Under Ground Kings

Album: Take Care (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Drake recorded the majority of Take Care at home in Toronto, which made him realize how far he had come on his journey from wannabe performer artist to Hip-Hop star. "I thought about how I got there, what happened," he told Reuters. "Why did I drop out of school? And how did I ever dig my mother out of this hole of debt we were in? I just address it all on the album. I tell every story I can remember leading up to this moment right now and tried to vividly capture this rise."

    This track finds Drake recounting the story of his rise from the Toronto underground to rap superstar. "It's been two years since someone asked me who I was," he spits.
  • The track starts off with a reference to a "Simon & Garfunkel" hit when Drake raps, "Bridge over troubled water, ice in my muddy water."
  • Co-producer Noah "40" Shebib told MTV News that in this instance, Drake came up with the lyrical idea before he'd been the beat. He explained: "Sometimes, Drake will have a song title in his head or an idea of what the record is and what he wants it to be and then he'll search for the beat, and I think he found that beat from T-Minus. It was just a matter of finding a place for the chorus. We got the mix right and the bass sort of eating up any speaker that gets in the way of it."
  • The song features several samples including Birdman's "Neck of the Woods," Playaz Circle's "Duffle Bag Boy" and Jah Care's "Farmer's Pleasure."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Elton John

Elton JohnFact or Fiction

Does he have beef with Gaga? Is he Sean Lennon's godfather? See if you can tell fact from fiction in the Elton John edition.

Hardy

HardySongwriter Interviews

The country hitmaker talks about his debut album, A Rock, and how a nursery rhyme inspired his hit single "One Beer."

Lita Ford

Lita FordSongwriter Interviews

Lita talks about how they wrote songs in The Runaways, and how she feels about her biggest hit being written by somebody else.

Steve Cropper (Booker T & the MG's, Blues Brothers)

Steve Cropper (Booker T & the MG's, Blues Brothers)Songwriter Interviews

Steve Cropper on the making of "In the Midnight Hour," the chicken-wire scene in The Blues Brothers, and his 2021 album, Fire It Up.

Scott Stapp

Scott StappSongwriter Interviews

The Creed lead singer reveals the "ego and self-fulfillment" he now sees in one of the band's biggest hits.

Grunge Bands Quiz

Grunge Bands QuizMusic Quiz

If the name Citizen Dick means anything to you, there's a chance you'll get some of these right.