Canadian rapper Drake's much anticipated sixth album “Certified Lover Boy” (CLB) is lazy and incoherent in its overall theme. Not to mention boringly long and definitely not one of his best albums.
For a man that made genuine and unforgettable albums like his 2011 “Take Care,” 2013 “Nothing Was the Same” and 2015 “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late,” Drake’s new project feels tired and aimless.
CLB feels more like a collection of decent single-worthy songs and not the mind-blowing, game-changing album that it was hyped up to be.
Much like most of Drake’s albums throughout the past five years, this album is overloaded.
It has 21 songs on the tracklist and the album is an hour-and-a-half bore of Drake’s crooning about ex lovers, flexing his wealth and having “fake friends” in the music industry.
While CLB is a bottom-tier entry on Drake’s vast 12-year catalogue, there’s still some noteworthy highlights.
Songs like “Love All,” “Fair Trade,” “Way 2 Sexy” and “TSU” have great replayability, memability and hold the potential to be amazing in concert.
Fair Trade will make partying anyone’s top priority while listening to its moshpit-worthy beat sampling of the September 2019 song “Mountains” by Canadian R&B singer-songwriter Charlotte Day Wilson.
Not to be outshone, rapper Travis Scott has a memorable autotune-filled solo in Fair Trade that sounds amazing with headphones blasting the music in your ears. His part will definitely blow out speakers with the hard bassline and aggressively quick raps that Scott’s famous for.
They end the song with the beat riding off in a church sermon-esque effect, making Fair Trade the best song on the album by far.
Way 2 Sexy features rappers Future and Young Thug on a beat sampling of the classic dance-pop song “I’m Too Sexy” by British band Right Said Fred.
It’s a weird song, but has a great electronic keyboard beat by record producers TM88 and TooDope that makes it stand out as a unique, innovative conversation piece.
The way Future pays homage to the original’s chorus of “I’m too sexy for my shirt. So sexy it hurts” is honestly just hilarious.
He raps lyrics stating he’s too sexy for “this syrup, your girl, this world, this ice, that jack, this chain, your gang, this fame, the trap and that cap.”
Future and Drake have the club vibe down pat and this song is another great addition to their list of popular collaborative songs such as “Jump Man,” “Love Me” and “Life is Good.”
“Get Along Better” with singer-songwriter and producer Ty Dolla Sign sounds great but when you look at the lyrical content, it just falls flat.
The song goes back to a stereotypical Drake song about liking a past lover’s friend better than her and it isn’t about revenge.
Like really Drake? Do I really want to listen to a 34-year-old man singing about this with another grown man? This song sounds more like a public argument with an ex than a song I want to replay.
Let’s also talk about Drake’s lazy album art. Nine pregnant women emojis on a white background is questionable to say the least and leaves the audience wondering what Drake is alluding to.
With pregnant women on the cover, this album would assumedly be about the growth Drake has gone through as a musician since the release of his last album “Scorpion” in 2018.
He’s become a father and has lived through a global pandemic.
In his introductory song “Champagne Poetry,” Drake says “Career is going great, but now the rest of me is fading slowly.”
Drake is definitely fading slowly, but so is his career.
