Drake’s Certified Lover Boy was seemingly destined to shatter streaming records after its announcement late last year.
Along with securing the highest-streamed single-day debut ever on both Apple Music and Spotify Sept. 3, the platinum-selling album had the biggest debut for any project in 2021, earning the top spot on the Billbord Top 200 with 613,000 units sold in its first week.
Drizzy’s reign atop the charts would continue for three straight weeks, until CLB was dethroned by NBA YoungBoy on Oct. 1. CLB would eventually reclaim it for a fourth week, only to fall to Young Thug’s PUNK in its opening weekend. However, as the 6 God continues his commercial tear, Certified Lover Boy sold 74,000 units in its fifth week, securing a the top spot on the Billboard Top 200 for the fifth time this year.
.@Drake's 'Certified Lover Boy' to return to #1 on the US albums chart for a fifth week with 74K sold, first rap album to spend 5 weeks at #1 this year (via @HITSDD).
— chart data (@chartdata) October 29, 2021
CLB contains a star-studded tracklist of 21 songs, including stellar features from close collaborators in Jay-Z, Travis Scott, Lil Wayne, Future, Rick Ross, Young Thug, Giveon and several others.
With highlights in “No Friends In The Industry,” “Way 2 Sexy,” “Fair Trade,” “Race My Mind” and “You Only Live Twice,” Drizzy is back in his feels on CLB, taking elements throughout his discography and combining all eras of his sound into one.
What’s a new Drizzy album without a meme-worthy music video? “Way 2 Sexy” features Drake, Young Thug and Future in a variety of scenes that act as an ode to lover boys everywhere. Thug portrays a calendar model, Drake advertises a new fragrance called “Wet” and Future holds it down in the bando. A cameo from Clippers’ star Kawhi Leonard also provides comic relief to the visual.
With production from Metro Boomin, Masego, Noah ‘40’ Shebib and others, CLB is a self-service punchline from Drake himself, speaking on industry ties, his past feelings of longtime remorse and featuring his signature lustful bars. Drake resides in a mixed bag of sounds, hopping on 70s Soul sample cuts and atmospheric new wave bangers alike.
His voice cuts through with boss-like assertion as listeners hang onto every word. With unique flows and versatile switch-ups, the good definitely outweighs the bad on CLB, as Drake’s sixth studio album feels like a continuation of his greatest hits with stellar production to tie it all together.
Stream Certified Lover Boy below!
Drake delays ‘CLB’ until 2 a.m. EST
In great anticipation of Drake’s upcoming album Certified Lover Boy — which was minutes away from release — Drizzy threw fans a curveball, delaying the album just a bit longer.
Set to release at 2 a.m. EST, OVO Sound took to social media to present the album’s official tracklist scribbled on a song approval sheet.
CLB FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE EVERYWHERE @ 2AM EST @Drake pic.twitter.com/HkHUQrHlBX
— OVO Sound (@OVOSound) September 3, 2021
While fans have to wait a few more hours for Drake’s “Certified” era to begin, the air around its release feels a bit tense in spite of Drake and Kanye West’s lingering rivalry. As two GOATS put their projects head-to-head, listeners have certainly been blessed with some incredible music this past week.
Drake announces ‘CLB’ to release Sept. 3
Early Monday morning (Aug. 30), Drake took to Instagram to clear up the rumors surrounding his upcoming LP — officially announcing Certifed Lover Boy will release on Friday (Sept. 3).
TIDAL’s chief content officer Elliot Wilson has also confirmed that the photo in the post is the album’s cover art, however, Drake has yet to release a tracklist. Fans finally see a light at the end of the tunnel for the album they have been waiting for since January.
Addiotnally, a batch of CLB billboards have been spread across the country as well as in Drake’s native Toronto, essentially confirming the album’s feature list this weekend. Check it out below.
‘Certified Lover Boy’ billboards have appeared across the country revealing #Drake’s presumed feature list 👀 #OGM
— Our Generation Music (@OGMusicCo) September 2, 2021
🎙 @youngthug
🎙 @1future
🎙 @21savage
🎙 @lilbaby4PF
🎙 @sc
🎙 @lildurk
🎙 @giveon
🎙 @tydollasign
+ read more ✍️: https://t.co/B9mwB5Uqh5 pic.twitter.com/iAzV7UUUFd
When can we expect Certified Lover Boy?
It has been over half a year since Drake delayed his upcoming sixth studio album Certified Lover Boy. To be frank, the anticipation is driving fans crazy. But, recent events led many to believe that the album is on the horizon and could be releasing soon.
Friday morning (Aug. 27) on ESPN’s SportsCenter broadcast, a glitchy interruption came on the screen with a cryptic sign showing “CLB SEPTEMBER 3” on it.
While this was not a clear confirmation of a release date, fans speculated that this was a ploy influenced by the movie “The Dark Knight,” where the Joker uses cunning mind games in his quest against his rival Batman and the entire city of Gotham, with Drake and Kanye West both having for Joker-like tendencies in the past week.
SportCenter even took to Twitter to issue a statement on the matter, explaining the quirk in the broadcast was a technical difficulty. This could also be an indication that ESPN is playing along with the Joker-influenced antics, and could even be involved with Drake’s album rollout.
These developments recently began when Drake subbed West in a bar on Trippie Redd‘s album Trip At Knight from last weekend on the song “Betrayal,” explaining that he will stand firm in an release date regardless of when Kanye releases his long-awaited DONDA album. GOOD Music member and Kanye-affiliate Consequence, as well as Ye, soon took offense to this, as Consequence tweeted a response while Kanye mysteriously posted a screenshot of a group chat on Instagram, where he supposedly addresses the diss with Joker allusions.
The shots Drake took at Kanye, however, would mean nothing if they didn’t release their albums on the same day. But, fuel was added to the fire Thursday (Aug. 26), before Kanye West’s fourth DONDA showcase listening party in Chicago, when fans noticed the pre-save page on Apple Music for the album changed to show that the expected release date is now Sept. 3.
However, Kanye West ultimately ended up releasing his album on Aug. 29. But, this is still the biggest week for music all year, as Drizzy will now release his album five days after West.
