Aubrey Graham, better known as Drake is an artist who is popular worldwide. He is known for his catchy “in your feelings” type of music and is a veteran in the music industry with a career that spans over 13 years. 

Drake released his highly anticipated album titled “Certified Lover Boy” on Sept. 3 and the hype around the album has been intense. 

The message of the album clearly equates to the idea of love with its cover depiction of 12 pregnant women emojis and its name,  “Certified Lover Boy”.

The album has 21 songs and features artists such as Future, 21 Savage, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and Kid Cudi. 

It’s a mixture of different styles that Drake implements in his music. For example, he uses different styles such as the melodic singing flow he uses on sad or attention-seeking songs and the regular rapping tone he uses on serious songs. 

The songs that stand out are ”TSU”, “Love All,” featuring Jay-Z, “Papi’s Home,” “Knife Talk featuring 21 Savage,” ”Race my Mind,””You Only Live Twice” featuring Lil Wayne and Rick Ross, and “IMY2,” featuring Kid Cudi. 

The songs “TSU,” and “Love All,” in particular, brought back the original melodic rapping Drake is known for helping create his huge fan base. 

The sound of the music is well done. The production on the album includes the beats made by legendary “40” a.k.a Noah Shebib who works on almost all of Drake’s albums. Another aspect that leads to the album’s success is the lyrics written by Drake and Grammy award-winning songwriter Leon Thomas III, who is known for his role as Andre in the 2000s Nickelodeon show “Victorious.”

The album sounds good in loud headphones and also in a car with the volume turned up all the way. 

The album is a solid 9/10 for me, it was nostalgic as it felt similar to listening to his 2016 album “Views” with the hard songs and the melodic songs that tell you how to feel and to put you on with lyrics good enough to be used as Instagram captions.