By Truman Martin – Entertainment Editor

“Certified Lover Boy” is Drake’s sixth studio album and was released September 3. Upon release, the album reached number one on the Billboard Top 100, and got an equivalent of 613,000 sales in the first week of its release. 

“Champaign Poetry,” is an almost six minute track that opens the album. Thankfully, there is a beat switch to keep the song from becoming repetitive. The second song, “Papi’s Home,” is another strong track with a cool sample. “Girls Want Girls (with Lil Baby)” is also a pretty good track, and you get just what you’d expect from a Lil Baby verse. “In The Bible (with Lil Durk & Giveon)” was an okay track, but “Love All (with JAY-Z) is definitely one of the best tracks on the album. JAY-Z’s verse is amazing, and the hook is unique and cool. 

The album kind of falters a bit with “Fair Trade (with Travis Scott),” which felt like a filler track. Both Travis Scott and Drake don’t feel very fresh on this song. The album picks right back up with “Way 2 Sexy (with Future & Young Thug)” which is a turn up track. “TSU,” the next track, is another five minute song with a beat switch towards the end, but the two parts of the song don’t go very well with each other. The next track, “N 2 Deep” is my personal favorite track on the album. The first half of the track is very melodic, but then the beat switches and Future’s feature is amazing here. Track ten is “Pipe Down,” which is another pretty good track.

The rest of the album is pretty hit-or-miss to me. There are some good ones like “Knife Talk (with 21 Savage ft. Project Pat)” and “You Only Live Twice (with Lil Wayne & Rick Ross),” but they are surrounded by tracks that just feel recycled from the previous tracks of the album. The last track, “The Remorse,” is a very strong ending to the album though. It’s just a plain rap track from Drake, and the piano sample is cool.

“Certified Lover Boy” has some of Drake’s best work, but it really falls off towards the middle with lots of filler. There is a really amazing 11-track album in these 21 tracks, though. Anything he puts out is hyped up and called “Album of the Year,” but there are some definite weak points. The album had solid (yet sometimes repetitive) production, with some really good features. Overall, it’s a pretty good album.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars