Drake ,After months of speculation, delays and heart-shaped haircuts — and a surprisingly tight lid on the content — Drake’s new studio album, “Certified Lover Boy,” has finally arrived… an hour behind its expected release time, coming in at 1 a.m. ET instead of midnight. For an album he first promised would come out a year ago, what’s 60 extra minutes?
His guest list for the project includes Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Lil Baby, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Young Thug, Future, 21 Savage, Tems, Project Pat, Yebba, Giveon and Ty Dolla $ign.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney are credited as co-writers on the opening track, “Champagne Poetry,” for an interpolation of the Beatles’ “Michelle.” Likely more controversially, the legally and morally embattled R. Kelly gets a credit on “TSU,” which also lists Justin Timberlake and Timberland as co-writers. Later on the album, “Way 2 Sexy” makes use of Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy,” among many other interpolations on the album. “Papi’s Home” includes borrowings from Montel Jordan’s “Daddy’s Home.”
The track list wasn’t revealed until two hours before the album’s release, when it appeared in handwritten form on Drake’s Instagram account, and even then it didn’t include mention of the featured artists. However, Drake did end up teasing most of those in the 48 hours leading up to “CLB” being delivered, in an unusual billboard campaign — with something that was closer to Taylor Swift’s cloaked penchant for Easter eggs than Kanye West’s multiple public work-in-progress playbacks.
Starting on Wednesday, Drake’s fans in the social media world were discovering and sharing what was presumably a low-budget promo campaign that went highly viral: a series of billboards around the country (and in at least one case, overseas in Ethiopia) that offered subtle or strong hints of who the guests on the album would be, primarily based around putting said billboards up in those artists’ hometowns.
The track list:
1. Champagne Poetry
2. Papi’s Home
3. Girls Want Girls ft. Lil Baby
4. In the Bible ft. Lil Durk & Giveon
5. Love All ft. Jay-Z
6. Fair Trade ft. Travis Scott
7. Way 2 Sexy ft. Future & Young Thug
8. TSU
9. N 2 Deep ft. Future
10. Pipe Down
11. Yebba’s Heartbreak
12. No Friends in the Industry
13. Knife Talk ft. 21 Savage & Project Pat
14. 7am on Bridle Path
15. Race My Mind
16. Fountains ft. Tems
17. Get Along Better ft. Ty Dolla $ign
18. You Only Live Twice ft. Rick Ross & Lil Wayne
19. IMY2 ft. Kid Cudi
20. Fucking Fans
21. The Remorse
