CLB has officially been out for three weeks now and it’s about time we do a deep dive into the album and give it a review. Certified Lover Boy is Toronto-born artist Drake’s 6th studio album and first since 2018. The hype for this album has been insane since its initial reveal in 2019 and subsequent release data reveal on August 30th, competing directly with fellow rap superstar Kanye West’s newest album Donda. On its release on September 3rd, it broke several all-time streaming records including the record for the most-streamed album on Spotify in a single day. But ultimately is CLB worth all the hype?

The opening song “Champagne Poetry” sets the mood quite nicely for the mostly R&B & Gospel inspired album, featuring samples from gospel musician Gabriel S. Hardeman Jr’s song “Until I Find The Lord” and Jamaican-American artist Masego’s song “Navajo”. It’s quite reminiscent of a song you would’ve found on Drake’s 2016 album Views with its display of descriptive delivery, speaking about his struggles in life, success, trust in his team, and relationship to his son amidst rumors that had been circulated about him wanting to hide his existence from the public eye. The beat switch that happens mid-way through the song is absolutely heavenly and not many other words would be appropriate to describe it honestly. The 2nd song on the project was called “Papi’s Home”. Drake begins the song by directly calling out other artists calling them his “sons” and proclaiming that he is back. The Supah Mario produced track samples Montell Jordan’s 1995 hit “Daddy’s Home”. Drake is at his best on this one, subtly dissing his rivals in the industry claiming he doesn’t need big pop features to do big numbers, and basically calls every rapper nowadays a clone of him. You can feel the arrogance in his lyrics, but who can truly say what he is saying is wrong?

As you continue down the 21 song project it’s apparent that it boasts a star-studded feature list, with contributions from the likes of Lil Wayne, Travis Scott, 21 Savage, Future, Lil Durk, and many more. While all the guest features make solid efforts the ones that stuck out to me were from “Way 2 Sexy” and “You Only Live Twice”. “Way 2 Sexy” featuring Young Thug and Future is a club banger song; I totally expect this to be played throughout parties all over the world in the coming months. The song’s hard-hitting and synth-filled instrumental produced by TM88 and TooDope paired with the obvious influence from British pop group Right Said Fred’s 1991 hit single “I’m Too Sexy” creates a catchy and meme-worthy song you’re going to be forced to hear everywhere whether you like it or not. Also, the wild music video for the track was recently released and of all people it started NBA star and former Toronto Raptors player Kawhi Leonard, so trust me the memes will be plentiful.

 “You Only Live Twice” featuring Lil Wayne and Rick Ross is a sequel to Drake’s 2011 hit song “The Motto”. Brian Reid and Bink produced the instrumental in which they sample The Brothers of Soul’s 1968 song “Can’t Get You Off My Mind” giving it a vintage soul feel. The song feels like a classic Drake song, with his tantalizing flow and wordplay being complimented very well by his guest appearances. The combination of Drake and Lil Wayne is historically undefeated, and with Rick Ross mixed in rapping like it’s 2012 you can’t go wrong.

The standout song was "Girls Want Girls" with Lil Baby. Drake absolutely bodies this song, with the most quotable line being "Yeah say that you a lesbian, girl, me too". The line is funny but it pretty much sums up the entire song, showing Drake's love for beautiful women in a beautiful display of vocal skill backed by a smooth 40, OZ, and Ambezza produced instrumental. Drake is at his best when he sings, and he is in his bag on this one. Lil Baby's feature is just the icing on the cake, whenever Baby and Drake link up on a track you know it's going to break records.

Overall, CLB as an entire body of work is much better than his last album Scorpion. There’s much more going on in this project, more complex themes for songs, more real story-driven lyrics, and overall more feels. It lacks some of the hard-hitting songs he has on albums like Views and Nothing Was The Same but overall Certified Lover Boy is a unique look at Drake’s life through his own eyes. Only time will tell if it truly will be considered a classic album. Stream it below.