Certified Lover Boy

Diddy Has Praise For Both Kanye West And Drake’s New Albums: ‘You Guys Are True Kings Of Creativity’

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In recent weeks, a lot of conversations have pitted Kanye West and Drake against each other as both released new albums at around the same time. Diddy is taking a more diplomatic approach, though, as he has taken a minute to offer praise for both artists and their new music.

In a video posted on his Instagram Story today, Diddy spoke about Donda and Certified Lover Boy, starting, “I listened to both these albums and first of all, I just wanna say that you guys are true kings of creativity. Both of you guys are so special and so necessary, you know what I’m saying? Just thank y’all for the inspiration. I wanna make sure that what hip-hop knows is: That’s the reach and the power that we have. I really wanna take my hat off to these brothers both sharing their truth.”

He then praised specific elements of both albums before concluding, “I just want to say, love decrees that they both win, that we win. When you’re an artist, you keep pushing it to the limit to be the best. [Not] the best not against another man — there is competition, but the best within yourself, and I think that’s why we’re witnessing two greats and enjoying them. I’m having a ball and the music sounds beautiful. Don’t stop, guys, love y’all.”

Meanwhile, Pusha T brought a different flavor to the conversation by seemingly taking pleasure in a dip in Drake’s streaming numbers.

Pusha T Seemingly Enjoys Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Having A Major Day-Two Streaming Drop-Off

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Pusha T and Drake have one of the most famous hip-hop feuds of recent years. So, it’s not too surprising to see that when Pusha found a comparison that paints Kanye West’s new album Donda in a more positive light than it does Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, he was all over it.

It started with a recent tweet from XXL, which compares the Spotify streaming numbers of Donda and Certified Lover Boy on the albums’ first two days of availability. West’s album was streamed 94.5 million times on its first day before jumping up to 102.1 million streams on its second day. As for CLB, it had 153.4 million streams on its first day before falling drastically to 89.9 million the next day.

It’s worth noting, though, that Donda was released at around 8 a.m. on a Sunday, as opposed to midnight on Friday like most albums are (including CLB). If you do the math, Donda and CLB actually had similar numbers in terms of average streams per hour on their respective first days: about 5.9 million and 6.4 million, respectively. So, looking at streams per hour on the album’s first days versus their second-day performance, they performed somewhat similarly, with Donda experiencing a smaller day-two drop-off but CLB reaching a higher peak. So, all in all, the numbers from that tweet don’t fully represent the situation at hand.

Anyway, somebody shared a screenshot of the XXL tweet and added, “i predicted this. i said drake’s day 1 is gonna be huge off the element of surprise then its just gonna drop. donda everyone heard in full 3 weeks before it dropped, still did these numbers and is only growing in streams. crazy!” Pusha seemingly agreed with the tweet, as he gave it a like.

When West released Donda, Pusha shared a congratulatory post about it, writing on Instagram, “This is about power, money, influence and taste…nothing more, nothing less. Watching you ‘joystick the culture”‘makes us all proud. Continue to do things your way, congrats, and I’m honored to have been a part of the process.”

Pusha T Seemingly Enjoys Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Having A Major Day-Two Streaming Drop-Off

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Pusha T and Drake have one of the most famous hip-hop feuds of recent years. So, it’s not too surprising to see that when Pusha found a comparison that paints Kanye West’s new album Donda in a more positive light than it does Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, he was all over it.

It started with a recent tweet from XXL, which compares the Spotify streaming numbers of Donda and Certified Lover Boy on the albums’ first two days of availability. West’s album was streamed 94.5 million times on its first day before jumping up to 102.1 million streams on its second day. As for CLB, it had 153.4 million streams on its first day before falling drastically to 89.9 million the next day.

It’s worth noting, though, that Donda was released at around 8 a.m. on a Sunday, as opposed to midnight on Friday like most albums are (including CLB). If you do the math, Donda and CLB actually had similar numbers in terms of average streams per hour on their respective first days: about 5.9 million and 6.4 million, respectively. So, looking at streams per hour on the album’s first days versus their second-day performance, they performed somewhat similarly, with Donda experiencing a smaller day-two drop-off but CLB reaching a higher peak. So, all in all, the numbers from that tweet don’t fully represent the situation at hand.

Anyway, somebody shared a screenshot of the XXL tweet and added, “i predicted this. i said drake’s day 1 is gonna be huge off the element of surprise then its just gonna drop. donda everyone heard in full 3 weeks before it dropped, still did these numbers and is only growing in streams. crazy!” Pusha seemingly agreed with the tweet, as he gave it a like.

When West released Donda, Pusha shared a congratulatory post about it, writing on Instagram, “This is about power, money, influence and taste…nothing more, nothing less. Watching you ‘joystick the culture”‘makes us all proud. Continue to do things your way, congrats, and I’m honored to have been a part of the process.”

Drake’s Producer Noah ’40’ Shebib Explains The R. Kelly Sample On ‘Certified Lover Boy’

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This weekend has been all about Drake’s new album Certified Lover Boy in the music world. The rapper shared the 21-track effort eight months after he promised it would originally be released. In a little over 48 hours, the Toronto native’s latest release has set records on both Apple Music and Spotify.

While there are plenty of bright moments on Certified Lover Boy, there was one questionable aspect of the album. On “TSU,” the credits for the song lists R. Kelly as one of the contributors, a detail that upset many fans. After seeing much of the outrage, Drake’s producer Noah “40” Shebib explained why Kelly was credited on the song.

“On a song called tsu at the beginning is a sample of OG Ron c talking,” 40 said in a now-deleted Instagram post. “Behind that faintly which you can’t even hear is an r Kelly song playing in the background. It has no significance no lyrics are present, r Kelly’s voice isn’t even present but if we wanted to use Ron c talking we were forced to license it.”

He continues, “Doesn’t sit well with me let me just say that. And I’m not here to defend drakes lyrics, but I thought I would clear up that there is no actual r Kelly present and it’s a bit misleading to call him a co lyricist.” To conclude his statement, 40 then revealed what pushed him to clarifies things about “TSU.”

“It’s kinda wild cause I was just reading ‘Baby Girl’ by Kathy Iandoli and the recounts of some of that stuff is horrific and disgusting,” he wrote. “Then I saw this post and just had to say something because to think we would stand beside that guy or write with him is just incredibly disgusting.”

You can view 40’s statement and listen to “TSU” above.

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

Three Songs From Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Broke Another Apple Music Record He Previously Owned

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In just under two days, Drake’s Certified Lover Boy has broken major records on both Apple Music and Spotify. The album surpassed the number for most album streams in a single day, pushing past Apple Music’s previous mark of 170 million and Spotify’s own of 132 million. Both of those records we previously set by Drake’s 2018 album, Scorpion. Now, the Toronto rapper has broken yet another record on Apple Music.

Three songs on the rapper’s sixth album surpassed Apple Music’s previous record for the most-streamed song in a single day. The three tracks are “Girls Want Girls” with Lil Baby, “Champagne Poetry,” and “Fair Trade” with Travis Scott. Each posted higher first-day numbers than the previous record-holder: Drake’s 2018 track, “Nonstop.”

Certified Lover is a project fans waited more than eight months to get their hands on. Last fall, Drake announced the album would be released in January, but he was later forced to push it back due to time spent rehabbing and recovering from knee surgery. In addition to the aforementioned names, Jay-Z, Travis Scott, Young Thug, Future, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, and many more can be found on the 21-track album.

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

Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Broke Apple Music And Spotify’s Record For Streams In A Single Day

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Drake’s Certified Lover Boy is already making history. The rapper’s sixth album just broke Apple Music and Spotify’s record for streams in a single day. He surpassed the Apple Music record first, breaking it on Friday evening EST. A few hours later, it was announced that the rapper also broke Spotify’s record. As reported by Complex who spoke to a representative from the platform, the new number is indeed an all-time global record. Official first-day streaming numbers for Cetified Lover Boy from Apple Music or Spotify have yet to be released.

To the surprise of no one, the previous record was held by Drake himself, as his fifth album Scoprion broke the record for streams in a single back in 2018. Scorpion earned more than 132 million streams on Spotify and more than 170 million on Apple Music.

Certified Lover Boy offers 21 tracks, with guest appearances from Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Travis Scott, Young Thug, Future, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, Giveon, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Durk, Yebba, Project Pat, Masego, Tems, and Kid Cudi.

The project also garnered attention for apparent disses towards Kanye West, a hilarious video for “Way 2 Sexy” with Future and Young Thug, and Drake’s rather odd “lesbian” line from “Girls Want Girls” with Lil Baby.

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

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

Drake Played The Entirety Of An Unreleased Track By Kanye West As The Latest Chess Move In Their Beef

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Drake seemed to take several shots at Kanye West on his new album, Certified Lover Boy, and on Saturday morning the Toronto rapper has made another chess move. Drake guest-hosted Sound 42, his Sirius XM radio show on the OVO Sound channel. During it, he played the entirety of an unreleased collaboration by West and Andre 3000 titled “Life Of The Party,” a record West previewed a few days ago, during his first interview since releasing Donda.

The six-and-a-half-minute song opens with a verse from Andre that finds the Outkast counterpart speaking on the loss of his parents. Later on, West delivers a verse that mentions Drake on multiple occasions, referencing their rumored joint album, Calabasas is the New Abu Dhabi.

“I put Virgil and Drake on the same text and it wasn’t about the matching Arc’teryx or Kid Cudi dress,” West raps on the song. “Just told these grown men stop it with the funny sh*t / Thought we was the new Abu Dhabi / Told Drake don’t play with me on GD and he sent that message to everybody.” West adds, “So if I hit you with a ‘WYD,’ you better hit me with, ‘Yessir, I’m writing everything you need.’”

