Drake credits John Lennon and Paul McCartney as co-writers on Certified Lover Boy.
The opening track “Champagne Poetry” samples their song, “Michelle.” Drake’s sixth studio album was originally slated to drop in 2020, before it was delayed due to an injury. “Between surgery and rehab my energy has been dedicated to recovery,” Drake told his fans earlier this year.
Drake confirmed the release date of Certified Lover Boy in a cryptic message on ESPN last month. The album features guest spots from Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Tavis Scott, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, and Yebba. According to data from SpotifyCharts.com, Certified Lover Boy achieved 153,441,565 million global streams in its first 24 hours on the platform.
“Girls Want Girls (feat. Lil Baby),” “Champagne Poetry,” and “Fair Trade (feat. Travis Scott)” are the three biggest song debuts ever on Apple Music. They overtook Drake’s previous record with “Nonstop.”
What’s interesting about the “Michelle” sample is that it’s a double sample. The song was already sampled by Masego on his track, “Navajo.” So Drake sampled that sample to create “Champagne Poetry.” The album has shot to the #1 spot on the iTunes chart, displacing Kanye West’s Donda.
Of course, Drake isn’t the only rapper who credits The Beatles on his albums.
In 1985, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh sampled “Michelle” from their 1965 album, Rubber Soul, to create “The Show.” In 1998, Wyclef Jean and R. Kelly also sampled “Michelle” for their “Gone Till November” remix.
Around 2003, Nas and producer Salaam Remi sampled John Lennon’s “Imagine” from his 1971 album. In 2004, Talib Kweli released his mixtape, which sampled “Eleanor Rigby” for the song “Lonely People.” In 2007, Lil Wayne’s Carter 3 Sessions mixtape sampled the Beatles’ 1985 film soundtrack, Help!
Back to Certified Lover Boy – Drake continues his beef with Kanye. He managed to one-up the rapper’s long-awaited Donda release. But he also taunts Kanye for not owning his masters and his failed presidential bid. That stunt occupied most of the rapper’s time last year, which likely delayed Donda.