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Drake’s Certified Lover Boy Unseats Kanye’s Donda and Debuts at No. 1 With Biggest Week of 2021
Drake’s Certified Lover Boy has debuted in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 and had the best week for any album release this year, Billboard reports. The new album has unseated Kanye West’s chart-topping Donda (which has fallen to No. 2), and marks Drake’s 10th No. 1 album.
Certified Lover Boy sold 613,000 equivalent album units, making it the biggest week for an album since Taylor Swift’s Folklore sold 846,000 units in 2020, according to Billboard. Of Drake’s full-length releases in the past decade, only last year’s Dark Lane Demo Tapes has failed to make a No. 1 debut.
After a rollout that extended for nearly a year, Drake released Certified Lover Boy on September 3, just a few days after Donda was released on August 29 (supposedly without West’s permission). Despite its shorter release period, Donda debuted at No. 1 on September 5 with the distinction of having the biggest release week of 2021 at the time, moving 309,000 equivalent album units.
The rappers have remained at odds as they’ve proceeded with their respective album campaigns, with Drake using his verse on Trippie Redd’s “Betrayal” to mention West in August. West returned fire on Instagram, and Drake appeared to take another dig at West on Certified Lover Boy’s “7am on Bridle Path.”
Drake escalated the feud when he played Kanye West’s “Life of the Party” on SiriusXM, a Donda outtake that included a diss verse about Drake. The track also featured a guest spot from André 3000, who explained his involvement on the track and expressed disappointment about the leak. “It’s unfortunate that it was released in this way and two artists that I love are going back and forth,” André 3000 wrote in a statement.
Read Pitchfork’s “5 Takeaways From Drake’s Certified Lover Boy.”