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Drake · S3 E2
Find Your Love
Kanye produces a pop record. Critics ask: is Drake a rapper or a singer?
Spring 2010. Six weeks after "Over" proved Drake could rap with anyone, Kanye West produces his next single. It's a love song with zero bars.
Drake, "Find Your Love." Directed by Anthony Mandler, filmed on location in Kingston, Jamaica. Drake plays a man caught in a dangerous love story against a backdrop of gunfire and tropical beauty. The Jamaican government publicly condemned the video. Drake never edited a frame.
Find Your Love (2010)
The song was originally written for Rihanna. Drake heard the demo in the studio with No I.D. and asked if he could have it. Kanye West, Jeff Bhasker, and No I.D. built the beat from lush synths and a pulsing bass line that owes more to electropop than anything on hip-hop radio in 2010. Drake doesn't rap a single bar. The vocal production layers his voice into a thick, almost choir-like texture. That's Kanye's touch: treating Drake's singing not as a weakness to hide, but as the entire point.
TAP TO REVEAL: Why did Jamaica's government publicly attack Drake?
“Find Your Love is an extremely vulnerable song. It almost feels like the song should be performed by a woman. I'm just hoping that men really hear the song and they're honest with themselves.”
— Drake, MTV News, 2010
Both. Always Both.
Hip-hop purists panic. The follow-up to a Grammy-nominated rap single has zero bars. Drake leans into the confusion. "Over" was aggression; "Find Your Love" is vulnerability. He releases them back to back, daring the industry to figure out what kind of artist he is. The answer is both. Always both.
Shut It Down (feat. The-Dream)
From Thank Me Later (2010). If "Find Your Love" is Drake singing for the radio, "Shut It Down" is Drake singing for himself. The-Dream's silky feature and the warm, minimalist production show what happens when Drake commits fully to the R&B side. This album track proves "Find Your Love" was not a one-off experiment. It was a direction.
Shut It Down, Drake ft. The-Dream (2010)
Read the lyrics while you listen. If "Find Your Love" is Drake singing for the radio, "Shut It Down" is Drake singing for himself. The-Dream's silky feature proves this was not a one-off experiment. It was a direction.
Who produced "Find Your Love"?
The singles have done their job. On June 15, 2010, Thank Me Later hits stores and debuts at number one. But the reviews are divided, the pressure is suffocating, and Drake discovers that a debut album doesn't end the questions.
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