Drake has made it clear that he won’t take any slander when it comes to the viral cover art for his sixth studio album, Certified Lover Boy.
In an Instagram reel posted on Thursday (February 26), NFR Podcast co-hosts Anthony "Ant" D'Aliesio and Luca "Lu" Guerini discussed worst covers, specifically ones that "burn your eyes" whenever seeing it.
While Guerini chose the creepy artwork for Creed's 2004 album Weathered, for hip-hop, he mentioned Nas' Stillmatic as another botched cover. "It’s a fucking pigeon in the background, I don’t know what the fuck it’s doing there," Guerini joked.
While D’Aliesio argued that the picture represented the rapper’s New York City upbringing, Guerini said he wouldn’t give the rapper a pass. "That one is just not it," he concluded.
NFR Podcast fans took to the comments section, including one person who named Drake’s 2021 CLB album. The cover, designed by artist Damien Hirst, depicts three rows of pregnant women of different ethnicities in emoji form.
Drizzy caught wind of the comment and promptly responded, writing: "r u dumb lol."
Damien Hirst is generally known for his conceptual depictions of birth and death in his art, like his diamond-covered skull sculpture For the Love of God.
Most notably, in Ilfracombe, the North Devon seaside town in the South West of the UK, where he has a home and workshop, his 20-meter (66 ft) bronze sculpture Verity sits on a pier. Installed in 2012 on a 20-year loan, the controversial statue depicts a pregnant woman holding a sword and scales while revealing her anatomy, intended as a modern allegory for truth and justice.
In 2021, as GQ reports, HIrst embraced being commissioned by Drake for CLB, by hand-delivering a pair of painted Air Force 1s to the rapper, writing "Big Brother!" on one of the soles.
