Drake hits back at haters with ‘Certified Lover Boy’

As billboards popped up unexpectedly across the country, it meant one thing: Drake was finally back. 

“Certified Lover Boy,” his first studio album since the release of “Scorpion” in 2018, comes at a time when he’s still one of the hottest names in the music industry. With this album, Drake addresses his beef with Kanye West, delivers hits that get stuck in your head and fires back at rappers envious of his success. 

“Certified Lover Boy,” CLB to fans, is a great success. It’s an album powerful enough to satisfy his die-hard fan base and one that further cements his status in hip-hop. 

CLB has everything you’d expect from a Drake album — catchy lyrics like “I’ve been losin’ friends and findin’ peace / But honestly that sound like a fair trade to me,” and emotional woes like “So much s*** I wanted to say, straight to your face / But you’re so two-faced, that I don’t know which face.” There are focused tracks like “No Friends In The Industry,” that highlight Drake’s unique rapping on rapid beats and chart-toppers like “Way 2 Sexy,” that highlight Drake’s ability to turn bizarre songs into ones that will live in your head. At the end of the album, listeners know that Drake can still hold his own, even if naysayers claim he’s past his prime.  

From the opening track, “Champagne Poetry,” we get a bubbly beat reminiscent of Drake’s memorable intros to his older studio albums. It’s no “Over My Dead Body” or “Tuscan Leather,” but it gets the job done. It sets the tone for the album — Drake reflecting while praising himself. It’s clear from the first bar of the album: “I been hot since the birth of my son / I remain unfazed, trust, worse has been done.”

By the time you reach the sixth song on the album, it’s obvious Drake is determined to quiet his haters. At age 34 though, being locked in doesn’t mean it’s his best work. 

Many tracks, even in Drake terms, were forgettable. “Girls Want Girls” with Lil Baby is an example of an opportunity lost — even with its truly catchy chorus and trademark Drake verse. “In The Bible” with Lil Durk and Giveon is a poorly constructed track with a short 40-second verse from Lil Durk and a majority of the beat wasted with more short verses. “Race My Mind,” “F****** Fans” and “Get Along Better” with Ty Dolla $ign seem out of place and incomplete in overall production. 

One can argue “Love All” with Jay-Z is the best song on the album, especially with the “Life After Death” intro and simple percussion behind the beat. Drake’s reflective “People never care ‘til it’s R.I.P.,” chorus is an observation on the culture of rappers. He implies many in the rap game tear each other down, then celebrate one another when they pass away. It could be Drake anticipating fellow rappers appreciating him more once he’s gone  after disrespecting him now. 

After “Yebba’s Heartbreak,” CLB shifts from slow melodic somber songs to fast-flowing verses. Drake continues the trend of dismissing his haters. One of the highlights of the second half  of the album is the three-song rotation of “No Friends In The Industry,” “Knife Talk” and “7am On Bridle Path.” They prove that Drake’s wordplay and rapping are still legendary. 

The Lil Wayne and Rick Ross collaboration on “You Only Live Twice” is a phenomenal track with glowing verses from each artist. The bouncy beat plus the speed of the vocals and track are reminiscent of a fast drive on the highway. 

Most memorable, though, is how the feud with rap mogul Kanye West advanced on “7AM On Bridle Path,” with specific shots taken at West. 

In the build-up to his album “Donda,” West added fuel to the beef, releasing Drake’s address on his Instagram. Then, he posted a screenshot of a group chat with eight people, including rapper Pusha T and allegedly Drake, where West writes: “I live for this … You will never recover. I promise you.” 

Drake doesn’t shy away from his response to Yeezy, a theme of the album. He attacks the leak of his address directly with ​​the bar “Give that address to your driver, make it your destination, / ‘Stead of just a post out of desperation.”

“7am On Bridle Path” is fiery, similar to “No Friends In The Industry” where Drake wonders why so many in the rap game continue to despise his level of achievement. Rapping over a dark sample, Drake and his cockiness ooze through his tone and fast-paced rapping. 

“No Friends In The Industry” is Drake’s most aggressive attempt at rejecting his haters. Its beat is loud enough to shake your car’s speakers too. Like so many Drake songs, his main message is in the chorus when he raps: “No friends in the industry / I had to draw the line between my brothers and my enemies, a fact.” 

He then uses track star Sha’Carri Richardson’s marijuana scandal to imply he can defeat his enemies: “And I’m like Sha’Carri, smoke ‘em on and off the track (Aye).” 

His final verse of the track takes another shot at Kanye when rapping: “Better find ya someone else to hit with all that smoke, n****, yeah / And all them tweets and all them posts / Ain’t got the type of time to be playin’ with you folk / I had a Richard prior to these n*****, that’s the joke.” 

In the final bar, Drake uses wordplay with “Richard” referring to expensive Richard Mille watches and “prior” to the comedian Richard Pryor. Drake implies his previous “beefs” with rappers weren’t necessary for his growth since he’s already famous enough to own a Richard Mille. It’s emphasized with the phrase: “that’s the joke.” 

CLB shows why Drake has been relevant in the rap game for over a decade. It’s another Drake album full of lyrics that will populate Instagram captions for months. His versatility is on full display with the balance of soft singing and rapid rapping. 

When all is said and done rappers will dream of replicating the rapper’s run. And CLB proves Drake is far from done.