Battle of the Billboards

9.2.21

Donda has released, and Certified Lover Boy has a release date, but the feud between the two artists continues. Dropping the album is one thing, but then doing numbers with it, is another. Kanye dropped Donda a week ago, and Drake is getting ready to drop off his project, tomorrow. Ye needs to do something to remain top of mind, and have consumers continuing to listen. His method, hysterical.

Out of home media, such a billboards, kiosks and giants banners are common forms of press artists and brands use to support their upcoming projects. A few days ago, we noticed some billboards that appeared to be lyrics to Drake’s upcoming tracks, with the well known Certified Lover Boy ‘CLB’ logo on the bottom. A pretty stunty moment, as people already had quotes for their Instagram captions which they’d use from Drake’s catalog, such as “I don’t miss, let alone miss you.”

The billboards were straight black with white writing, and small CLB logo on the bottom. What Kanye did to keep Donda on top of mind, was just too goo. Ye purchased all the largest billboards in Toronto city, surrounds all of Drake’s kiosk’s, and plastered “Donda.” White background, black font, nothing else. If you had forgotten about Donda, it was top of mind again.

Drake, however, did not stop with the lyrical content, that was plastered around Toronto, and likely other key cities. He used this billboard method to hint at his featured tracklist. Drake left billboards in key cities belonging to the featured artist, to let the city know, their hometown stars would be on Certified Lover Boy.

In New York City, a billboard read “Hey New York, the GOAT is on CLB.” This, lead people to believe that Jay-Z would be on the project. Chicago had one declaring “Smurk” aka Lil Durk, would be on the album. Atlanta had a whole list, “Slime, Pluto, Savage, Baby.” Of course, Young Thug, Future, 21 Savage and Lil Baby. California was informed Giveon and Ty Dolla $ign would be on the album, while Memphis was told Project Pat and singer Yebba would be on the project. While you would have to be a hip-hop head to know a few of these nic-names, they are pretty all definite to whom the public is guessing it could be. The one that I think is bringing some question, would be the billboard in Houston. This billboard reads “Hey Houston, The Hometown Hero is on CLB.”

Now, everyone and their mothers automatically jumped to it being Travis Scott who he is referring to. It would make sense, Travis Scott is the face of Houston when it comes to who is most popular in this Gen-Z, borderline Millennials discussion. It could also be a way for Drake to one up Kanye once again, since Travis was also on Kanye’s album. However, the thing about all this is, Trae The Truth is the Hometown Hero of Houston. He has been called that for years, and consistently has done his part in helping his city and those in need. Especially during times like these crazy storms and protests the south is going through right now. I do not think that Drake and Trae are an obvious match up, but Drake knows what he is doing and I would not be surprised if he got the legend from Houston to speak some truth on one of his tracks.

There are a lot of features, and a few that are surprising. It will be exciting to hear this album, after waiting for months on end. Who will sell the most records week one? We’ll soon find out.