“Oh Happy Day! Oh Happy Day! When Drake confiiiiiirrrrmmmmed, CLB was on the way!” (Or whatever Sister Mary Clarence said.)
Well readers, we’ve officially reached the most wonderful time of the year: Drake Season.
Per Rolling Stone, Drake—aka the 6 Gawd, aka October’s Very Own, aka Last Name Ever, First Name Greatest, aka Drizzy, aka Wheelchair Jimmy aka Champagne Papi—has finally confirmed that his long-awaited, twice-delayed sixth studio album Certified Lover Boy will finally be coming to fans on Friday, Sept. 3.
The “What’s Next” rapper posted a picture of several “pregnant woman” emojis, confirmed to be the official album cover, with the caption: “CERTIFIED LOVER BOY SEPTEMBER 3.”
As with almost anything Drake-related, the announcement set off a Twitter firestorm of fans both excited over the news and also confused by the album cover.
“Can someone please break my heart before Drake drops Certified lover boy, I want to feel it,” wrote one user.
“Drake doesn’t need to chase clouts with controversy to sell his album, biggest for a reason. Certified Lover Boy dropping on Friday,” said another.
“Waiting for Drake to drop Certified Lover Boy so I can finally cry properly,” penned another fan.
“Kanye just has a black album cover, and drake has pregnant emojis. I’m tired,”wrote one fatigued fan while another lamented: “We live in an era where Kanye drops an album without a cover and Drake is dropping an album with 16 pregnant emojis... what the flying fuck.”
However, there does seem to be one user who seems have an explanation (of sorts) for it all:
“Drake is dropping Certified Lover Boy, an album about love (baby making) 9 months after the expected release date, (9 months is a full term pregnancy), on LABOR day weekend. (labor as in giving birth) which is why there are pregnant emojis on the cover, hence is why the album.”
Elsewhere, Lil Nas X also entered the chat with a promo for his upcoming album dropping September 17 showing a slightly modified version of the album cover with several pregnant men instead. (Seriously, I love this kid. Who works the internet better than him?)
Regardless of whether the “Labor Day” album cover theory is true or not, as The Root’s resident Drake stan—I’m just glad Drizzy made good on his promise to release CLB before summer was over and just know I’ll be listening at full volume, all day long when it drops this Friday.
Oh and before I go, shoutout to Nick Cannon.