“Take Care” by Drake (ft. Rihanna)

Drake and Rihanna’s “Take Care” is mainly about trying to heal and love someone who has been hurt in a previous relationship. It has been speculated to depict the emotional damage done to Rihanna by former boyfriend Chris Brown, and how difficult it was for Drake who became involved with her to deal with the effects of the abuse.

In the song, Drake assures her that he’ll care for her because he knows and understands her pain. Though he doesn’t want to lie to her, it looks as if he has to, because telling her the truth might just kill her. It’s not just the girl (in this case Rihanna) that has been hurt, but Drake has also felt the same way. They both promise to be there for each other though they’ve had bad pasts.

Music Video for “Take Care”

The visual for “Take Care” was released via OVO and MTV on 6th April 2012. French music video director and graphic designer, Yoann Lemoine is credited for directing this clip.

Writers and Producers of “Take Care”

“Take Care” was written by Drake, Anthony Palman, 40, and Jamie xx. Rihanna receives no credit as a writer on this track.

Co-writers Jamie and 40 worked on the production of this Hip-Hop/Pop tune.

Release Date

Drake dropped “Take Care” as a single on 21st February 2012. The song was released from the Canadian singer’s 5th studio album, which bears the same name as this tune.

Rihanna and Drake had worked together before this track

The guest vocals on this song were provided by the Barbadian pop singer, Rihanna. Contrary to popular belief, this song was not the first time that Drake and Rihanna collaborated. The duo initially teamed up on the 2010 track, titled, “What’s My Name?”.

Samples

This song contains heavy samples of the 2011 remix version of the song, “I’ll Take Care of You” performed by Jamie xx (ft. Gil Scott-Heron). “I’ll Take Care of U” was originally composed by the late Brook Benton and performed by Bobby Bland in the late 1950s.

“Take Care” also samples the late pop singer, Lesley Gore’s 1963 hit track, “It’s My party”.

French Montana’s 2012 track, “Miley” features samples of this track. The English rock band, Florence & the Machine released a cover of the song in 2011.

Alex Aiono, of YouTube fame, also released a cover version of this song in 2012.

Jamaican dancehall artist, Elephant Man interpolated bits of the track on his song called, “Whine up Song”.

Chart Performance

On the UK Singles Chart, “Take Care” peaked at #9. In the United States, it ranked at #7.

Did “Take Care” win a Grammy?

It did not. However, it was very instrumental in its album’s success at the 55th edition of the Annual Grammy Awards. During that ceremony the album was voted as the Best Rap Album.

“Take Care” sounds similar to “Destiny” by Malaika

We cannot conclude this post without drawing readers’ attention to the fact that Drake’s “Take Care” sounds pretty similar to Malaika’s hit “Destiny”. Maybe our ears are deceiving us. Take a listen to Malaika’s “Destiny” below and be the judge.

Initially we thought, Malaika’s “Destiny” was inspired by Drake’s “Take Care”. However, this is clearly not the case. And why do we say so? Simply because “Destiny” was released as far back as in 2007.

FYI, Malaika is a pop group from South Africa.