Certified Lover Boy

Drake Announces Upcoming Shows In New York & Toronto

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Drake Sheds a Tear as Kanye West Performed "Runaway"

Drake must have some huge news on the way as he just announced upcoming live shows in New York City and Toronto during the latest episode of OVO Sound Radio on Sirus XM, shared by Elliott Wilson via social media on Saturday morning (March 12). 

MORE: Report: Drake Is The Most Streamed Artist This Year; YoungBoy Never Broke Again No.2

“This is Drake, coming to you live on Sounds42 Sirus XM,“ said Drake on the show. “I’m excited to let all my people know that we’re working on something really special for you guys. Putting together two shows, one in New York and a few in Toronto. They’re gonna be something different, something that I’ve never done before. Gonna be a highly interactive experience. My brothers will be there, it’s gonna be great to see y’all, hopefully get a chance to speak with you, [and] hopefully learn a little more about each other. I’ll have the dates for that coming soon, I can’t wait.”

The announcement marks Drake’s first full show since his December 2019 Assassination Vacation Tour. After that, Drake has only performed as a special guest with Travis Scott at last year’s Astro World Festival in Houston and Ye’s benefit concert for Larry Hoover in Los Angeles last December. 

Mixed by guest DJ, GoHomeRoger, the episode included new music by superstars like King Von, Kodak Black, Rowdy Rebel, Lil Durk, and uprising artists like Yeat, Central Cee, BlueBucksClan, and Skeng. Review the complete playlist below.

MORE:DJ Khaled Celebrates Getting Drake’s NOCTA Hot Step Sneaker Earl

Along with the news of upcoming shows, the latest episode in the show’s fourth season promoted the forthcoming release of the new season of the Drake executive-produced crime drama series, Top Boy, starting March 18 on Netflix. The popular series stars Ashley Walters, Kano, Shone Romulus, Micheal Ward, and Little Simz. 

On Thursday, Chart Data revealed Drake is the most-streamed artist of the year with 1.4 billion streams. On top of the top 10 list, Drake surpasses seven other hip hop stars, including NBA Youngboy, JuiceWrld, Kanye West, Eminem, Kodak Black, and Rod Wave. In other news, Drake’s latest album, Certified Lover Boy, was the only hip-hop album to reach double platinum in 2021, RIAA reports.

Hear the full OVO Sound Radio Season 4, Episode 5 below.

The post Drake Announces Upcoming Shows In New York & Toronto appeared first on The Source.

Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Is The Only Rap Album Of 2021 To Reach Double-Platinum

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Over a decade into his rap career, Drake continues to break records and set standards for everyone else in the rap game to follow. His latest achievement was reported by the Chart Data Twitter account, which noted that the Canadian star’s latest album Certified Lover Boy recently crossed the double-platinum threshold — and became the only rap album released in 2021 to do so.

This makes Certified Lover Boy Drake’s sixth consecutive multi-platinum album, as well as the third best-selling album of the year behind country star Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album (I guess America really does love its casual racism) and Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour. The rap albums CLB outsold include Kanye West’s Donda, J. Cole’s The Off-Season, Lil Nas X’s Montero, Moneybagg Yo’s A Gangsta’s Pain, and Polo G’s Hall Of Fame, which were all among the widely accepted Best Rap Albums Of 2021.

Although Drake’s sales momentum doesn’t appear to be slowing down with his sixth album, a recent study — albeit a very unscientific one — found that runners listening to Drake’s music ran slower on average, which is something to keep in mind as we all chase those New Year’s fitness resolutions. Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed 6 God continues to showcase his cultural ubiquity this year with an appearance on Aaliyah’s upcoming posthumous album Unstoppable.

Drake Posted An Adorable Video Horsing Around With His Son Adonis On Christmas Eve

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Drake’s relationship with his son, Adonis, has been well-documented at this point. As a single father, Drake shares custody of the toddler with Sophie Brussaux, although the couple aren’t together. Still, it isn’t every day we get to see Drizzy in full-on father mode, so a clip he shared of himself and Adonis horsing around on the floor on Christmas Eve is a sweet look into their dynamic. “I’m going to get up, I gotta get out of this,” Drake laughs, as Adonis and another child pin him to the floor, then climb up on his back as he tries to stand up.

