Certified Lover Boy?

On September 3rd, Drake dropped his highly anticipated sixth studio album, Certified Lover Boy. With the highest first week mark of 2021, all 21 tracks are in the Top 40 of Billboard's Hot 100. Including holding 9 spots out of the Top 10 (as of 09/15/2021), becoming the first artist since The Beatles in 1964-- which held all top 5 spots in the same week. While the record breaking stats speak for themselves. Does this album live up to his legacy?

CLB gave us a little taste of past Drake albums. "Love All" and "Pipe Down" has a Nothing Was The Same vibe, while tracks like "Fountains" is reminiscent of Views. With a 21 song tracklist, including 15 (notable) features-- if this album has taught me anything-- it's that I have grown to appreciate Drake more as a feature artist (as opposed to a solo artist). He delivers better when his bars are limited, if not he'll just ramble. Getting more than one fire verse from Drake on a Drake track has become few and far between. A good example of this is "No Friends In This Industry," while it is one of my favorite tracks on this album, that third verse is a standout compared to the others.

The first half of the album lags, Drake gets introspective on opening tracks "Champagne Poetry" and "Papi's Home" --two tracks I was not impressed with in the least bit and would've preferred were left until the end of the album. While "Yebba's Heartbreak" although incredible both sonically and vocally-- was terribly misplaced. I felt it should've been pushed to the end of the album as a precursor to his more contemplative tracks like "The Remorse" "Champagne Poetry" or "Papi's Home."

A few of my most heavily visited tracks include: "No Friends in This Industry," "Race My Mind," "Knife Talk," "Get Along With Your Friends," and "You Only Live Twice."

"Race My Mind" was a track that really had me stuck (and still has me stuck)-- a quintessential Drake track, from verse to hook, it's a hit for the ladies, his strong suit. It's one of the few tracks that doesn't feel like Drake is too out of touch for me to identify with. While "Knife Talk" boasts a 21 Savage feature and with the help of Project Pat is nostalgic of a Three 6 Mafia track.

Aubrey has become notorious for some of his best tracks also being some of his shortest, the ones that leave us wanting more, not asking "damn this song still going?!" I would've liked THAT Drake to show up on CLB. There were a few tracks that could've been abridged to Drake-ludes--"Fair Trade" "F**king Fans" and "N 2 Deep". I feel like he gave us more than we needed with the full versions of these songs.

While "TSU" isn't a particularly outstanding track on this project, it has been one of the most controversial with a credit to R.Kelly as a songwriter. After doing some research I came across how this occurred-- 40 mentioned that the actual sample is of OG Ron C, however in the background, R.Kelly's "Half On A Baby" faintly plays. Although none of Kelly's vocals can be heard, because it is in the background he (Kelly) must still be credited. Why Drake and 40 didn't ask Ron to record new vocals is beyond me and has not been publicly addressed.

As Aaliyah's music has finally been added to streaming platforms, this brings into question how do we separate Kelly from Aaliyah? Where do we draw the line as fans? If a sample such as the one on Drake's "TSU" is unacceptable, how do we wade through listening to Aaliyah's discography, which is saturated with R.Kelly? As an Aaliyah fan, I've found it hard/weird to listen to her music in light of everything that is going on with R.Kelly present day. I think as a fan, and as an empathetic human, you have to ask yourself the question: Can I separate the artist from the music? And to what extent do I ignore their transgressions because they make good music? If the "TSU" sample has caused such outrage, for obvious reasons, then how do we go about separating R.Kelly from Aaliyah's work? I don't have an answer, just thoughts that have been plaguing me.

Although I did like the album for the most part. My overall problem with it is that there is no cohesiveness, it doesn't flow, it's in disarray. This isn't an album you could put on and let run straight through while you clean. It's more of a calculated shuffle, skipping the tracks that don't hit. I tend to start the album at "Pipe Down" or "No Friends in This Industry" and let it run until "You Only Live Twice" (love me a Rick Ross track).

While I do feel that the album title and the album's subject matter don't really align, and it does seem as though no thought was put into the order of the tracklist-- I honestly can't say I hate this album. But I will leave you with this question: "Has legacy alone become enough for an artist to break records? Regardless of whether or not the project is actually good?

Peep the rundown below...