As the year comes to a close, I wanted to look back on some of my favorite albums of the year and break down why I think they are so great. Today, we look at the controversial Certified Lover Boy by Drake.
The man who needs no introduction is Drizzy. Aubrey. Champagne Papi. 6 Man. 6 God. Wheelchair Jimmy. And so many more nicknames and pseudonyms to go around. Drake announced he was working on his next endeavor in mid-2019 telling the world that he was in album mode. Dropping a few teasers here and there throughout that year, Drake had yet to tease any new music yet but just telling everyone that 2020 was the year.
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As it turns out, Drake was a lying jerk, and to delay his album, Drake created a global pandemic causing the deaths of millions of people. Not cool. Drake teased a few songs throughout the year. With the release of Dark Lane Demo Tapes containing leftovers and loosies from the Scorpion and CLB era, Drake officially announced that CLB would drop in late 2020. Teasing the album throughout the year, he released more CLB leftovers by giving Greece and Pop Star to DJ Khaled. With the debut single “Laugh Now Cry Later” dropping mid-august. While finishing off the year with more songs like Outta Time with Bryson Tiller, B.B King Freestyle with Lil Wayne, and You’re Mines Still with Young Bleu, the hype was at an all-time high, and the release would soon be in our hands.
It didn’t release. Drake then said January 2021. So did Odell Beckham Jr. (who I thought I could trust because he was in the music video for the lead single). It turns out that Odell is Mr. liar-liar pants on fire, so the album didn’t drop in January. As a Browns fan, I’m glad we got rid of him. Drake claimed that ouch owie my leg, so no album. In early March, Drake released Scary Hours 2 with What’s Next, Wants and Needs with Lil Baby, and Lemon Pepper Freestyle with Rick Ross. Knowing the original Scary Hours leading up to Scorpion, the album was so close you could almost taste it!
April came and went with another CLB loosie titled Solid featuring Young Thug and Gunna dropping on Slime Language 2. May came and went with Nicki Minaj’s Seeing Green featuring Drake and Lil Wayne. June came and went with Migos’s Having Our Way releasing with Drake. July came and went with Brent Faiyaz’s Wasting Times and Smiley’s Over the Top releasing where Smiley washed Drake throughout the entire song. August almost didn’t have a Drake song, but Trippie Redd didn’t fumble the Drake bag and released Betrayal at the end of August.
Drake being the top-selling Hip-Hop artist in the world comes with a lot of perks. One of those perks is casually announcing the release date of Certified Lover Boy on the morning intro of SportsCenter. He began doing a major promo with billboards of lyrics from the album while also announcing every feature on the project in billboards from their hometowns (ex. Rick Ross billboard in Miami, Jay-Z billboard in NYC, and Lil Durk billboard in Chicago).
After feening for the album for two and a half years, Drake couldn’t even release the album at midnight. We had to wait two more hours to hear this damn thing. Thank God Drake is not Kanye, and it was actually released. The Lover Boys around the world rejoiced as we were given an album with every single leading up to the album left behind in favor of 86 minutes of new Drake.
The long-awaited Certified Lover Boy begins utilizing the beat of Masego’s Navajo on the track “Champagne Poetry”. On the track, Drake gives an update on his life mentioning his son, his relationship with others, and just throwing some flexes around like it is nothing on an effortless flow showing that Drake is still on top of the world. The song transitions into its second half where Drake brings the energy over a beautiful gospel sample of “Until I Found The Lord”. The second half focuses on the issues Drake has witnessed and experienced since his last album discussing gang violence in his hometown of Toronto (as well as the criticism he faced from it), racial injustice throughout North America, how his dedication to music has caused him to lose focus on what matters most to him, and how him and his baby momma, Sophie Brussaux have worked together to take care of their child.
