Drake‘s sixth studio album, Certified Lover Boy, which arrived Friday (Sept. 3), is now certified as his first official release under his label, OVO Sound, which he founded in 2012.
The Toronto-based rapper signed to Lil Wayne‘s Young Money Entertainment label in 2009, where, in partnership with Cash Money Records, he released four full-length albums (Thank Me Later, Take Care, Nothing Was The Same and Views) and one double-album (Scorpion); two commercial mixtapes (If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late and What A Time To Be Alive with Future, the latter released jointly with Epic); and one “playlist” album, More Life; for a total of eight commercial releases.
Scorpion from 2018 was the project that allowed Drake to fulfill his contractual obligations to Young Money/Cash Money, which he rapped about on “Is There More,” the final track on Side A: “Soon as this album drop I’m out of the deal.”
On Certified Lover Boy‘s final track, “The Remorse,” he boasts, “And you know what I’m on, blowing past ya, owning masters,” which indeed seems to be the case for the OVO rapper.
For the new album, Drake also partnered with Republic Records — which is home to major superstars like Taylor Swift, who started releasing her studio albums starting with 2019’s Lover and beyond under the UMG label following her departure from Big Machine Label Group — to distribute CLB, but his reps and Republic declined to comment if a long term deal was in place.
The 34-year-old MC’s two-song Best in the World Pack from 2019 marked his first release without Young Money/Cash Money Records. Drake also worked with OVO and Republic for the release of his 2019 archival compilation album Care Package, which earned him his ninth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200; his 2020 mixtape Dark Lane Demo Tapes; and the 2021 three-song pack Scary Hours 2, which earned Drake a historic Nos. 1, 2, 3 debut on the Billboard Hot 100.
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