Certified Lover Boy
October 6, 2021
On Sept. 2, 2021, Drake released his sixth studio album, “Certified Lover Boy.” Drake hoped to drop CLB to add to the ongoing conflict between him and Kanye West. Following the release of Kanye West’s album, “Donda,” Drake released CLB five days later. Three days after its release, CLB sold more than Donda, selling more than 613,000 copies in the first week. However, just because it has a high number of sales, does not mean that the album is by any means good.
Certified Lover Boy reflects Drake’s unwillingness to commit to a long-term relationship, considering how he must maintain his rap career while dealing with an unplanned pregnancy and fatherhood. Drake is also expressive of his ego with his established name and popularity within rap. There are occasional high points in the album that are enjoyable to listen to, but the majority of this album consists of an overused amount of filler and repetition, making the listening experience of CLB extremely tedious.
CLB is an hour and 26-minute album that consists of 21 songs; most of which are very dull. There are many lengthy, similar-sounding R&B songs scattered throughout the album with a few songs that are more thrilling. CLB has the feel of another typical Drake album, with nothing new or different added. The album contains numerous mediocre songs. Even one of Drake’s biggest fans, DJ Akademiks, fell asleep on a live stream listening to the album.
There are a few instances where Drake manages to slide some odd lyricism in the album. The most notable being the third track of the album, “Girls Want Girls,” where Drake may have spit one of the worst lines in rap history: “Yeah, say that you a lesbian, girl, me too.’’ There was a repeating theme of other artists carrying Drake on his own track. Features such as Future on “Way 2 Sexy” and Travis Scott on “Fair Trade” overlook the mediocrity of the rest of Drake’s part of the track. The album feels like a repeat of his previous albums, Views and Scorpion. But with CLB, there aren’t any standout songs that make the album any more unique to his others. Because there aren’t many very memorable songs on this album, CLB is not going to hold any longevity for the future.
Certified Lover Boy is not a standout album compared to the rest of Drake’s discography.
The album as a whole is quite bland and lacks excitement. Drake compacted the album with filler content targeted toward marketing in response to Kanye’s release, rather than creating a well-put-together project.
