Jacques PatrickAshley HumphriesENC110121 April 2015 The Analysis of Drakes Take Care Album

Drake is one of the most popular and successful rappers today. He was named the hottest rapper out by multiples sites such as Complex.com (Ahmed) and vladtv.com (VladTV's Top 25 Hottest Rappers Right Now). He has won many awards for his incredible body of work throughout his career releasing albums like Thank me Later, Take Care, Nothing was the same, and If Youre Reading This Its Too Late which all happened to go platinum, which means an album has sold over one million copies. So one would think Drake is one of those rappers who just talks about Gun violence and Drugs all the time but that is not him at all. Those who have listened to Drakes music know that he displays his emotion and allows his listeners to get an inside feel of his personal life. His most notable work when it comes to this topic, is his album Take Care. In that body of work he talks about the struggles of being a celebrity and all the substance material he owns but for me though I think Drake was trying to portray one message when he made the album Take Care, and that was Money cannot buy happiness. Drake portrays this throughout his whole "Take Care" album. Through his album cover and his songs he illustrates that he is not content with some aspects of life. In his songs he continuously talks about how he has all the wealth a person would need, but he still has the personal problems that a normal person would have. In Over My Dead Body and Marvins Room, he talks about issues involving his career and women but the main thing he portrays is that money cannot buy happiness. In Drakes album photo, he uses the different riches of gold to represent his wealth and status in the rap game, whether it was from the gold chains or watches he is wearing or the gold paintings on the wall. I believe Drake wanted to display this in his cover art because he wanted us to see that he has all the materialistic things his wealth can get him, but that still doesn't make him happy. Then as I analyze further in to the gold paintings and the gold cups in his cover photo; it allows me to assume he has a very expensive house. One would think that should bring him some happiness or give him some comfort but even having all these things coming home after the same daily routine everyday does not do him any good but he has to embrace it. He says in one song on the album you know it is real when your latest nights are your greatest nights and the sun is up when you get home that's just the way of life (Drake, The ride). I think he means that since hes partying all through the night and working during the day he never has the time to sit down to resolve issues in his life or even relax because hes out searching for these greats things to happen but they are just temporary because it is all about the money for the others around him when he is trying to find happiness. So that probably explains why he looks depressed in the album cover because I believe he is portraying Money can't buy happiness. This is obvious because in his picture he is surrounded by these expensive items, but is sitting at the table looking depressed as if he doesn't have at least one million dollars worth of gold around him. He uses a dim lighting but not to dim because it seems like he wanted to show us two things. One to emphasize on the gold objects making sure we see that part of the picture and, two he wants to show us that he is wearing a black shirt which is usually associated with sorrow. It is viewed as a negative color which suits his underlying meaning of him being wistful in album cover. Bottom line this album art suggest an old school theme from the location to the old fashioned artwork behind him. The cover is a subversion to what we would expect from a rapper because I would assume Drake to be dripping with gold which he is, but I expected it to be females and an expensive car also. I can understand why Drake didn't put the females and the expensive cars on his album cover because I think at the end of the day, Drake knows those things don't guarantee him happiness. He knows that about the gold too but I feel he just wanted to make sure that we saw that even with all the materialistic things it doesn't always bring you happiness. Analyzing the album cover it is easy to see that he is not happy. This could be for multiple reasons, but I am certain that money is not the reason. He has on a gold chain, he has a gold drinking cup, a gold candle, a gold owl, gold watches, and a gold ring so it is evident that he has plenty of money. Drake starts his "Take Care" album out with Over My Dead Body, so obviously this song had a special meaning to him. He obviously wanted this song to be the first song people heard and the message he delivered to the listeners. He has this cocky tone is this song which reflects back on the gold material in is cover. I say this because for most rappers when they have multiple gold chains and watches on its (Drake Take Care Album First Week Sales) like a way for them to say they have plenty of money without actually saying it. Drake In one part of this song, he says "Are these people really discussing my career again? Asking if I'll be going Platinum in a year again? Don't I have the stuff the world want to hear again? (Drake, over my dead body). He then answers himself in question form saying "Don't Michael Jordan still got his hoop earring in? (Drake, over my dead body) He used clever word play here, comparing the fact that Michael Jordan is known for always having his hoop earring in and Drake is basically implying it's almost a dumb question to ask if he will go platinum again. Drake then goes into talking about love saying, "I thought I found the girl of my dreams at the strip club, dang I was wrong though" (Drake, over my dead body). It is intriguing that he said this because it is ironic that he is throwing money at girls to find love, but he realizes the girls do not want the love, they only want the money because