“Merry Christmas From The Gang,” Drake captioned the post. Whatever else might be going on in Drake’s life, it seems like his 4-year-old son is having the time of his life giggling and playing with his dad during the holidays. Like plenty of other musicians, Drake has mostly been lying low during Covid-19 since touring is such a risky thing at the moment. He did emerge briefly to release his sixth full-length album, Certified Lover Boy this summer, and then again for a massive face off concert with Kanye earlier this month, but perhaps he’s been enjoying the chance to spend more time with his child like plenty of other parents are during the pandemic.

Drake Has Withdrawn Both Of His 2022 Grammy Nominations

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Drake’s tepid relationship with the Grammy Awards is well-documented. He was famously among the rap stars who declined an invitation to perform at the 2019 awards show. Later, when “God’s Plan” beat out songs from Cardi B, Kendrick Lamar, and Travis Scott to win the award for Best Rap Song that year, Drake (who many didn’t event expect to be in attendance) spent the bulk of his acceptance speech taking a shot at the Grammy Awards establishment. “It’s like the first time in Grammys history where I actually am who I thought I was for a second,” he said. “We play in an opinion based sport, not a factual based sport… it’s up to a bunch of people who might not understand what a mixed race kid from Canada has to say,” he added, addressing kids and people trying to make it in music.

And while he didn’t submit anything this year from Certified Lover Boy for the big Record and Song Of The Year Awards, he did garner nominations for Best Rap Album and Best Rap Performance (for “Way 2 Sexy.”) But as of today, Drake has reportedly withdrawn both nominations and don’t be a part of the 2022 Grammy slate at all. Variety indicated that “… the decision was made by Drake and his management, although his motivation was unclear…”

For what it’s worth, The Weeknd has been public about his full-on Grammys boycott and perhaps his stance is inspiring Drake to take a similar stance? He might’ve even foreshadowed something like this as that 2019 awards speech came to a head. As the diatribe comes to a conclusion, he gestures to the awards statue and said: “You’ve already won if you have people who are singing your songs word for word, or if you’re a hero in your hometown. If there’s people who have regular jobs coming out in the rain, in the snow, spending their hard-earned money to buy tickets to come to your shows? You don’t need this right here, you already won.”

Drake, 21 Savage, And Project Pat’s ‘Knife Talk’ Video Channels Serious Hitchcock Vibes

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The spooky season might be over, but that hasn’t stopped Drake from leaning heavily into some Hitchcockian slasher vibes in the video for “Knife Talk” featuring 21 Savage and Project Pat. Leave it to October’s Very Own to hang on to the last vestiges of Halloween with his latest Certified Lover Boy single. As the trio of rappers spit menacing, razor-tipped verses, the video splices in clips from various black-and-white thrillers, using technology to get the characters to lip-sync the rhymes.

The rappers also have some fun with their Ring cameras, evoking chilling flicks like The Strangers and The Purge as they stand outside with huge kitchen knives just… staring. The effect is probably a little less unnerving than it is in the films they evoke but mostly because we’ve all seen 21 Savage singing car karaoke to R&B classics and Drake is… well… Drake. It’s still a pretty cool and creative video, even if it is five days too late.

Fortunately, Drake’s tardiness doesn’t seem to be affecting the popularity of his new album. It recently went No. 1 on Billboard‘s album chart for the fifth non-consecutive week behind singles like the tongue-in-cheek “Way 2 Sexy.”

Watch Drake’s ‘Knife Talk’ Video featuring 21 Savage and Project Pat above.

Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Earns Its Fifth Overall Week At No. 1

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Drake’s sixth album Certified Lover Boy has spent the second-most weeks at No. 1 in 2021. It trails Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, as that project held on to the top spot for ten consecutive weeks. While Drake’s reign isn’t that impressive, it’s still noteworthy in its own right. The rapper has already collected four non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 which began with 631,000 units sold in its first week on the chart, the largest amount for any album released in 2021. Now, more than a month later, Certified Lover Boy is still holding on to the throne on the Billboard 200.

