Ade Adedapo ’23
Contributor
On September 3, 2021, Canadian rapper Drake dropped his highly anticipated 7th studio album, Certified Lover Boy, for the world to enjoy. Initially expected to be released in January of 2020, just before Valentine’s Day, the rapper postponed due to an unexpected knee injury. Here is an analysis and review of the album, as well as some statistics, records broken, and sales amassed by the album amassed since its September release.
The Track List
Certified Lover Boy is not an instant classic like Nothing was the Same (2014) or Views (2016). Despite this, it’s a good album; it just hasn’t had the time to age like the others. CLB is a 21-track album, staying consistent with Drake’s streak of releasing longer albums. The album has a total of 15 featured artists, which includes the likes of Lil Baby, Future, and Lil Durk. 12 songs have features, while nine are solo tracks. Before CLB’s release, Drake said that the album would be mostly a rap album, with a few RnB and Afrobeat/Dancehall style songs. However, the album is quite diverse. Drake included RnB style tracks such as “Girls want Girls” and “Papi’s Home,” rapping tracks including the Jay-Z assisted “Love All,” and one sole Afrobeat track, “Fountains.” The diversity of genres make the album a very easy listen. Drake did a respectable job of including the best quality work that would appeal to both casual and longtime listeners.
Sales and Statistics
In terms of sales and statistics, CLB did extraordinarily well. Drake’s 7th studio album sold 613,000 units in its first week alone. This is the largest number of units sold in the first week of any album’s release this year. Nine of Drake’s CLB songs were in the Billboard Top 10. Certified Lover Boy also broke the single-day album streaming record on Spotify with 153 million global streams, crushing his 2018 album Scorpion (which had 132 million streams in 24 hours). Certified Lover Boy In terms of sales and statistics, CLB did extraordinarily well. Drake’s 7th studio album sold 613,000 units in its first week alone. This is the largest number of units sold in the first week of any album’s release this year. Nine of Drake’s CLB songs were in the Billboard Top 10. Certified Lover Boy also broke the single-day album streaming record on Spotify with 153 million global streams, crushing his 2018 album Scorpion (which had 132 million streams in 24 hours).
Final Verdict
Though not his best work, Drake’s CLB was very well done. Statistics- and sales-wise, however, Drake went beyond what anyone thought he could do. The final grade of Drake’s Certified Lover Boy is a solid 8.5/10, and yes, CLB is better than Donda.
Photo source: Spotify
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