guy thing applies to so far gone drake, and although i haven't heard much of it, probably thank me later drake. i think take care is drake realizing o shit, i've gone and been a condescending asshole this whole time, actually thinking it over and trying to move past it

― lil jon & vangelis (fennel cartwright), Tuesday, November 15, 2011 2:52 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

so, yet another navel-gazing self obsessed record about a narcissist who isn't actually good at rapping. sounds awesome.

i mean seriously, he brags about shit but what did he do to earn that bragging? this is the thing that u aren't getting re: 'authenticity' -- there's an understanding from the audience that u earn that right, to brag; either you were the best rapper on your block / in your city, or you had a unique flow or way with phrases.

im willing to accept that neurotic self-analysis from a rich guy is something that lots of people think is novel & interesting in hip-hop, but you're not going to convince me that it's interesting enough to justify calling him one of the great rappers, or saying that he's earned 'the throne.' plain & simple hes just not an engaging rapper. i can understand why people find him to be an engaging pop star -- although those reasons seems pretty banal & have precedence in pop already, frankly -- but imo he hasn't through his music earned his arrogance (note that 'earning it' has nothing to do w/ starting out poor or something)

cogent criticism : he has an awful voice & is bad at rapping.

i actually agree with that but it strangely hasn't stopped me from really enjoying this album.

i don't know, i would like to hear this record that fennel cartwright is hearing

but mostly to me drake's narrative on take care is one of an uninteresting asshole

lex's point about how drake never actually raps about anyone even as he addresses them is a pretty cogent point imo. like, even when he addresses his haters (one of his three big narratives, "drake vs. haters," "drake vs. women," and "drake vs. the vague obstacles that he overcame to arrive at this point"), they fail to take on any sort of substance or matter to the listener.

which again might sound like an authenticity argument, but i guess i think that drake fails to bring anything to the table in terms of rapping, which brings the whole enterprise down, and therefore we are left with a record of p good music obscured by a weird, terrible shadow.

the pfork review compares this record to here, my dear and that's a tremendous stretch, but here, my dear could also be an example of this album done properly, with an actual personality at the fore to direct the weird musical alchemy underneath. a compelling personality, not a personality you can confuse with the fucking weeknd.

in contrast, terius meets cute underage girls, tells them they'll get famous if they fuck him, decides to marry them cuz he can't control his emotionzzz, gets frustrated about having to deal with a supposedly equal party, cheats on them, breaks up, does the same thing with a new chick, then writes a bitchy record about how awful his ex was

― lil jon & vangelis (fennel cartwright), Tuesday, November 15, 2011 3:29 AM (5 hours ago)

for someone who criticized the (perceived) authenticity angle another critic was taking re: drake, you're sure incorporating a lot of extradiegetic material into your opinion of his music

and i really would challenge anyone to give examples of drake's supposed nuance & maturity re: relationships in his music - ffs look at the first 2 graphs of that pitchfork review:

In 1976, Marvin Gaye holed up in his Hollywood studio and began recording Here, My Dear, a brutally candid album-length dissection of his divorce from wife Anna Gordy. The soul great found beauty within the wreckage, and the album doubled as an emotional exorcism that pushed out pain, anger, regret, spite, vengeance. "Memories haunt you all the time/ I will never leave your mind," he threatens on a song called "When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You". Reviewing the album upon its release in 1978, critic Robert Christgau wrote, "Because Gaye's self-involvement is so open and unmediated... it retains unusual documentary charm."

The same could be said of Drake, whose unrepentant navel-gazing and obsession with lost love reach new levels on his second proper LP, Take Care. Running with Gaye's ghost, Drake offers a profane update of his forebear's twisted heart: "Fuck that nigga that you love so bad/ I know you still think about the times we had," he sings on the insidious hook of "Marvins Room", a song recorded in the same studio where Gaye originally exposed his own unedited thoughts more than three decades ago.

i'd say he's got a ways to go still

like i read that and was like "uh what is the point you're trying to make exactly?"

again i understand this is pretty deep shit for the fratboy contingent but really we could do well to have some higher standards

oh what brad said already xp

this is so long

this is so long

also i am a dude who put thank me later on his year-end list last year so i've been trying to figure out why: 1) i did that, and 2) why i think this record fails even though i did that

i really think the production is gorgeous but it's also the thing that makes it impossible to ignore drake. thank me later snaked through a lot of different colors, and also had this whole rising and falling action going on in the pacing; you could get distracted by that. but take care is mostly one mood, and the lone just blaze track on here is like coming up for air after 40 or so minutes in the brocean.

i still think one of ilx's finest moments ever is failing to even nominate thank me later for the EOY poll that year. not one user thought it should even be in contention! so much <3

LET'S DO IT AGAIN THIS YEAR OK?

