Three years after the release of his fifth album Scorpion, Drake finally dropped his much-awaited Certified Lover Boy on Friday, responding to Kanye West’s throwing down of the gauntlet, Donda.
The feud may be far from over between these two self-obsessed artists who generously commercialise their self-indulgence. But unbiased listening to both the albums reveals a clear winner of this round.
With 21 songs and a length that exceeds the average Hollywood film (almost 90 minutes), Drake has continued his tradition of collaborating with some of his most revered peers and crediting music legends for their songwriting chops. His roster of collaborators includes Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, Lil Baby, Future, Young Thug, 21 Savage, Tems, Project Pat, Yebba, Giveon, and Ty Dolla $ign. Yet, the album could have easily been a tighter, 13-14 song outing that is richer and more focused. But what is Drake without a self-centred motive?
Certified Lover Boy has some good moments and — as we have been accustomed to — the album is really a sum of its parts than a whole in itself. But are those parts enough for it to pass the muster?
Let us first look at what works for it.
The album does have some interesting new numbers albeit with that unmissable sense of deja vu: Standalone tracks like 'Champagne Poetry,' 'Papi’s Home,' 'Pipe Down,' and 'No Friends In The Industry' are earnest and very typical of the Drake stable of vocal accents and songwriting. 'Champagne Poetry' features an up-tempo sampling of The Beatles’ 'Michelle' and one has to acknowledge that it really does work in a way that only Drake can pull off.
His track with Yebba, titled 'Yebba’s Heartbreak,' is another glorious mover that makes you feel like it should have been placed higher up in this increasingly distended album. Coming at 11th position, the song is at the halfway mark of what eventually ends up being yet another ego trip from Drake. He sings about not having any friends in the industry, and cautions that 'You Only Live Twice.' He continues his charm offensive with the female population, and in distinct Drake style, he can insult and cajole in the same album, making you wonder if he is too woke for you or if you are just pre-disposed to getting your knickers in a twist.
A good listen to 'Girls Want Girls' and 'F***ing Fans' can make the most ardent of Drake fans cringe, and that is just the start of the cringe fest. Singing casually of wanting to get it on with a lesbian and her partner, or crooning about getting intimate with groupies, is par for the course not just for Drake, but the entire rap genre itself. There is a brazenness to sexcapades that forms the bedrock of rap music, yet Drake has always managed to project himself as a quintessential outlier character who just happens be on top of the game. He is frequently misogynistic, but you know, with a smile.
With Certified Lover Boy, has Drake gone too far? It depends entirely on what you find more assaulting to your senses. For me, it is not the crassness of some lyrics or the audacious nature of some of the singing.
It is insulting that after all these years and enough time since the announcement of this album (over a year), Drake continues to peddle the same rant around how awesome is his talent, how simple he is, and how he deserves every bit of our attention and sympathy.
Can you take him seriously enough when he simply continues to repeat a formula that has hitherto worked for him? A decade or so in the industry, churning out the same template over and over, is bound to backfire after a point. Is Certified Lover Boy going to be the watershed moment that will push Drake back to the storyboard? For his sake, I hope so.
There are copious amounts of corniness and his peculiar brand of pseudointellectual talking. Sampling from anti-vaxxer Right Said Fred for the seventh song 'Way 2 Sexy' was questionable enough but Certified Lover Boy follows it up with 'TSU,' a song with writing credits being given to R Kelly. For a song that also sees a credit to Justin Timberlake, it appears that legal compulsions may have forced Drake to list infamous sex offender Kelly’s name but it does cause a dent to Drake’s carefully constructed image of being a champion of women’s causes. The album is bloated enough for one to simply drop any reference of Kelly without impacting the rest of the offering, but clearly, Drake and his team felt Kelly’s offenses notwithstanding, the song must make the cut.
Certified Lover Boy is an almost 90-minute experience of navel gazing that might work with his fans who remain reluctant to admit to the sameness of Drake’s works. It lacks some of the refreshing sonic elements of Donda, and seems like a Ctrl C + Ctrl V job of his greatest hits.
The writing was on the wall, in this case, the album cover. The Damien Hirst-designed New Age homage to typical multicolour pop art panels, is not even eye-catching. It is at best the job of a primary schooler who got his hands on his mum’s phone. We can only respond with the best emoji of the day: the eyeroll.
Listen to Certified Lover Boy here.
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