Care for Me

In February 2017, Saba's cousin and fellow Pivot Gang member, Walter E. "John Walt" Long was stabbed to death in Chicago. In an interview, Saba spoke about the mental process and how writing the songs on the album were therapeutic saying:

Care For Me is the first time I delve into talking about depression and anxiety, and then all of these factors as to why I am the way I am. A lot of it had to do with losing my best friend and older cousin, [John] Walt, which is throughout the album. I think why Care For Me is so important is because it talks about mental health in a lot of ways that are simple but I just haven’t heard it done in hip-hop music that way.[4]

Care for Me is a concept album dedicated to the memory of his late-cousin, which Saba started working on in December 2017. The penultimate track "Prom / King" recounts a story of being set up a blind prom date by Walt, who saves him from the potential embarrassment of public loneliness. The blind date is a success and the pair head to an afterparty. The festive mood suddenly turns dangerous when the date’s brother arrives and threatens to stab him. The track was initially planned to be the outro of the album however Saba felt the song was too depressing and didn't want to leave listeners with that feeling. Towards near completion of the album, Saba recalled a moment to review his progress saying: "I was listening with one of the producers and he actually pointed it out: ‘Damn dude, all of these songs are about Walt,' I didn’t even realize."[5]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.2/10[6]
Metacritic	93/100[7]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
The A.V. Club	B+[9]
Consequence of Sound	A−[10]
Exclaim!	8/10[11]
HipHopDX	4.4/5[12]
Pitchfork	8.7/10[13]
PopMatters	9/10[14]
Under the Radar	6.5/10[15]
Tom Hull – on the Web	B+ ()[16]
Vice (Expert Witness)	A−[17]

Care for Me received rave reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 93, based on 5 reviews.[7] In his review for AllMusic, Fred Thomas described the album as a "masterful artistic statement" with "Beautifully minimal production [that] supports the feeling of emptiness"[8] Writing for HipHopDX, Justin Ivey stated "With Care for Me, Saba accomplished his objective by making an album that can endure for years to come. His higher aspirations won’t afford him the visibility of the rappers acting out for attention, but projects like Care for Me should put him into the discussions of his generation’s best hip hop artists."[12] Sheldon Pearce of Pitchfork gave the album a rave review, awarding it Best New Music, saying "The grief-stricken Chicago rapper’s latest is a marvel of craft, musicality, and emotion. Through Saba’s inner turmoil, he finds his most powerful and diaristic storytelling."[13] Wren Graves of Consequence of Sound wrote "At 10 breezy tracks, Care for Me isn’t just a collection of songs; it’s an honest-to-god album that develops ideas at its own pace."[10]

Notes

• All track titles are stylized in upper case letters, e.g. "BUSY / SIRENS".
• "Prom / King" features uncredited vocals by John Walt

Credits are adapted from the rapper's official SoundCloud and Genius pages.[28][29]

• Saba – Care For Me at Discogs (list of releases)