Certified Lover Boy

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.

Drake’s Alternate ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Covers Offer Some More Straightforward Takes On The Theme

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When Drake first revealed the cheeky, emoji-laden cover concept for his new album Certified Lover Boy, many fans weren’t sure if he was joking. Despite reportedly being designed by renowned modern artist Damien Hirst, the cover — which featured a symmetrical pattern of pregnant woman emojis in different skin tones and shirt colors — was derided by fans as being lazy and ridiculous. It also spawned a jaw-dropping, eye-rolling run of similarly themed memes, including one from Lil Nas X changing the emojis’ genders to fit his Montero announcement, but none of that stopped the album from going No. 1 on Billboard‘s album chart, so I guess Drake gets the last laugh.

Except that Drake always seems to be in on the joke, which means he probably knew the troll-ish cover was likely to annoy his fans — if anything, that may have been its intent, considering how closely tied Drake’s rollout was to Kanye’s, which culminated a week earlier in the release of Donda. Today, Drake has been sharing some alternate cover designs on his Instagram, including their designers’ information. In addition to providing a peek at what some more straightforward takes on the album’s theme would have looked like, the trove also gives those fans who were miffed or turned off by the emoji cover to replace it with some less goofy options in their personal music libraries.

Included in the designs are works from veteran comics illustrator Milo Manara, photographer Luis Mora, and a gussied-up second pass of Hirst’s original. Check out Drake’s alternate Certified Lover Boy covers below.

Jay-Z’s Drake Feature Earns His First Top-10 Hit Since Beyonce’s ‘Drunk In Love’

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Drake’s new album Certified Lover Boy, which unsurprisingly debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200, also holds the historical distinction of making him the first artist to have nine top-ten songs on the Hot 100 chart in the same week. However, Drake isn’t the only one to benefit from this achievement; Billboard also reports that Jay-Z, who appears on “Love All,” also collects another career milestone: His 22nd career top-10 hit.

Jay-Z and Mariah Carey — who were both recently the subjects of a (refuted) rumor about them falling out — now share the distinction of being the only artists with top 10 hits in the ’90s, ’00s, ’10s, and ’20s. it’s also Jay’s first top-10 since appearing on his wife Beyonce’s 2013 hit “Drunk In Love,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100. Incidentally, he actually would have had his 23rd top-10 hit had his feature on Kanye West’s Donda been credited as such — since his name doesn’t appear on the official tracklisting for “Jail,” he apparently had to wait a week for his latest feature to count. Jay was among an array of artists who appeared on both albums, drawing a fair amount of attention and prompting a Twitter trending topic thanks to his close proximity to both.

Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Makes History By Having Nine Of The Top Ten Songs On The Hot 100 Chart

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Drake’s new album Certified Lover Boy is a truly unprecedented commercial success. Over the weekend, it was revealed the album debuted at No. 1 with the biggest week of the year so far, and now the album is dominating the Billboard Hot 100 chart in ways the music world has never seen. The top ten spots of the chart were revealed today, and of those ten, nine of them are songs from Certified Lover Boy. Drake is now the first artist to ever have nine top-ten songs in the same week.

Debuting at No. 1 is Drake’s “Way 2 Sexy” featuring Future and Young Thug. After that is “Girls Want Girls” featuring Lil Baby at No. 2, “Fair Trade” featuring Travis Scott at No. 3, “Champagne Poetry” at No. 4, “Knife Talk” featuring 21 Savage and Project Pat at No. 5, “In The Bible” featuring Lil Durk and Giveon at No. 7, “Papi’s Home” at No. 8, “TSU” at No. 9, and “Love All” featuring Jay-Z at No. 1o. The only non-Drake song in this week’s top ten is The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber’s “Stay.” Overall, all 21 songs from Certified Lover Boy debut in the top 40 of this week’s chart.

This list of records that this sets is extensive, even beyond the aforementioned accolades. Certified Lover Boy has more top-ten songs than any album in history; Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The USA, Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, and Drake’s own Scorpion all have seven top-ten songs on the Hot 100.

Furthermore, Drake and The Beatles are now the only two artists to ever dominate the entire top five spots of the chart. Drake’s total of five songs to debut at No. 1 ties Ariana Grande for the most ever. Drake has also extended his records for the most career top-ten songs (54), most top-40 hits (140), and total Hot 100 entries (258).

Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Debuts At No. 1 With The Biggest Week In 2021

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Drake fans have spent the better part of the last two years waiting for the rapper’s highly-anticipated sixth album, Certified Lover Boy. While the wait was quite lengthy, the rapper didn’t make it a grueling one for his supporters. A heavy feature run and projects that include Dark Lane Demo Tapes and Scary Hours 2 made it a bit easier to stay patient for Drake’s album. At long last, the rapper dropped Certified Lover Boy, and nearly two weeks after the project was delivered to the world, it tops the Billboard 200 in what is the biggest week in 2021.

Certified Lover Boy goes No. 1 on the album charts after posting 631,000 units sold in its first week. This number is comprised of 562,000 streaming equivalent album units based on 743.67 million on-demand streams of the album’s 21 tracks. It also posted a total of 46,000 pure album sales. With that, Certified Lover Boy becomes Drake’s tenth No. 1 album which makes him the eighth artist alongside The Beatles, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Barbara Streisand, Eminem, Elvis Presley, and Kanye West as the only artists with ten chart-topping releases.

Drake’s first week numbers for his sixth album are also the most by a project in over a year. The last album to post a bigger first week than Certified Lover Boy was Taylor Swift’s Folklore back in August 2020. In terms of just hip-hop projects, the last album to have a better debut than Certified Lover Boy was Drake’s 2018 fifth album Scorpion.

You can revisit our review of Drake’s Certified Lover Boy here.

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

Swizz Beatz Responds To Drake’s Diss At Him From ‘Certified Lover Boy’

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Drake’s Certified Lover Boy garnered plenty of attention for a number of disses the Toronto rapper sent towards Kanye West. But there was someone else who Drake took issue with on the album. On “You Only Live Twice,” his track with Rick Ross and Lil Wayne, the rapper took a shot at Swizz Beatz. “Unthinkable when I think of the way these n****s been acting,” he raps. “I never did you nothing and you play like we family, huh? Next thing, you wanna shoot me down, it can’t be love / Not sure where you was trynna send it, it can’t be up / That day you sounded like a b*tch, you fancy, huh?”

During an interview on The Angie Martinez Show, Swizz Beatz addressed the disses, but didn’t return fire (yet). “I’m chilling,” he said during the sit-down. “A lot of people want to see me react and do all these things, but I’m in such a great zone. I said how I felt, he said how he felt. Hey, man I guess we even. As far as now, I’m good … and I actually like the song.”

Swizz added, “And he didn’t go too crazy in the record also, you know? He could have said many things, that man is a clever artist. He could’ve really, really, really gave me about 40 bars. He said what he said. He got it off his chest. Blessing to everybody.”

Drake’s Swizz diss came after the latter took issue with Drake after his collaboration with Busta Rhymes leaked online. “That kid is a good kid as well,” Swizz said at the time. “He’s not a bad kid, he’s a good kid. He started from different things, we made hit record together, it’s all love. I just wanna play music. Because my filter is burnt. Because at the end of the day, n****s is p*ssy for real. What’s up? Pop off. Let’s go.”

You can listen to Swizz’s response to the diss in the video above.