Crew Love

Album: Take Care (2011)
Charted: 37 80
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This ode to the love for Drake and his musical family features Toronto-based R&B singer Abel Tesfaye, a.k.a. the Weeknd. Drake has helped public awareness for The Weeknd, after he quoted a line from the track "Wicked Games" via Twitter and posted a link to the artist's music on his blog. A few months later the Canadian MC supplied guest vocals to "The Zone," a track from The Weeknd's second mixtape, Thursday. Drake told Billboard magazine how his Toronto homie inspired Take Care. "Not only did he inspire me to get out there and try and sing better onstage," he said, "but he inspired me just writing-wise, music-wise, just to better my product. To hear someone else with an incredible body of work is very rare, so it's very inspiring."
  • Noah "40" Shebib, who co-produced the track, told MTV News: "'Crew Love' is just a moment for Drake as far at the content of the record and what was going on around him in life and his people and his team. That was just an important record for him to make, and Weeknd was someone he wanted to include on that."
  • The Weeknd told Complex magazine that this was originally his song. "I had a hook and I had a second verse," he said. "And Drake heard it and he was like, 'F--k, man.'
    'There's a second verse?'
    'Yeah, there was a second verse on it.'
    'You've got to play that for me!'"

    The Weeknd added that he hated his second verse. "That was a complete freestyle as well," he said. "I'm glad Drake placed his vocals on it. That song was so special to him. I didn't hear that verse until maybe four or five months after I gave it to him."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Corey Hart

Corey HartSongwriter Interviews

The Canadian superstar talks about his sudden rise to fame, and tells the stories behind his hits "Sunglasses At Night," "Boy In The Box" and "Never Surrender."

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater RevivalFact or Fiction

Is "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" about Vietnam? Was John Fogerty really born on a Bayou? It's the CCR edition of Fact or Fiction.

Susanna Hoffs - "Eternal Flame"

Susanna Hoffs - "Eternal Flame"They're Playing My Song

The Prince-penned "Manic Monday" was the first song The Bangles heard coming from a car radio, but "Eternal Flame" is closest to Susanna's heart, perhaps because she sang it in "various states of undress."

Gene Simmons of Kiss

Gene Simmons of KissSongwriter Interviews

The Kiss rocker covers a lot of ground in this interview, including why there are no Kiss collaborations, and why the Rock Hall has "become a sham."

Joe Jackson

Joe JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Joe talks about the challenges of of making a Duke Ellington tribute album, and tells the stories behind some of his hits.

George Clinton

George ClintonSongwriter Interviews

When you free your mind, your ass may follow, but you have to make sure someone else doesn't program it while it's wide open.