After setting the bar high with the opening track, Drake repurposes the classic Montell Jordan song “Daddy’s Home” into “Papi’s Home” where he lets the rap world know that he’s back and is ready to run the industry again. The song includes a brief unlisted cameo from Nicki Minaj that adds a nice flair to the track. The chipmunkified sample and the hard-hitting drums reminiscent of UGK done by Supah Mario allow for Drake’s charisma and flow to slide through the instrumental like butter. It’s irresistibly fun. After going two for two on the album Drake goes into his melodic style on “Girls Want Girls” with Lil Baby. The track opens with the now infamous line “say that you a lesbian, girl, me too”. The track is carried by Lil Baby and the ethereal instrumentation. I think Drake flows well on the verse and the pre-chorus is irresistible, but the chorus is very cheesy. The song transitions perfectly into “In The Bible” with previous collaborates Lil Durk and GIVĒON. The style of the track is almost identical to “Girls Want Girls”, but Drake delivers a stronger performance than the predecessor, and Lil Durk slides on the track with ease. GIVĒON’s outro is beautiful and is a fantastic addition to the track. He takes over the backhand of the track stripping everything but the ambient synth swirling in the background letting his voice do the heavy lifting.
“Love All” featuring JAY-Z might be my favorite of the sung tracks on the album done by Drake. The soulful sample and somber tone of Drake’s voice sounds like he’s been betrayed, and he’s not mad but disappointed. JAY-Z drops probably his best verse of the year on the track talking about how he could ruin anyone if they do him wrong and you definitely do not want to get on his bad side. His rhyme scheme on it is pretty cool! I always think it’s funny when songs sample other songs that came out less than 2 years ago or on albums that came out this year which “Fair Trade” featuring Travis Scott does. Sampling Mountains by the wonderful Charlotte Day Wilson, Drake talks about how he doesn’t need fake friends in his life and cutting them off is good for his mental health while Travis Scott just scraps the song’s topic and flexes his money being up. At least he flows well over it…
The next song was initially a ??? moment for me on the album, but now I know every single word to this stupid song and I listen to it almost daily at this point. On “Way 2 Sexy”, Drake enlists Future on hook and verse duty while also throwing Young Thug on the track. I don’t even have much to say, the sample and reinterpretation of “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred helps turn the track into Cardi B and Megan’s WAP but for men. (i saw a tweet that said that, and they aren’t wrong. I feel empowered and inspired listening to way 2 sexy). Drake, Future, and Young Thug all just talk about how great and beautiful they are, and that’s really it.
The next songs are tributes to H-Town and the Houston music scene with TSU (Texas Southern University) starting with a sample of choppednotslopped legend OG Ron C shouting out the entire state of Texas. Utilizing a sample of *NSYNC, the instrumental is very vaporwave-esque and Drake delivers a legendary melodic performance that you can’t just help yourself to not smile at. The Houston vibes continue with “N 2 Deep” (while sampling a UGK song lol) with Future. The song consists of a slow and moody beat with synths going up and down the scale and distorted guitars that would make Mike Dean smirk. The production is quite minimal with the only drums being a snap track that comes in around the 2-minute mark of the song. The song metaphorically takes off like a … into the second half with Drake’s vocal going in and out speaker on the chorus while Future comes back for seconds dropping a beautifully melodic verse to end the song off. I’d like to think that the track tells a little story where he’s initially outside of the club with a girl, and he is convinced to go inside the club. It’s not Sing About Me, I’m Dying Of Thirst, but it’s pretty cool.
Working on Dying gets called in for “Pipe Down” where Drake talks about how to silence the thoughts of a girl he’s not over and get over the feelings he has for her even with how much money and things he has. Drake sounds pretty upset on the track and delivers a tone I have never heard from before. It’s nice. The track flows nicely into “YEBBA’s Heartbreak” which is similar to other interludes on his albums (“Summers Over Interlude”, “Jorja Interlude”, “4422”, and “Wednesday Night Interlude”) where he lets an R&B singer take an interlude. YEBBA continues the themes of love and desire from the album beautifully. The piano is fantastic, and I definitely have a newfound appreciation for her after only being mildly aware of her music.
