Photo: Young Money/Cash Money Records
12 years ago today, Drake served up some of the biggest hits of his career on his second studio album.
On November 15, 2011, Drizzy dropped off Take Care. His sophomore LP features early collaborations with Rihanna, Rick Ross, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj, Birdman, and Andre 3000. Lil Wayne appears several times on songs like "The Real Her," "HYFR" and "The Motto." In addition to hits like "Headlines" and "Under Ground Kings, the follow-up to Thank Me Later allowed the Canadian rapper to explore different sounds while still providing somber bangers like "Over My Dead Body" and "Marvin's Room."
Each of Drake's joint efforts on the album left a lasting impression on his fans, and the music industry overall. After leading with singles like "Marvin's Room" and "Headlines," Drake shared the first collaboration from the album "Make Me Proud" with Nicki Minaj followed by "The Motto" featuring Wayne. Both tracks peaked in the Top 20 of Billboard's Hot 100. The title track featuring Rihanna continued Drake's reign at the top of the charts.
The LP features production from Noah "40" Shebib, T-Minus, Boi-1da, Just Blaze, Chase N Cashe, Jamie xx, Illangelo and The Weeknd. "Crew Love" was Drake's first official collaboration with The Weeknd, who also wrote and produced songs like "Shot For Me", "Practice" and "The Ride." He also had a young Kendrick Lamar come through for the "Buried Alive Interlude," which is still a notable K. Dot verse to this day.
Take Care debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold over 631,000 copies in its first week. Two months later, the album was already certified platinum. As of 2019, Drake's second album is 6x platinum and counting. Check out some of the best music videos from the album and listen to Take Care in full on iHeartRadio.
WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE