The Ride

Album: Take Care (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • Drake closes Take Care with another gripe about fame, a theme that runs throughout much of the album. "I hate when people say they feel me, man," he spits.
  • The song was co-produced by Toronto-based R&B singer Abel Tesfaye, a.k.a. the Weeknd, who also provides vocals on the track. Tesfaye also contributed to another Take Care cut, "Crew Love." Tesfaye recalled to Complex magazine: "We were making the drum loop and...oh, man, I had smoked I don't know how much weed. Even Drake, he came into that session and we were all smoked out. It was terrible how much weed smoke was in that room. I was surprised I could even hit a note. I had sung this melody—it wasn't a hook, just an unfinished lyric. And he liked it so much, he was like, "I need to have this, man.... I know I've already taken 'Shot For Me' and 'Crew Love' and this and that." And me, I was hungry at that time. I was like, 'Dude, take anything.' At that point I was like, 'Hell, yeah.'"
  • This has a soulful Hip-Hop vibe, which according to Drake's right-hand man Noah "40" Shebib was what attracted the Toronto MC to the track. He explained to MTV News: "It was a vibe that the Weeknd caught, and it was just so crazy that Drake wanted to rap on it — as simply put as that."

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