There are two cheat codes to make me instantly love a hip-hop song which are 808 Cowbells and Three 6 Mafia/Memphis Rap samples. “No Friends In The Industry” has both. The track is the first of two Ye diss tracks and the first of two Memphis-style tracks. The beat of course is reminiscent of the Memphis lo-fi beats utilizing very pixelated and low-quality instrumentation throughout. The synths are dope and Drake brings the energy to create a perfect workout track. He follows it up with “Knife Talk” featuring Project Pat (in sample) and 21 Savage and production by Metro Boomin. Drake and 21 trade verses over the horrorcore beat with 21 giving his standard laidback but aggressive performance with Drake comes in with viciousness and anger that helps balance the track out. Though they go back and forth, they have entirely different flows which add a good variation throughout the song.
You know when there’s a time and a date, it’s a high-quality Drake song. “7am on Bridle Path” is no different where Drake disses Kanye and drops a one verse no hook track. He features the line “Could at least keep it a buck like Antetokounmpo” in reference to a tweet that predicts he would do such a thing. I think that’s pretty funny. “Race My Mind” reminds me of Nothing Was The Same or Take Care drake with his more youthful performance. He sings on most of the track but drops a heartfelt rap verse on the backend of the track. It’s clean and the harp on the track is pretty dope.
“Fountains” features up-and-coming afrobeat singer “Tems”. The track is pretty solid but feels like a more lowkey “One Dance” without all the flair the views track had. Drake keeps the R&B style on “Get Along Better” with Ty Dolla $ign on background vocals. In my opinion, it’s the most forgettable song on the entire album just from its general blandness. It is not bad, but at the same time, it’s nothing special.
Legendary producer Bink! gets called in to produce “You Only Live Twice”, the sequel to The Motto featuring Rick Ross and Lil Wayne who are both major collaborators with Drake. It starts with a wonderful transition from “Get Along Better” with Rick Ross’s Maybach Music ad-libs echoing through the stereo speaker in silence before the beat comes in. Rick Ross takes the first minute of the track delivering his bombastic vocals over the instrumental. These beats are always perfect for Rozay as he slides in through the AC vents of a topless convertible. When you put Drake with two rap legends of course he’s gonna give a hungry and feisty performance where he flexes on everyone and compares himself to the modern-day Michael Jackson. Wheezy continues his feature streak by delivering a fast and addictive verse to finish the track off. It’s phenomenal.
Drake and Kid Cudi squash the beef on “IMY2” where Cudi takes over the majority of the track and mostly puts Drake on his back. Drake delivers a decent performance, but it feels like a Kid Cudi song with a Drake feature than what it actually is. Drake grabs OVO signee PARTYNEXTDOOR to do background vocals on “F*****g Fans” where he regrets … f*****g. fans? i guess? i dunno. Pretty forgettable track on a strong album. He doesn’t like f*****g fans. I guess. Drake finishes the album like he always does with his long one verse over a mellow soul sample type of track with “The Remorse”. It turns out the sample is not a sample and is original vocals by Anthony Hamilton just pitched up. Similar to the second half of the opener where he talks about the relationship he has with others and the problems he’s been going through while also flexing his net worth and announcing that he owns his own masters which is a win for anyone in the industry. I always have a sweet spot for Drake closers like “Do Not Disturb”. They’re always a bright spot in any Drake album.
Other than a standard Drake album with themes of love, loss, and money, cohesively the album is all over the place. Even if you hated Scorpion, the album is consistent with its rap side and its sing-songy R&B side. On CLB, Drake will bounce around both losing some of the cohesion. Though on the first listen I thought the album was really bad and bland, a few hours later on my second listen, I fell in love with the album and constantly see myself jumping into a few songs and even the entire album more than most projects from this year. It’s fun, it’s carefree, the features are stacked, and the production is solid like you would expect from Mr. Drizzy. I can see what people’s issues are with the project, but I think it’s cool.
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