Today marks the 10th anniversary of Drake’s seminal album Take Care. Arriving on November 15th, 2011, the rapper has fit in so much hit-making record-breaking in the time since that it somehow feels more distant than a decade.
Whatever you think of Drake – Kanye wind-up merchant, suspect softboi, limited lyricist – Take Care is an undeniable classic. His debut album, Thank Me Later, might have made the top of the U.S. Billboard 200 but its follow-up was the type of stratosphere-reaching record that very few artists attain.
Reflecting its title, Drake made sure every little thing was the way he wanted it to be on Take Care. The attention to detail is meticulous; the intense engineering that went into every huge collaboration, every minuscule beat, is evident.
The songs traverse what would become the Drake trademark: sad R&B, bombastic hip hop, and touches of pop, all played at a downtempo mix. The lyrics were a delicate mix of braggadocio and sincere emotion, never devolving into one too much.
Collaborations with the likes of Lil Wayne and, most famously, Rihanna, made Drake the Artist of the Moment in the first few years of the 2010s; anthems like ‘Take Care’ and ‘Marvins Room’ still fill late night bars and clubs 10 years later.
It’s perfectly reasonable to believe that Drake hasn’t topped Take Care since its release; it’s also perfectly acceptable to think that he might never reach those cohesive heights again.
To mark the album’s 10th anniversary, we (subjectively) made our picks of the six best songs on Take Care which – I’m sure – most readers will disagree with wholeheartedly. See our rankings below and decide if you’d changed the order!
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6. ‘Camera/Good Ones Go’
Drake conjured late night R&B vibes with a cute sample of Jon B.’s 2001 ballad ‘Calling On You’. It’s easy to picture the rapper sitting in a mahogany-coated Toronto bar, sipping on a Hennessy, thinking about fame and celebrity. The Weeknd offers soulful coos in the background, enhancing the silky R&B over the track.
5. ‘The Motto’
‘The Motto’ might have only been a bonus track but it tapped into the zeitgeist in a big way. “You only live once, that’s the motto…YOLO,” Drizzy spat searingly, a chant that became inescapable around 2011.
Everyone was trying to inhabit ‘YOLO’ and Drake definitely was on this track. His delivery is razor-sharp and fiery, cool and collected. Over a tempestuous and unnerving beat, he sounds completely zoned in on his mission.
4. ‘Crew Love’
Featuring The Weeknd again but with a much more prominent role, Drake’s decision to collaborate with his fellow Canadian star was a masterstroke: Abel Tesfaye was an underground sensation for his drug-fuelled late night tales, and joined Drake on Take Care just as his career was about to explode.
This track is an ode to their respective collectives. It’s lightly melancholic but meaningful, both artists getting their points across in a stylish manner.
3. ‘Lord Knows’
A blistering and triumphant track, Just Blaze’s production is a glorious interlude on the resolutely mellow and minimal beats that surround it on Take Care.
The gospel choir throughout is a joy to behold, their exultant wailing perfectly backing Drake’s verses: “I changed rap forever,” he insists, and ‘Lord Knows’ is the type of track that comes close to backing up such a line.
2. ‘Take Care’
‘Take Care’ is just as big for the surrounding narrative as the track’s quality. Combining with arguably the biggest pop star of her generation, Rihanna brought out the sensitivity in Drake that was always lurking. Their flirtatious vibe became the stuff of legend around the turn of the last decade, the title track coming close to being their version of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s ‘Crazy In Love’.
Rihanna knows to play it cool, her vocals tenderly floating in whenever called upon, with Drake singing sincerely. The emotional beat is just right too, a sample of Jame xx’s remix of Gil Scott-Heron’s version of ‘I’ll Take Care of You’ that fits wonderfully. The track that truly set the template for Drake as rap’s most visible vulnerable figure.
1. ‘Marvins Room’
It just had to be number one. A classic love-gone-wrong anthem, Drake tapped into a male fragility that soon became his natural framework. The muted beats and sparse production allow his sorry story to unfold at its own pace: it focuses on a drunken Drake calling up an ex-girlfriend, bemoaning his loneliness and sadness.
The impact of his heartbreak hits the listener without ever coming off as insincere. It’s a seductive and unsettling tale, a relatable track that has become an anthem for anyone who knows they’ve acted wrong but can’t stop themselves from thinking ‘what if?’
