Take Care

Album: Don't Look Down (2026)
Charted: 52
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Songfacts®:

  • "Take Care" is Rod Wave's direct homage to Drake, built around the anxiety, loyalty, and vulnerability of holding a relationship together while fearing it's slipping away. The title borrows directly from Drake's landmark 2011 album, which helped establish the moody, emotionally exposed rap-and-R&B sound that remains hugely influential.
  • Rod Wave weaves titles from Drake's Take Care straight into the lyrics:

    "Practice": He flips Drake's track into a relationship benchmark: "All them other ni--as was practice. But, baby, this the big league."

    "Over My Dead Body": Wave turns Drake's opener into a promise: "Over my dead body, I never let you go."

    "Doing It Wrong": The title becomes a second-guessing question: "Yeah, am I doing it wrong?"

    "Shot For Me": The hook borrows the phrase and title directly: "Take a shot for me."

    "Hate Sleeping Alone": He drops another obvious callback with: "And I hate sleepin' alone, when I do it, it hurts."

    In case anyone misses the point, Rod removes all doubt by dropping Drake's name directly: "Gotta learn how to love, til Drake drop Take Care."
  • The track appears on Don't Look Down, Rod Wave's seventh album, which makes heavy use of interpolations and musical tributes. Here, the Drake connection is front and center, with Take Care serving as a full-on lyrical sourcebook.
  • The song captures a romance on shaky ground. Wave worries when his partner stays out late, looks back on nights with "cold Patron" that "took a turn for the worse," and admits things feel like they're "fallin' apart." He rides a fine line between total devotion and deep insecurity, desperate to keep things together, but not entirely sure he can.

    Fans tied the lyrics to Rod's on-and-off relationship with Mini Barbie (Nari Nicole White), which spanned much of the time Don't Look Down was being written and recorded. Wave hasn't officially confirmed if she inspired the track.
  • This isn't his first time drawing from Drake's 2011 classic. Wave's 2021 track "OMDB" (from SoulFly) prominently samples and sings the hook from "Over My Dead Body." Rod performed a cover of "Over My Dead Body" as a prelude to "OMDB" during his NPR Tiny Desk concert, backed by a live arrangement of saxophone, flute, bass, drums, and piano.
  • "Take Care" was produced by Brazzy, DrellOnTheTrack, and Trillo Beats. DrellOnTheTrack and Trillo Beats previously teamed up to co-write and produce Rod's 2020 track "Thief in the Night."

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