My 1st Blog: Drake Insisted On Recording Only With 40 For Take Care

Friday, October 21, 2011

Drake Insisted On Recording Only With 40 For Take Care

'Not only would I record it with 40, but I might take the beat apart with 40,' Drake tells MTV News of Noah '40' Shebib.
By Rob Markman

Drake
Photo: MTV News

When you've made an impact with your music the way Drake has, you earn the right to do things your way. For the Toronto MC, that meant recording his sophomore album, Take Care, in his native city.

Not only that, he insisted on only recording with his producer/engineer and longtime friend Noah "40" Shebib. So even when working with producers like Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, for example, the veteran hitmakers would have to give Drake the creative freedom to rework a track with his hometown guy.

"The majority of producers, not only would I record it with 40, but I might take the beat apart with 40 and add elements that weren't there before that just because I need a consistent thread," Drake told MTV News of his Take Care recording process.

Drake looks to add to Take Care what he felt Thank Me Later lacked: continuity. "Thank Me Later was just song, song, song, song, song, whereas So Far Gone was a consistent thread," the Young Money MC said of his debut album in relation to his breakout mixtape. "It was a story to me. And Thank Me Later, I sort of didn't have enough time mentally to piece together a story. It's very tedious."

Call it a case of being his own worst critic, as last year's Thank Me Later was met with favorable reviews and was commercially successful as well. Still, Drake aimed to tweak his creative process with his next album, due November 15.

"With that being said, I also need sonic consistency, so I need that presence in a Timbaland beat or someone's beat," he said. "There's times when I really can't even use someone else's production because as much as I know that joint can be crazy, I want a consistent sound."

40, who has amassed quite an impressive discography himself (DJ Khaled's "I'm On One," Lil Wayne's "I'm Single" and Alicia Keys' "Un-Thinkable") provides Drake with the sonic continuity that he seeks, whether he is producing a record, engineering the session or mixing down the final product.

This is a formula that has worked most recently on Drizzy's latest Take Care single, "Make Me Proud," with Nicki Minaj. The song was produced by Canadian producer T-Minus but tweaked by Shebib and Drake. "He knows if I like a beat, he'll send it over to us and allow us to maybe creatively beef it up or strip it down or add one thing," Drake said.

What are you expecting from Drake's sophomore LP? Let us know in the comments!

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