that is their job. This relates back to the album cover because Drake is alone in the album cover and when he goes to the club although his money provides him with the temporary company of women, he still ends up going home alone which could be why hes not happy. Drake then switches his voice and it seems haunting in this song because I feel like he is trying to prove a point. He was voicing the fact that he won't be removed from the top of the rap game until he feels like he has nothing else to accomplish and nobody can do anything about it. That is why the title of the song is Over My Dead Body, he won't let anyone pry his future accomplishments out of his hands and if anyone tries it will be over his dead body. Towards the ending of the song, he says, "Feel like I've been here before, huh? I still got ten years to go, huh? (Drake, over my dead body). I feel like Drake is pretty much trying to say hes a staple at the top of the rap game and it's going to be this way for a long time. This connects back to the all the different golds in the album cover because just like having those things give him a status, being at the top of his craft gives him the status of being the best. One of the songs that really takes a look at how Drake views todays modern female and how it is a struggle to deal with because of his wealth is track 6, Marvin's Room. The song Marvin's Room starts off by two women speaking on the phone and one of them can barely remember anything that happened that night. In this song, you can hear it in Drakes voice that he is ashamed of the women he allows into his life. He says in one part of the song, "I don't think I'm conscious of making monsters out of the women I sponsor 'til it all goes bad. (Drake, Marvin's Room) I believe what Drake means by this is that he doesn't have a problem spending money on the women in his life until he eventually starts spending too much and the women began to only be there for the Money and everything eventually starts to go downhill. I see where this could be hurtful to Drakes self-esteem, because no man ever wants to feel that he can only get women because of the status of his bank account. He then touches on this subject again in another part in the song when he says I have some women that's living off me Paid for their flights, and hotels I'm ashamed. (Drake, Marvin's Room). This is another example of women just providing Drake with temporary company because of his money and eventually leaving him when he gets unhappy about the situation and stops funding these women. This all connects back to what Drake is portraying in his album cover which is no matter how much money he has he just wants all the things that cannot buy. All and all With this song you can get the impression that Drake struggles with finding women that can make him happy and not just be with him for his money. This connects back to the message he is portraying in the album cover because hes In a constant struggle with this throughout the whole album because hes looking for the Ghost of the women in his past life but he can't seem to find women like that anymore due to his fame and most importantly wealth. When I first listened to this song I wouldn't have been able to interpret the meaning of some of things he was saying because I really did not understand the underlying meaning behind the message drake was portraying in his album cover. In the final analysis of my paper I want to break down various things. First off the listeners may think Drake wanted to effect his audience in the way that they would feel sympathetic at the fact that he has his struggles with being famous. Listeners may think he did this through his visuals but most importantly his lyrics, as he constantly complaining throughout the album about his pitfalls of being a celebrity. He did this by using choosing the cover art he did because instead of him having gold around him and being happy, he had a bunch of gold items around him and was looking depressed which allowed the listener to assume he is unhappy. The lyrics also support this message of money not being able to buy happiness. I know he says a couple things like more money more problems, please believe it. And when he says I have some women that are living off of me, paid for their flights and hotels I'm ashamed. Those are just things he regularly says throughout his lyrics to connect and the album cover and the lyrics to portray the message that money can't buy happiness. Drake effectiveness of making the cover and lyrics work together was very successful. The album debuted on billboard.com as the number one album. He clearly got his point across to his audience because according to hiphoplead.com Drakes Take Care album sold 659,190 copies in its first week of the release. (Drake Take Care Album First Week Sales) Almost two years ago and two years after its release according to billboardbiz.com the album surpassed two million records sold in the United States and counting. (Caulfield) (Drake) It was the first rap album in many years to sell two million copies. So just based off the album sales alone you can most definitely make a point that Drake did what he needed to do and make this effective enough through his visuals and lyrics to allow this album to be as successful as it did. Till this Day out of the four albums Drake has released Take care is still a top them all for being the most successful one.

Works CitedAhmed, Insanul. The 50 Hottest Rappers Right Now, Ranked According To Google Trends. 19 september 2013. internet. 23 april 2015. .Caulfield, Keith. Chart Moves: Drake's 'Take Care' Hits 2 Million, Elvis Presley Scores 127th Charting Album. 11 april 2013. internet. 23 april 2015.Drake Take Care Album First Week Sales. 11 november 2011. internet. 23 april 2015.Drake. "Marvin's Room." Take Care. 2011. compact disc.Drake. "over my dead body." Take care. 2011. compact disc.Drake. "The ride." Take care. 2011. compact disc.VladTV's Top 25 Hottest Rappers Right Now. 24 october 2014. internet. 23 april 2015. .