^^^not gonna happen

http://stereogum.com/880331/album-of-the-week-drake-take-care/top-stories/

fwiw i think this is a much better record than TML on any number of levels; i'm really interested by this record, as a phenomenon. because there are things it does well, i think. ultimately, it's a failure to me for reasons i've already overexplained but no one has quite captured this record in writing the way i want to see it written about

The Lil Wayne/Rick Ross/DJ Khaled collab “I’m On One” was my first indication that Drake was doing something special this year. It’s not on Take Care, but it’s really a Drake song with a couple of extra guest verses and some easily-ignored DJ bellowing. On past posse cuts like “Forever,” Drake felt like he had to sound tough and bulldoze through his verses, and it didn’t work — for me, anyway. But on “I’m One One,” Drake floats over the beat, letting icy loneliness creep into his voice and dancing around the airily gorgeous beat on his own verse. The track effectively brings Ross and Wayne into Drake’s universe rather than floundering toward someone else’s idea of rap epicness. And it conveys a feeling — a lost, stoned-out remoteness that finally gives dimension and force to all the fuck-fame silliness of Thank Me Later; without blasting us in the face with the idea, Drake finds away to convey how alienating all that fame might be to a young guy like him. And it also recalls all the too-much-drugs-and-sex coldness of Drake’s buddy and fellow Torontonian the Weeknd, who’s become something of a spirit animal for Drake this year.

like, i agree, from an objective perspective, w/ what he describes here. whats weird is that for me it still comes across as odd; "I ain't went this hard since i was 18" just feels like a forced, awkward use of slang. i just cant imagine anyone using 'going hard' that way in a normal rap song. it just feels like a kind of odd outsider use of rap lingo & it takes me out of it

oh, breihan writes for stereogum? huh

i find it a lil hypocritical that the waka stans on here are so confident that drake is an Objectively Poor Rapper. haven't we already established that Technical Rap Acumen means nothing?

re: nice guy thing - being a nice guys doesn't automatically make you a good artist, but it does give you a unique arc in a genre filled with huge dicks. for the record, i think drake has the single most unique arc in hiphop.

that p4k block w/ lyrics only tells half the story. sure, jerk drake is prominent, but i get a distinct vibe that he's... uncomfortable with how much of an asshole he is. like, the most douchey lyric on the record, "all those guys were just practice for me," is inexplicably mashed up with juvenile. it's so entirely absurd that to me it makes it hard to take jerk drake at face value.

re: authenticity

i mean seriously, he brags about shit but what did he do to earn that bragging? this is the thing that u aren't getting re: 'authenticity' -- there's an understanding from the audience that u earn that right, to brag; either you were the best rapper on your block / in your city, or you had a unique flow or way with phrases.

well... drake is obv the biggest (pretty objective indicator of 'best' for most ppl's standards) rapper out of canada. he's also popular, which goes toward bragging rights. regarding "unique flow" he did invent hashtag rap as much as y'all hate it. so no, he's not exactly rozay - who, by the way, everyone has given up on calling out for "not earning right to brag" and seems to legitimately like these days.

deej your main issue seems to be that drake is an "odd outsider" which "takes you out of it." i agree that he is an odd outsider but i personally find it refreshing and interesting. i'm not a sock puppet btw.

this is so long

i'm just jazzed to be having an Important Music Conversation about someone who's not a one hit wonder for once

there are so many little things waka does well that make him a more interesting and fresh technical rapper than drake, seriously fuckin hate the "bad rapper lucked into a great album" or "carried by his beats" narrative some people were pushing

obv flockaveli >>> take care fuiud

"i find it a lil hypocritical that the waka stans on here are so confident that drake is an Objectively Poor Rapper. haven't we already established that Technical Rap Acumen means nothing?"

your assumption about how we describe what makes a rapper 'good' is misguided. waka's rapping is much more enjoyable to listen to than Drake's, yes

i mean, just seconds before you posted that i wrote a prob i have w/ his rapping that isn't a problem waka has ever really had

cecilparks | Posted at 2:28pm

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

I’m starting to think Stereogum targets 12 to 15 year olds.
Maybe I should just avoid AotW posts in general.

