Toronto native Aubrey Drake Graham has come a long way from his days of wearing coke bottle glasses on “Degrassi”.   His newly
released album “Take Care” proves why he’s one of the hottest rappers.

Many were impressed with this album, and Drake never fails, however, not every song on the album was a hit. For example “Take Care,” featuring Rihanna, was the song that I hated the most. Maybe it will grow on me, but as of now, I’m not a fan. The song had Rihanna all over it, not Drake.  The tempo was not something expected of him. His trying of new things aren’t bad, but it will have to grow on some listeners. Another song that didn’t really move me was “HYFR” featuring Lil Wayne. While listening to this song, the listener might wonder when Drake was going to take a breath. He rapped almost the entire first verse without stopping.
Talent? No. Annoying? Yes. Not to mention the chorus doesn’t… wait I’m not even going to butter it up, the chorus sucks.

But moving on to bigger and better things let me list the top five songs listeners definitely should press play for. “Over My Dead Body,” “Marvins Room,” “We’ll be fine,” and, “Make Me Proud” featuring the black Barbie herself Nicki Minaj are all songs that might become hits.   Also “Lord Knows” featuring the huffing, puffing Maybach Music boss Rick Ross and the bonus track “The Motto” featuring Young Money and Drake’s president, Lil Wayne, showcase a lot of talent.

This album also features another Toronto native artist on the rise, The Weeknd. He’s pretty low key, but one of his most popular songs was a remake to one of Drake’s songs “Trust Issues”. The Weeknd is featured on “Crew Love” which he also co-wrote. For all the young lovers out there this is the song you listen to during the car ride after the movies.  So two Canadians on the mainstream, will we be able to live with it? As President Barack Obama would have said in 2008, yes we can.

Drake’s not really giving us the farewell yet.  Be sure to watch out for the songs that didn’t make the cut for “Take Care” on his Birthday Edition of the album being released at a later date.

Imani Love is a Sports Editor for the JCpatriot and JCpatriot.com