This weekend has been all about Drake’s new album Certified Lover Boy in the music world. The rapper shared the 21-track effort eight months after he promised it would originally be released. In a little over 48 hours, the Toronto native’s latest release has set records on both Apple Music and Spotify.
While there are plenty of bright moments on Certified Lover Boy, there was one questionable aspect of the album. On “TSU,” the credits for the song lists R. Kelly as one of the contributors, a detail that upset many fans. After seeing much of the outrage, Drake’s producer Noah “40” Shebib explained why Kelly was credited on the song.
40 addressed the “R. Kelly” sample pic.twitter.com/u0qmMeFCz5
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“On a song called tsu at the beginning is a sample of OG Ron c talking,” 40 said in a now-deleted Instagram post. “Behind that faintly which you can’t even hear is an r Kelly song playing in the background. It has no significance no lyrics are present, r Kelly’s voice isn’t even present but if we wanted to use Ron c talking we were forced to license it.”
He continues, “Doesn’t sit well with me let me just say that. And I’m not here to defend drakes lyrics, but I thought I would clear up that there is no actual r Kelly present and it’s a bit misleading to call him a co lyricist.” To conclude his statement, 40 then revealed what pushed him to clarifies things about “TSU.”
“It’s kinda wild cause I was just reading ‘Baby Girl’ by Kathy Iandoli and the recounts of some of that stuff is horrific and disgusting,” he wrote. “Then I saw this post and just had to say something because to think we would stand beside that guy or write with him is just incredibly disgusting.”
You can view 40’s statement and listen to “TSU” above.
Certified Lover Boy is out now via OVO Sound/Republic. Get it here.