This Is Our Jam: Drake (Featuring Rihanna), “Take Care”

Drake’s “Take Care" (Feat. Rihanna) could not sound more of the moment. Built on Jamie xx’s rework of Gil Scott-Heron's, “I’ll Take Care of U,” the track features Drake and Rihanna atop balearic steel drums and a UK bass rhythm. It’s a decidedly laid-back affair, especially for the title track of what is arguably the event-album of the year. This says a lot about Drake: He’s letting his tastes speak for themselves and defining himself by his associations. For him, this means featuring one of the world's biggest pop stars and the recently deceased grand progenitor of hip-hop. Not bad.

To Drake’s credit, he does a brilliant job on the track, his sleepy rap-singing perfectly riding the beat, changing cadence, speeding up, and slowing down. Even with Rihanna’s dewy hook and gooey-smooth vocals (not to mention the phenomenal interlude featuring a chopped-up Gil Scott-Heron), Drake still comes out as the track’s star. At one high point, he flips Lesley Gore’s classic “It’s My Party,” and it manages to encapsulate the emotionally damaged rich-guy zeitgeist of the past few years in one perfectly crystallized moment (“It’s my birthday I’ll get high if I want to / Can’t deny that I want you / But I’ll lie if I have to”). “Take Care” is what happens when money and taste are doled out in equal measure. It's when Drake plays to his strengths, and when restraint is perfectly applied.