By Sebastian C Romero, Assistant Entertainment Editor
Drake, a Canadian rapper, released his 11th studio album on Sept. 3 called CLB, which stands for Certified Lover Boy. Like his other 10 studio albums, this album was highly anticipated and was competing against another highly anticipated album called Donda by Kanye West, an American rapper, who released his album on Aug. 29.
Drake doesn’t mess around with all he features in CLB, bringing a barrage of rappers and singers like Tems, a Nigerian singer, or Jay-Z, a multi-Grammy winning American rapper. The list of featured performers reads like a “Who’s Who” among America’s top music artists including Lil baby, Lil Durk, Giveon, Travis Scott, Future, Young Thug, 21 Savage, Project Pat, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, and Kid Cudi.
The album starts off with “Champagne Poetry,” a slow-paced intro song, with Drake talking about how his success changed his view of the world and himself as well. Mainly in the album, Drake talks about himself, his success, and how people can change who they are once they become successful. But also it contains different feels of songs as well, like “Fountains ft. Tems,” if you’re looking for a summer vibe, or “Fair Trade ft. Travis Scott” for a hype-type feel.
Drake also put some easter eggs in the album that are not included the samples of some songs. On the song “Papi’s Home,” midway you can hear Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj jokingly talk and laugh in the background. Know that she is not a feature on the album, but she did get credited for her part on “Papi’s Home.” But that’s not all. In the beginning of the song “IMY2 ft. Kid Cudi,” you can hear Chicago rapper and singer Juice Wrld, who tragically died in 2019, speak about positivity, finding who you are and to strive to achieve your goals in life. The outro, “The Remorse” talks about himself and the amount of sacrifice he had done to get to where he is now. Both the intro and outro are special in a sense that Drake knows how to make intro and outro sound unique on albums that he makes.
CLB is a good album. It has good beats, good features, and the easter eggs in there too. Drake fans are going to love this album due to the amount of chill and flow that Drake uses in most songs, and the different types of feels and vibes as well. I’ll give this album a eight out of 10 for being a good album, but it’s not the best work of his whole career. His 2016 album, Views, is his best album in his Discography to date.