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After months of delays, Drake has finally revealed the album cover and release date for his highly-anticipated album, Certified Lover Boy.
On Monday, August 30, the rapper took to social media to reveal that his sixth studio album will be released on Friday, September 3. He shared the news by posting the album cover for the upcoming project, 12 different pregnant women emojis, immediately sparking rumors the album will consist of 12 tracks.
While he didn’t confirm any other details about the project, concrete news about this album following months of delays is all fans needed to get excited.
Certified Lover Boy will be the Toronto native‘s first full-length project since 2018’s Scorpion. While his listeners have been waiting for the album for years, Drake has released other new material in between his full-length projects, including 2020’s Dark Lane Demo Tapes and the EP Scary Hours 2, which just dropped back in March.
Certified Lover Boy was originally scheduled to drop at the top of the year, in January, but its release ended up being postponed due to health issues Drake was facing at the time after tearing his ACL.
“I was planning to release my album this month but between surgery and rehab my energy has been dedicated to recovery,” the rapper wrote in an Instagram Story post at the time. “I’m blessed to be back on my feet and feeling great and focused on the album, but CLB won’t be dropping in January.”
A couple months later, during an interview at the Ultimate Rap League’s N.O.M.E. XI battle rap event in June, Drake gave an update on the status of the long-awaited project, promising the album was coming soon.
When asked about Certified Lover Boy’s release, he said the album would be out before the end of the summer. “Oh, yeah, I’ll be there. My album will be out by then,” he said.
Last week, fans started to speculate that the album would drop on September 3 after its release was teased during ESPN’s SportsCenter.
During a commercial break, an ad that appeared to be a normal sports-focused spot played before it became glitch-filled with an unidentifiable man holding up a piece of cardboard with “CLB September 3” clearly written on it.
While some speculated that might be the date Drake would officially start his album rollout, we were all pleased to find out just a few days later that’s when we’re getting the whole project.