Ask anyone who's known me for a while....Drake used to be my favorite rapper around 2008-2009 up until he signed with Young Money. Not that I have anything against YM but I felt like his music became watered down and just wasn't the same after the deal, other than his solo efforts. I grew tired of feature after feature that all sounded exactly the same from someone who I felt had potential to run the rap game
lyrically with the right people around him. But lately I feel like Drake is starting to gear away from the repetitive features and focus back on ill solo joints. With
Dreams Money Can Buy leading off about a month ago and
Marvin's Room dropping last week, Drizzy's set the pace for a fun summer/fall leading up to the release of
Take Care in October.
Trust Issues was a song that Drake did for fun when he was writing his verse for "I'm On One", which makes it that much more impressive. Not much effort was put into it but it's still better than a lot songs you'd find on most rappers albums. At first the song starts out kind of slow to me. I love 40's production on almost everything so there's no problem there, but I didn't think him singing the hook from "I'm On One" was really necessary. Not like we don't hear it 72 times a day on the radio or on the internet. But that's really the only down point in the song to me. He talks about showing his main how to mix his lean in his verse and how she's the only one that he trusts to do that because there are a lot of women out to get him. Of course he's talking about drinking but it's bigger than that. The big picture of this verse is that you really can't trust most people so it's always good to have that ONE person that you know has you. It's more than just pouring lean.
The rap verse is cool, there's a couple lines that stand out but nothing too crazy. "Tell me how the fuck we're supposed to stay friends, when you got a bunch of feelings that you don't show." is really the only line that made me think. Most people can relate to something like this at one point or another.
The last little bridge at the end says a lot with him using very few words. "That's that shit that drives me crazy, and that's all that I've been getting lately...and that's probably why I'm scared to put the time in." "Looking for some things and I think that I can find them in you." I've gotten used to Drake being able to get his point across without saying too much, that's one of the many reasons he stands out more than most rappers lyrically these days.
Drake showed how powerful he his and how he has a grip on his audience last week with the release of Marvin's Room. With more releases like what he's been putting out lately, I truly believe Take Care will make him two for two on albums with classic potential.
SPINS: 4/5