Reply

tom | Posted at 2:33pm

Damn, you cracked our code. 12-year-olds love reading 1200-word think-pieces about emotive rap music

u mad?

waka sounds good on his beats, drake sounds bad on any beat.

i tried listening to this today and felt p much nothing, not even a remarkable sort of nothing where the blankness 'says something' abt the music it was just like heavy lifting to even focus on it as it was playing

i think that mb says more abt me than it does abt drake/rap music/the internet. i will offer no further commentary peace

im actually surprised lamp didnt like this

tbh the ~atmosphere~ of the record is my favorite part. it sounds v. of-a-piece & smooth

i also much prefer hearing waka's voice than drakes. flockaveli is way more enjoyable than take care. but (even though i was the one who brought up waka) i don't think it's fair to compare the two in this way as they make very very different music. drake's dry delivery lends itself well to his detached themes, while waka barking BOW BOW BOW lends itself well to gun sounds.

i think it's bullshit to judge rappers based on technical ability. what's the problem with drake anyways? that he's too staccato, forced? i dunno - i feel if he had a silky smooth delivery it would just sound weird and at odds with his music. like, 3 stacks on this album. smooth guy and all with sick flow, but i actually think his verse stuck out in a bad way on take care. which is weird cuz he's my favorite album of all time, but if anyone sounded awk on this album it was him.

all this means that drake sucks on features and will probably suck on any feature he ever does. but on his own shit, with his own producer, making his own unique brand of music, it totally works.

btw, weirdly, i really like "round of applause" even though it's such a gross middle ground between the two rappers' very different styles. like both seem uncomfortable. i think i just like the strange beat and the synthetic-sounding applause sample.

i think drake made the best record he will make. if you like his rap/singing, you will like this record. i don't think its a problem of him making poor creative choices. i just dont like the dude, nor do i find what he talks about to be v. resonant with me.

i do think that it is resonant with lots & lots of people. its just not what i like about rap. i like distinctive rappers, who take difft approaches to be good at rapping. that doesn't mean "technical ability." there are plenty of boring rappers w/ 'technical ability' on shady records.

but its not like i don't present tons of alternatives on this site & in my writing in general on a regular basis. i do feel like there's this feeling ppl have when they champion this where its like, 'well what else is there to like?' and i'm like, well, tons of stuff. i do recognize my tolerance for drug talk is probably higher than others. but for whatever reason i do find a wider variety of interesting styles & approaches to rap come from a street angle.

that doesnt mean i automatically prefer street rappers at all -- if anything its a much deeper field so theres more competition

i dunno. its year-end time, we'll talk about other artists soon enough

tbh the ~atmosphere~ of the record is my favorite part. it sounds v. of-a-piece & smooth

― Creedance House Mafia (D-40), Tuesday, November 15, 2011 6:25 PM (32 minutes ago)

absolutely

otm å drake's awkward code-switching, its obviously just a minor annoyance but it speaks to a larger persona drake puts on in his music that feels very forced to me. i know it's been discussed to death but it's another sign of insecurity of his place w/in the genre (aave, douchebag image, carefully-selected lyrical content, etc to put up a front)

give drake some credit, the only authentic toronto genre is milquetoast indie and i for one am glad he "forced" himself into hip-hop instead of pursuing that route

yeah, not trying to fall back into the "drake isn't authentic" argument, i respect him for what he does and can still enjoy some of his music but i think a lot of people genuinely buy into his persona, which sort of bothers me considered how shallowly it's portrayed.

really think shipley should reprise his Rick Ross tweets but modified for the Take Care release.

oh if only i'd been home today

lol.

lol squared

the idea of drake having the most unique arc in hip hop is absurd

i'm on fennel cartwright's side here but i can't say that i have any idea what he's talking about really

Even when staring at a pair of unnatural breasts, he highlights the incision rather than the size: "Brand new girl and she still growing/ Brand new titties, stitches still showing/ Yeah, and she just praying that it heals good/ I'm 'bout to fuck and I'm just praying that it feels good."

Just as his thematic concerns have become richer, so has the music backing them up.

"man i sure hope this sex thing feels good, last time it felt like sticking my dick in a toaster"

http://www.ddotomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Drake-Take-Care.jpg

"Shit, if I knew it was gonna be THAT kinda party, I woulda stuck my dick in the mashed potatos"

haha!

TC has incredible cover art, in terms of reflecting the sound of the record

yeah it is an extremely eye-catching cover

esp with his gold plated drumstick

i think it's too subtle -- should've changed the title to All That Glitters Isn't Gold so people would really really get it

"If you're not accustom to havin casual conversation w/bad h*** over lunch & a glass of wine then it's hard fa you to relate to Drizzy music."

Chris Douglas-Roberts

I'm more accustom to havin casual conversation w/ my mild-mannered toddler daughter over bunny grahams and chocolate Silk, so yeah, that might explain it.

http://i.imgur.com/Fxq06.jpg