When you think of a Drake song, what comes to mind? He has enough hits and quality albums to really broaden your choices. It might be one of his premier rap songs. Or one of the softer R&B songs that show the many faces of the Toronto MC. Or it could just be something off of ICEMAN, considering he released three whole albums recently.
However, the song that really cemented him as one of the defining artists of our lifetimes was “Marvin’s Room”, which was released 15 years ago today. The lead single from his magnum opus Take Care, Drake is absurdly drunk and ranting to his ex-girlfriend about his loneliness. He’s also inebriated enough to try his luck, even though she’s with another man. “F**k that n***a that you love so bad/I know you still think about the times we had,” he croons in the hook.
“Marvin’s Room” is beautifully moody and shameless, solidifying Drake’s perception with the public for years. Years of memes were spawned, depicting him as an unbelievably soft yearner who veered away from hip-hop’s machismo. Little did people know that it would go on to influence generations of artists to wear their hearts on their sleeves.
Drake Releases ‘Marvin’s Room’ 15 Years Ago Today
In spite of all the jokes from the public, “Marvin’s Room” was adored by artists and critics alike. R&B singers like JoJo and Chris Brown released their takes on Drake’s all-time classic. Additionally, Lil Wayne rapped over it on Sorry 4 The Wait. All of the different spins on his record flattered Drake, particularly the JoJo rendition.
“The writing is doing something to people for them to want to take it and remix it. It’s very flattering, you know. Thank you to anybody that did a remix,” he said at the time. “I hope other songs on the album get reactions like that too. I really, really worked very hard on the writing for this album, so I hope it gets a great reaction. I’m excited. It comes out on my birthday, so it’d be a nice birthday gift if you go buy it for the boy.”
Critics were also fond of the record at the time. Ann Powers gushed about the way Drake wields Marvin Gaye’s spirit for NPR. “[‘Marvin’s Room’] taps into the magnetic but dangerous spirit of Gaye,” Powers wrote. “Not only his seduction skills, but his self-doubt, the vulnerability that made his music so profound and which eventually derailed him.”
Similarly, Meaghan Garvey wrote an op-ed about letting go of her Drake fandom in 2015, reflecting on the impact of “Marvin’s Room” and Take Care. “I took ‘Marvin’s Room’ as gospel,” Garvey wrote for Pitchfork.
“Let she without a shattered iPhone 4S full of 3AM ‘are you drunk right now?’ texts cast the first stone,” she added. “I got a Take Care tattoo after a particularly messy breakup, a Drake move if there ever was one. I gazed into the abyss of millennial cliche, and the abyss gazed back.”
The post On This Day 15 Years Ago, Drake Released The Most Quintessential Song in His Catalog appeared first on VICE.