Drake’s latest move comes after he seemed to diss Kanye on “7am On Bridle Path” from his new Certified Lover Boy album. “Give that address to your driver, make it your destination / ‘Stead of just a post out of desperation,” he raps referencing West’s now-deleted Instagram post that shared the address to Drake’s Toronto mansion. He adds, “This me reachin’ the deepest state of my meditation / While you over there tryna impress the nation / Mind’s runnin’ wild with the speculation.”

You can listen to a preview of the song in the post above.

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

Drake’s ‘Way 2 Sexy’ Video With Future And Young Thug Hilariously Lampoons Pop Fantasies

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In the “Way 2 Sexy” video, Drake lampoons pop culture’s ideals of sex appeal through the decades, transforming himself into such archetypes as a harlequin romance hero, an action movie star, and even giving himself a dad bod. Drake loves superimposing his head onto other peoples’ bodies in his videos, but this time, he actually uses this proclivity to great, hilarious effect, as the video concept ties nicely into the overall goofy vibe of the Right Said Fred sample on the beat and his, Future, and Young Thug‘s playful lyrics. There’s even a mid-video break for a fake ad for a Drake fragrance called “Wet,” which is such a perfect distillation of everything Drake represents.

The “Way 2 Sexy” video caps the triumphant rollout for Certified Lover Boy, which appears to be a success despite being pushed back over eight months from its initial projected release date in January. The album, which contains features from 21 Savage, Giveon, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Project Pat, and Travis Scott (among many, many others), has been a hot topic on Twitter as fans speculate on whether Drake takes more shots at Kanye, express confusion at some of his more questionable rhymes, and joke around about Jay-Z appearing on both Drake and his rival Kanye’s albums.

Watch Drake, Future, And Young Thug’s hilarious ‘Way 2 Sexy’ video above.

Certified Lover Boy is out now via OVO and Republic. You can stream it here.

Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Fans Have All The Jokes For Jay-Z After Appearing On Both Drake And Kanye’s Albums

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It’s no secret that Drake and Kanye West haven’t been on the best of terms in the last few years. Both men released albums just a week apart whose primary rollout strategies seemed to consist mostly of the two trying to out-troll each other (which kinda worked, considering the streaming numbers and Twitter chatter both have generated so far). Meanwhile, it’s also pretty widely accepted that Jay-Z is one of if not the greatest of all time in rap, so scoring an appearance from him is tantamount to having Michael Jordan bless your hoop career.

So it’s pretty funny that both Donda, which dropped last week, and Certified Lover Boy, which came out earlier this morning, both prominently feature verses from the Brooklyn business mogul, despite Kanye and Drake fighting like two cats in a sack for the past several months (or rather, sniping at each other like Love & Hip-Hop cast members at a reunion special, take your pick). At least, the denizens of Rap Twitter seem to think so, breaking out the jokes and the memes to point out Hov’s split loyalties.

Interestingly enough, the situation is somewhat similar to one involving two of these personalities nearly 20 years ago. Kanye once found himself bridging the gap between Jay-Z and his erstwhile rival Nas at the height of their feud over the “King Of New York” title, producing beats for both men’s albums including the infamous “Takeover” diss from Jay to Nas. Perhaps Jay sees himself playing the vital role Kanye played back then, having the age and experience to make amends with Nas in the meantime (although you could argue things haven’t always been exactly peaceful between them). Who knows? Until then, have a laugh at some of the many, many Twitter jokes about the situation below.

R. Kelly Has A Writing Credit On Drake’s New Album ‘Certified Lover Boy’

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Drake’s new album Certified Lover Boy has been out for a few hours now, and between its release and now, fans have been carefully examining the project. That sleuthing has led to an eyebrow-raising discovery: R. Kelly has a writing credit on the album.

Along with Drake, the artists credited as writers on the song “TSU” include Harley Arsenault, Noel Cadastre, F. Hills, Timothy Mosley (aka Timbaland), Ronald Coleman (aka OG Ron C), Christopher Cross, Justin Timberlake, and Robert Kelly (aka R. Kelly).

As Genius notes, the song samples NSYNC’s 1997 song “Sailing,” a cover of Cross’ 1980 single. Furthermore, others have pointed out the song also samples Timberlake’s “Until The End Of Time,” which Timbaland co-wrote. According to WhoSampled, the song also samples Kelly’s 1998 song “Half On A Baby,” which is where his writing credit comes from.

It was reported recently that Kelly is attempting to sell the publishing rights to his back catalog. If somebody purchased the rights, Kelly would not profit from his song being sampled on “TSU.” However, it appears Kelly is struggling to find a buyer, so as it stands now, Kelly still owns his publishing rights and will therefore profit from “TSU,” which is becoming a much-discussed song on one of the year’s biggest albums.

Of course, Kelly has faced many allegations of sexual misconduct in recent years. Most recently, an alleged male victim of sexual exploitation by Kelly testified in court.

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