DRAKE’S long-awaited new album, Certified Lover Boy, dropped this week.
Yet eagle-eyed fans have already begun pouring over everything from THAT pregnancy Emoji icon cover to explosive lyrics about Kanye West and Ayesha Curry and even a credit for disgraced R Kelly – here we get the 21-track album lowdown.
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CERTIFIED LOVER BOY PREGNANCY EMOJI ICON COVER
Drake, 34, left listeners baffled with the bizarre album artwork – designed by British artist Damien Hirst – featuring 12 Emojis of pregnant women.
However, one fan reckons they’ve cracked a clue which they claim references the album’s delay.
They think the pregnant women emojis and the fact it’s being released on Labor Day weekend relate to the album being nine months late.
Drake – real name Aubrey Drake Graham – had initially intended to drop Certified Lover Boy in January this year – but instead it hit shelves on Friday, September 3.
The fan tweeted: “This CLB cover makes so much sense because the album is 9 MONTHS late and is coming out over LABOR day weekend….
“Drake a genius fr.”
CERTIFIED LOVER BOY NAME
The exact reason why Drake called the album Certified Lover Boy is yet to be revealed, but it is probably down to his reputation as a ladies man.
The rapper is known for his love of the opposite sex and has a fair few notches on his bedpost.
Therefore Certified Lover Boy could be referring to his Lothario image.
Over the years Drake has dated everyone from Rihanna to Jennifer Lopez.
MOCKING KANYE WEST – 7AM ON BRIDAL PATH
Drake’s bombshell album announcement came on the heels of Kanye West finally delivering his 10th studio album, Donda.
The two rappers’ long-running nasty feud has led to Drake’s fans reportedly vandalizing Kanye’s childhood home in Chicago.
And in Certified Lover Boy itself, Drake appeared to throw huge shade on Kanye in track 7am On Bridal Path – where he references a rapper who is also a designer – just like Yeezy founder Kanye.
The title references the Toronto neighborhood in which Drake resides, in what could well be a nod to the time Kanye leaked Champagne Papi’s home address on social media, before quickly deleting the post.
Drake chants out: “I can give a **k about who designing your sneakers and tees.
“Have somebody put you on a Gildan, you play with my seed.”
Gildan T-Shirts are the tops Kanye prints most of his merchandise on.
Kanye and Drake have been feuding for years, ever since Drake appeared to insinuate that he had sex with Kanye’s now-ex Kim Kardashian.
On his track, In My Feelings, Drake rapped about having sex with a woman called Kiki, which is Kim’s family nickname.
The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star denied the rumors about Drake in a response to In My Feelings.
TSU TRACK – R KELLY CREDIT
One of Drake’s newest songs includes TSU and while Urban Dictionary defines the term as “Tear S*** Up,” that’s not what Drake had in mind.
After going through the lyrics, it seems that Drake’s TSU stands for Texas Southern University and the “TSU ladies” could be in reference to the female students at the school.
Despite the popularity of the song, fans became outraged when they found out that the disgraced singer R. Kelly was credited to the song as the controversial move comes while Kelly is currently standing trial in New York on child sex abuse charges.
One Twitter user wrote: “R. Kelly, while currently on trial for sexual abuse of countless Black women and girls, is going to be making money off the most anticipated album of the year thanks to Drake giving him a songwriting credit on #CertifiedLoverBoy And that’s why both #CLB and #DONDA are trash.”
Kelly’s credit is due to song publishing rights as TSU samples his 1998 single “Half on a Baby.”
In order to use the samples from Kelly’s song, Drake had to acquire legal permission as well as give him songwriting royalties.
OTHER POPSTAR CREDITS ON CERTIFIED LOVER BOY
Justin Timberlake is also credited on the new album because Drake uses NSYNC’s version of Christopher Cross’s “Sailing.”
John Lennon and Paul McCartney are credited as co-writers on the opening track, Champagne Poetry, for an interpolation of the Beatles’ Michelle.
WHO IS AYESHA CURRY ON TRACK RACE MY MIND?
NBA star Stephen Curry’s wife, Ayesha Curry, found herself trending on Twitter shortly after Certified Lover Boy’s release.
She was name-dropped on track Race My Mind, in which Drake states: “Post of that pic you sent me, it wasn’t recent enough/How I’m supposed to wife you if you ain’t Ayesha enough.”
Twitter fans went crazy with the reference dubbing it the “f**k boy caption of the year.”
One wrote: “When your name is trending in a good way! (Shout out to Ayesha Curry) It’s our time girls, get those captions ready!!’
Another added: “How I’m supposed to wife if you not Ayesha enough. Steph got himself a keeper we already knew.”
RECORD BREAKING BOY
Following the release of Drake’s sixth album, his songs “Girls Want Girls (feat. Lil Baby),” “Champagne Poetry,” and “Fair Trade” (feat. Travis Scott) all broke Apple Music’s one-day song streaming records.
Billboard also reported that CLB also broke Apple Music’s all-time album streaming record in a 24-hour period and “helped Drake become the the service’s most-streamed artist in a day for 2021.”
The company also reported that CLB also broke Spotify records by becoming the most-streamed album in a single day.
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