Drake has confirmed that his highly anticipated album Certified Lover Boy will drop this Friday (Sept. 3). After a cryptic rollout on SportsCenter, the OVO boss took to Instagram early on Monday morning (Aug. 30) to officially announce the LP’s release date.
“CERTIFIED LOVER BOY SEPTEMBER 3,” Drake captioned the post, which included a series of pregnant women emojis.
As reported by REVOLT, ESPN’s SportsCenter broadcast was interrupted on Friday (Aug. 27) morning with a cryptic announcement about CLB. In two video snippets, a man wearing a hoodie — purportedly Drizzy — held up a handwritten sign that read: “CLB. September 3.”
On social media, fans theorized that Drake may have “hacked” into the network to air his album’s release date. In a Twitter statement, SportsCenter played along with the marketing scheme, writing, “We want to apologize for any interruptions viewers might have experienced during SportsCenter this morning. We had some technical difficulties that have since been resolved.”
The announcement about a Sept. 3 release date also stoked competition between Drake and Kanye West, who was expected to release his album, Donda, on Friday as well. The feud between the two rappers peaked over the weekend when signs promoting Certified Lover Boy appeared on the front steps of Ye’s childhood home in Chicago. The signs were allegedly placed there by Drake’s fans and one of them referenced his lyrics on Trippie Redd’s song “Betrayal,” where he name-dropped Kanye.
However, the race to the Sept. 3 release date ultimately fizzled when Donda arrived without warning on streaming platforms yesterday (Aug. 29).
Certified Lover Boy has been in the works since 2019. It was expected to arrive at the top of this year, but Drake postponed its release after suffering an injury.
“I was planning to release my album this month, but between surgery and rehab, my energy has been dedicated to recovery,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. “I’m blessed to be back on my feet, feeling great and focused on the album, but CLB won’t be dropping in January. I’m looking forward to sharing it with you all in 2021.”
See Drake’s latest announcement about Certified Lover Boy below.