GutterPutter

Admittedly, I seldom listen to much of Drake’s material (if at all), but what I can give props for is the vastness of his commercial success. Since 2010’s Thank Me Later, the Canadian rapper has risen in name to become a super-popstar in the mainstream scene. Through the last 5 albums in his career, he managed to acquire a large, devoted fanbase for his melodic, R&B-infused style of hip hop. Also adding fuel to his popularity is his approach towards topics like relationships & the difficulties with his newfound fame which draws favourable comparisons to Kanye West or Kid Cudi. His frequent investments & business ventures also helped to ensure that his name will continue to stick around between each releases so that music fans won’t forget him. For a long while, he’s up in a trajectory to being one of the most notable names in hip hop… for better or worse that is.

The point around Certified Boy Lover that makes it a ‘milestone’ to Drake’s whole career as per say is that it reveals a lot about his standing. Through much of the urban scene, he tends to be treated more as a joke by fans of Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$ & others for barely deviating from his sounds & subject matters for so long. Because of that, it’s easy to put him on a pillory & poke fun at how dull he can be compared to a lot of his contemporaries. There’s a big difference between the everyman’s feelings around him & that of the fans of rapping specifically & ‘Champaign Poetry’ couldn’t be any more befitting of a starter to address the crisis. The trap beats I’m seldom a fan of as I find it to be too repetitive in its template, but the lyrics is something else at times. He amuses his continual success since the birth of his son Adonis & his love for him despite the context from Pusha T that he intends to use him for Adidas marketing. There’s also the piece about trying to diss his haters who he tried to accuse for being jealous of his wealth & fame even though the bars fall flat in execution. ‘The only sign of strugglin’ is coming from those guys/ I’m trying to just relate what I can see through my own eyes’. Questionable attempt to come off as being relatable when the same meaning’s being phrased one too many times like that.

Take what I said about ‘Champaign Poetry’ & you may find that almost the same criticism can be applied to around the entirety of the album, one that lasts for an hour & 20 minutes. Every wack attempts to appear humble or honest, every generic beats, every shots that comes off as being pathetic, you are going to listen to these for a long time & all the more worst. The production at times can be eccentric with its samples with ‘Way 2 Sexy’ with its hook being abysmal to put it simply. Don’t be surprised if you feel tempted to listen to Right Said Fred after it, I won’t blame you at all for what it is. ‘TSU’ is basically Drake recalling his personal difficulties with his partner & son by rhyming any domestic inconveniences with ‘sh*t’ which includes ‘kid’. It’s real, mind you. That’s not to ignore ‘Girls Want Girls’ as that’s a whole new level of class in itself. ‘Yeah, say that you a lesbian, girl, me too’ is among the finest pick-up lines of our time so take notes the next time you try to get into a relationship.

For a bit of tragicomedy, Drake sure loves to make a comment about his rivalries & rap beefs without any hint as to address them in full. ‘No Friends in the Industry’ is one example as he would go over his feud with Kanye West, Pusha T & even Kendrick Lamar… without any damning accusations to throw around. It’s clear that he tried to play his career so safe that it wound back around to being an easy sleeper. There’s also ‘Love All’ which feels more like a virtue signal around friendship when it’s just another excuse to flex all the glories he has. There’s also a verse from Jay-Z that, once you read & listen to it several times, comes across more like a washed-up variant of the Navy Seal copypasta. ‘7am on Bridle Path’ tries to take an aim at Kanye West but the amount of times he brags about his success, when compared to referencing Kanye’s downfalls, is once again so apparent. At this point, you can argue that his verses is so full of his egocentrism, his narcissism, his constant need to remind people about how well-off he is that one can only pray about what would happen in his next beef. Hopefully without the wrath of Push.

I can give a bit of props to the melodicism of the rapping style alongside a few witty lines. Yet, that doesn’t excuse the fact that Certified Lover Boy is an embarrassing display of hubris at its least attractive. ‘F*cking Fans’ is a cry for pity around his philandering which just proves how much of a good father he is to his immediate family. ‘Yebba’s Heartbreak’ & ‘Fountains’ is reliant on forgetting about Drake’s beefs around his affairs in favour of a generic love song which only lead to more bullets being loaded for any disses against him. ‘Race My Mind’ is speculated to be about Drake’s muse for some of his songs although one line in the third verse is subliminal in how long long his critics must have lived in his head rent-free. If you’re bored of my rants by then, I won’t blame you for it at all. We’re just over half-way into each individual songs in the album & the patterns is as clear as clear comes. Any bouts of vulnerability will always tie back to the oh-so-gigantic vastness of his commercial empire. ‘The Remorse’? Give me a break, he’s just using the ‘ode’ to his friend as an excuse to rap about how massive he is compared to others on top of some disses against Kanye once more.

It’s tedious listening to this even for a second time on loop. There is barely anything of substance about Drake’s work whatsoever. Nearly everything about the whole album is ironically watered down for how much he likes to throw shots about the quality of his rivals’ other projects. The only enjoyment I get from this record is through writing this review as a small therapy session about how excruciating the whole ordeal is. Drake may not have the holes for his whole kingdom to crumble, but now he’s too big to succeed any more than what he had done in the long term. Here’s to hoping that another artist were to start picking up in recognition & dish out better content than he did.