In the past months, Drake fans eagerly anticipated his newest album, Certified Lover Boy.  On top of being in the headlines earlier this year for its delayed release, the album has been in the news for its questionable cover and relation to Kanye West’s newest album release; however, the drama is the most the album offers, as the music itself is mediocre at best.

Many of the album’s songs have beats with a lot of potential. “Pipe Down,” for example, is one song that had an enjoyable rhythm, but the lyrical content did not match up with it well. Also, in songs such as this one, the style that is used is extremely similar to Drake’s other songs. Because the rapping-singing hybrid is practically a signature of Drake’s music style, it makes some of his songs indistinguishable from one another. 

Many of the album’s songs feature an upbeat tempo for the first half of the song and then transitioned into slower-paced tempos — very similar to Drake’s other works. Essentially, this album has not brought anything new to the table. 

“TSU” is reminiscent of Drake’s older music. It tells the story of a young woman who is financially cut off from her parents while trying to become independent. Drake supports her endeavors because he sees that she is struggling. The song illustrates a story that has more depth than the lyrical content of the album’s other songs. While “TSU” is much better than some of the other songs featured, it seems more repetitive than an improvement compared to the other songs because of the similarities to Drake’s older songs.

To combat the repetitiveness that is found throughout the album, Drake included features with Lil Baby, JAY-Z and Travis Scott, and even had a cameo from Nicki Minaj in “Papi’s Home.”

“Way 2 Sexy” featuring Future is one of my least favorite songs because of its lack of substance. It takes a sample of “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred and interpolates the lyrics of the song to make it about how they are each too sexy to participate in certain activities. 

Certified Lover Boy features some more interesting songs, most notably “Girls Want Girls.” Beyond being questionable from the track name alone, the song also plays into the sexualization of lesbians with lyrics. One line in the song that symbolizes this is at its beginning, where Drake says, “Say that you a lesbian, girl, me too.” The song focuses on sexualizing lesbians in relation to Drake and Lil Baby’s own heterosexuality, which has sparked criticism from listeners. Not only is the song problematic, but it also has an awkwardness to its lyrical content as a whole. It seems lazy overall, as the lyrics do not really have any substance. 

There were some better tracks, such as “Love All” featuring JAY-Z. This song sampled “Life After Death Intro” by the Notorious B.I.G. and offers a smooth flow with the more structured lyrical content in comparison to the album’s other songs. “Yebba’s Heartbreak” is another that gets the album away from mediocrity a little bit. The ballad has a beautiful softness that can make one forget the other nonsensical songs on the album with Yebba’s raspy voice accompanied by a piano in the background. 

While the album’s samples, beats, and iconic features gave it potential, that potential is laid to waste by the poor lyrical content of songs like “Way 2 Sexy” and “Girls Want Girls” and is also clouded by the controversy revolving around the album cover and the conflict between Drake and West. The album’s traction is the result of other circumstances, not because of what it offers on its own.