The Downloaded, The Shared, The Copied

Uhoh. Wait. Do you hear that? No not the sound of the construction going on, but the sound of keyboards typing away. They were typing in the links to download Drake's sophomore album "Take Care". Now we all know by now that downloading anything from the internet that you haven't paid for through Pay Pal or some other third party provider is illegal. Although, the thrill of getting something so anticipated, so waited on, is what drives us to do it. On top of that, it's Drake that everyone's talking about. So if there is a leaked album, then we as true fans of music will risk persecution or even jail time to hear one of our favorite artist's new music.

Young Money's very own Canadian superstar has some how done it again. Drake's first album "Thank Me Later" was considered to be a classic release of expression by a new artist. The first album was so much of a classic that it left back-packers, hipsters, and true hip hop fans alike, wanting and waiting to hear more from the former "Degrassi" star.

To understand the nature of Drake and this leaked album phenomena we must start from the beginning. We have to take it back to where Drake's claim to fame had all began. If you can think back to a few summers ago when Drake released his mixtape, "So Far Gone," no one had really heard of a guy who sang and rapped and was actually good at both. Especially, not a one that used to be an actor on a high school TV drama. The last time we had anything close to that was "The Fresh Prince" before the public became to know him as Will Smith.

It seemed that from the start, Drake, even before meeting Lil Wayne, had some how figured out a way to put all critics to shame. The formula of tightly laced beats, smooth hooks, and dope rhymes about typical subjects seemed to be what the industry ordered. Once people got a hold of the mixtape, promptness was soon to be in this Canadians rearview mirror.

There is always some sort of high expectation for an artist's second album release. Just imagine the weight that Drake had on him. Drake gladly pushed against the gravity of the critics, "nay' sayers, and the sophomore jinks that normally threaten the success of most other artists.

To reassure that there are some classics on the album he has features with some of Young Money's hottest like Nicki Minaj, Tyga, and of course Lil Wayne. As soon as you let the first track "Over my Dead Body" play, you almost can get the feeling that he knew there would be a lot of riding to this one.

The singles that already got the streets buzzing like "Marvin's Room" and "The Motto" are already in your head with the hooks that you can't forget. Then he hits you with every man's tribute to their Ex's, "Cameras". Even "The real her" hits you with a bit of left field featuring hip hop's lost boy Andre 3000. It gets deeper with a tribute to his father with "Look what you've done" just to show you that Drake still hasn't forgotten where he came from. Then to show you that Drake has always been a fan of Cash Money Records, he laces a rendition of Juvenile's "Back that Ass Up" with "Practice" and takes that old classic to another level with the slow version. Can you say versatile?

Drake is beginning to feel what every rapper goes through when their role in the industry becomes almost more than what they may have expected. We hear stardom has its perks, but of course it also has its pitfalls. Drake just takes all of it and puts it into words we all can feel.

So if you don't have your copy of Drake's "Take Care" you need to explore any route you can to get your hands on it. Of course the way you make it count is to buy it out the store or from iTunes. Just so happens that if you so happen to come across the link for the download or one of your friends pop it on their flash drive for you, I still rock with you and I'm sure Drake does to. You know I got mine!