Ten Years Later, Drake’s Promotional Tracks for “Take Care” Are Still Some of His Best Songs
As we gear up for the release of Certified Lover Boy, an album whose promotional period has only been in the past week, let’s look back 10 years earlier to the months-long promotion of Drake’s sophomore album Take Care. During the summer of 2010, Drake released several songs on his blog October’s Very Own to build anticipation for the album. Even though only one of these songs appeared on Take Care, these promotional songs are some of the best songs of Drake’s career so far.
This song showed the initial transition from the sounds of Thank Me Later to the moodier, darker Take Care. I remember I was super impressed by the lines “everybody yelled surprised, I wasn’t surprise” and “we stayed up, Christmas lights in the middle of summer.” I felt that Drake wasn’t making a big deal about being clever anymore. While lines like those would have been highlighted way more in his previous songs, how he delivered it made it seem like this is what you should expect from Drake at this point.
Yes, Drake was a huge artist before this song came out. However, when he released this song, every day artists were releasing their version on this heartbreaking song, establishing Drake as an icon before his sophomore album was even released.
A unique way to interpret a guest verse on a song. While “I’m On One” is great, “Trust Issues” really took the song in a completely different direction and gave it a melancholy vibe.
Even though it wasn’t on the album, “Club Paradise” was the name of Drake’s tour for Take Care. This song introduced the theme of Drake feeling separated and isolated from his hometown and old life. The best part of the song is: “Couple artists got words for me, that’s never fun They say it’s on when they see me, that day don’t ever come I’m never scared, they never real, I never run When all is said and done, more is always said than done”
My favorite song from the Take Care promotional period. I love the energy and its cadence. This is also the best song that he has with his frequent collaborator, Rick Ross. The outlandish request of asking someone to tattoo your name on them is hilarious and cocky at the same time.