A week after Young Thug earned the second No. 1 album of his career with Punk, an album Drake appears on, Certified Lover Boy reclaimed the top spot on the Billboard 200 dated November 6. It took the No. 1 spot thanks to 74,000 units sold, a number comprised of 73,000 streaming equivalent album units while pure album sales accounted for less than 1,000 units. With its fifth week at No. 1, Certified Lover Boy ties Drake’s 2018 album Scorpion for the second-most weeks spent atop the charts. Both albums fall behind his 2016 effort Views, which posted 13 weeks at No. 1.

Other highlights on the chart this week include Moneybagg Yo’s A Gangsta’s Pain at No. 6, thanks to its newly-released deluxe reissue, and Lana Del Rey’s Blue Bannisters, which checks in at No. 8 to give Del Rey the eighth top-10 album of her career.

Revisit our review of Certified Lover Boy here.

Drake Didn’t Submit Anything From ‘Certified Lover Boy’ For Record Or Song Of The Year

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Speculation about Grammy voting and nominations is at a all all-time high right now, as early ballots are being submitted and fans are left to wonder how the awards will shake out this year. Over the last decade or so, the backlash against seemingly-random nominations and wins that are completely out of step with critical and commercial success has grown. Artists like The Weeknd have opted not to submit their work to the Recording Academy at all, and one of the most popular rappers in the world, Drake, has also been vocal about his disappointment with the selections in the past. So fans were interested to see what, if anything, he would submit off this year’s Certified Lover Boy, and the answer is? None of the big categories for any single track, like Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year.

According to a report from Variety, Drizzy submitted “Way 2 Sexy” for best rap performance, “Girls Want Girls” for best melodic rap performance, and “No Friends in the Industry” for best rap song. He also submitted Certified Lover Boy for Album Of The Year, so he’s still in the game for that big award, just not the song ones. Check out more of Variety‘s unpacking of Grammy submissions process here.

Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Goes No. 1 For A Third Straight Week

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Drake’s Certified Lover Boy is one of the most popular albums of the year, but the rapper originally intended for it to arrive much earlier. He originally said it would arrive in January, but he was forced to delay it following knee surgery and rehab. Sure enough, it’s been dominating the charts.

Certified Lover Boy lands its third consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart dated October 2, thanks to 171,000 album units sold, a number comprised of 165,000 streaming equivalent album units thanks to 222.16 million on-demand streams of the album’s 21 tracks. The album also earned 4,000 pure album sales this past week. With its third week at atop the album chart, Certified Lover Boy has now spent the most weeks at No. 1 for a hip-hop/R&B project since Lil Baby’s My Turn tallied five nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2020.

On top of that, Drake now has the third-most weeks spent at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 since 2010. That also means he’s earned his 30th overall week atop the albums chart, putting him behind Adele, who has 34, and Taylor Swift, who leads the way with 42.

Another highlight on this week’s chart comes with Lil Nas X checking in at No. 2 with Montero. The singer’s debut tallied 126,000 album units in its first week on the chart.

Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Spends A Second Consecutive Week Atop The ‘Billboard’ Albums Chart

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In unsurprising fashion, Drake’s Certified Lover Boy posted a huge debut last week. After delays that stretched out over eight months, the rapper released the album, which came with a stacked lineup of features: Jay-Z, Travis Scott, Future, Young Thug, Kid Cudi, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, 21 Savage, Ty Dolla Sign, and more all appeared on the project. It wound up giving Drake his tenth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, making him one of only eight artists to do so. Now, for its second week on the chart, Certified Lover Boy maintains its position at the top.

Certified Lover Boy held on to the top spot on the Billboard 200 thanks to 236,000 album units for the chart dated September 25. This number is comprised of 227,000 streaming equivalent album units thanks to 305.43 million on-demand streams of the album’s 21 tracks. The album also scored 6,500 pure album sales. It’s only the fourth akbum of his career to spend multiple weeks at No. 1, joining Views, More Life, and Scorpion.

Other highlights on this week’s chart include Kanye West’s Donda at No. 2, Kacey Musgraves’ new album Star-Crossed at No. 3, and Baby Keem’s The Melodic Blue at No. 5.

Certified Lover Boy is out now via OVO Sound/Republic. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.