Drake Set to Release Highly Anticipated Sophomore Album “Take Care” on October 24th

Young Money / Cash Money / Universal Republic platinum selling, Grammy nominated recording artist Drake will release his hotly anticipated sophomore full length album, Take Care, worldwide on October 24th, 2011.

“Headlines” the single from Drake’s upcoming Take Care, is currently available on iTunes, where it is the #2 song on iTunes Main Music Chart, selling 139,274 copies in its first few days. “Headlines” was released via Drake’s website October’s Very Own the eve before his lauded sold out OVO Festival, which drew a crowd of over 16,000 fans and featured performances by Stevie Wonder and The Weekend. The track produced by Drake’s long time collaborator Noah “40” Shebib, quickly impacted radio, becoming the #1 most added song at Urban Radio. “Headlines”, which is currently at #21 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, made news during its first full week at radio, after leaping from #98 to #38 in one week on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and claiming 6.1 million radio impressions.

Prior to “Headlines” Drake released “Marvin’s Room”, a somber, pensive track with a subdued beat that perfectly captures the mood of a drunken late night. Released in June 2011, “Marvin’s Room” has spawned multiple remixes from artists including JoJo and Chris Brown and sold over 211,795 digital copies. “Marvin’s Room” was also a Top 5 Greatest gainer at Rhythm moving from #27 to #17 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

“Very few artists are able to release such a strong body of work so early in their careers,” says co-manager Cortez Bryant. “Drake tells an entire story with Take Care and fans are going to be able to see how far he has come.”

Take Care is his follow up to Thank Me Later, Drake’s debut full length album that opened at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, with a powerful first sales week of 446,680 and which later went on to be certified Platinum by the RIAA with over 1.5 million sales. Produced by Noah “40” Shebib and featuring contributions from Alicia Keys, Swizz Beats and Drake’s mentor Lil Wayne, Thank Me Later arrived to a chorus of acclaim from both fans and critics alike, garnering positive reviews from Rolling Stone, Spin, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, USA Today and Toronto Star among many others.

Released in June 2010, Thank Me Later marked one of the year’s top five biggest sales weeks, coming in behind country act Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now with 481,000 copies and Sade’s Soldier of Love with 502,000 copies. The album earned Drake multiple Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist, Best Rap Album, Best Rap Solo performance for the single “Over” and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for the song “Fancy”. Drake was also nominated for six Juno Awards, including Album of the Year and Artist of the Year, as well as multiple nominations from the BET Awards, BET Hip Hop Awards, Soul Train Awards and VMAs.

“Drake continues to be a trailblazer not just in hip-hop but in the general music landscape” says Ronald “Slim” Williams, Co-CEO of Cash Money Records Group. “Drake continues to release creative music enjoyed by millions”. Adds Bryan “Birdman” Williams, Co-CEO of Cash Money Records Group, “The Young Money/Cash Money family could not be more proud to release this album this fall. We have always believed in his talent and know Drake will not disappoint his fans with this offering.”

One of GQ’s Men of the Year, Drake was recently honored with the Hal David Starlight Award at the 42nd annual Songwriters Hall of Fame gala and is set to receive the Allan Slaight Award during Canada’s Walk of Fame Awards this fall.