It is the final week of our Polaris short list streaming extravaganza, and this time we're listening to Take Care by Drake. This album is a bit different: it's streaming for just 24 hours, starting Thursday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) through to Friday noon ET.
The stream has now expired. Thanks for listening!
Take Care is the second studio album from Drake, the Toronto child actor turned international rap superstar. It’s the followup to his 2010 debut, Thank Me Later, and it’s Drake’s first Polaris-nominated album.
Take Care chronicles Drake’s meteoric rise to fame and his inescapable self-doubt. At 18 tracks and almost 80 minutes, the album has plenty of space to explore the ups and downs of Drizzy’s life. Well, they’re mostly ups but he takes time to reflect on the consequences of his success. See, Drake is a bit of a sad sack, like Charlie Brown (if Charlie Brown succeeded at kicking the football and had a one-night stand with Lucy).
Drake has made no secret about the fact that he felt rushed during the recording of Thank Me Later, and he wanted to spend more time on Take Care. He tells GQ, “I really took so much care making this album. I knew I was going to go home and take longer than six months, I knew that I was literally going to take care of making this project and be attentive, be clear, be immersed in it.”
The star-studded album features appearances by Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Andre 3000 and Stevie Wonder. The crew behind the board is just as impressive. The album was largely produced by longtime Drake collaborator Noah “40” Shebib, along with Drake himself, and features tracks produced by the Weeknd, Jamie xx and Chantal Kreviazuk.
You can stream Take Care until Sept. 21 on CBC Music. The Polaris Music Prize gala will be broadcast live on CBC Radio 3 on Sept. 24.
Related:
Polaris 2012 coverage on CBC Music
What’cha Readin’? The Music and Life of Drake by Dalton Higgins