Drake’s Certified Lover Boy is officially here!
The 34-year-old rapper’s sixth full-length studio album dropped early Friday morning over a year after it was first announced. The release was delayed for months after it was originally promised for January.
“CLB FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE EVERYWHERE @ 2AM EST,” Drake announced at midnight on Instagram with hand-written copy of the tracklist.
Fellow artists including JAY-Z, Travis Scott, Lil’ Wayne, Future, Young Thug, 21 Savage, Ty Dolla $ign, Kid Cudi, Rick Ross, Lil Baby, and Project Pat all appear on the 21-song album. Nicki Minaj also performs a spoken word cameo on “Papi’s Home.”
CLB, the follow-up to Drake’s 2018 album Scorpion, is full of inventive twists. The fifth song, “Love All” featuring JAY-Z, begins with a sampling of the “Life After Death Intro” from Notorious B.I.G.’s 1997 album, while “Way 2 Sexy” plays with the 1991 hit “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred.
For “Champagne Poetry,” the first track on CLB, Drake credited John Lennon and Paul McCartney as co-writers for sampling The Beatles’ “Michelle” from 1965 on the track. R. Kelly received a composer/lyricist credit on “TSU” as well.
The four-time Grammy winner dedicated CLB in part to the late Nadia Ntuli and Mercedes Morr. Complex reported that Ntuli was a friend of Drake’s who died in a motor vehicle accident earlier this year, while Morr was allegedly killed in a murder-suicide in August.
“A combination of toxic masculinity and acceptance of truth which is inevitably heartbreaking. Executive produced by me, Noah ’40’ Shebib, Oliver El-Khatib, and Noel Cadastre. Dedicated to Nadia Ntuli and Mercedes Morr. RIP 💖,” Drake wrote of the album in a note for Apple Music.
Shortly before the release of his sixth studio album, Drake’s mom Sandi Graham penned a poem-like letter to her son in celebration of the new music. The rapper shared a snapshot of the card on Instagram.
“It’s finally come, the countdown has reached one, with each new album my heart skips a beat, being your mother has been my life’s greatest treat,” wrote Graham, 61. “It’s been a long hard road together, now there’s one more day to go. I wanna celebrate you son, more than you’ll ever know.”
“Love you more now and forever,” she signed the note.