On Friday (September 3rd) Drake finally released his latest studio album, Certified Lover Boy. Along with previously teased contributors like JAY-Z, Lil Wayne, Young Thug, and many others, R. Kelly was listed as a co-writer in the credits for CLB. The credit appears in a song called “TSU”. Now long-time Drake employee Noah “40” Shebib – who worked as one of several producers at CLB – has issued a statement on R. Kelly’s credit. “I’m not here to defend Drake’s lyrics, but I thought I would make it clear that there is no real r Kelly in attendance and calling him a lyricist is a bit misleading,” Shebib wrote in an Instagram comment today (5th September). ). Find his comment in the post below.
Shebib’s comment came in response to an Instagram post that included a photo of an independent headline that read, “Certified Lover Boy: Drake Album Co-writes with R. Kelly.” “It’s kind of wild because I’ve just read Kathy Iandoli’s Baby Girl and the stories about some of it are horrible and gross, “Shebib wrote, referring to the recently published biography of Aaliyah. “Then I saw this post and just had to say something because to think we’re standing next to this guy or writing with him is just incredibly disgusting.”
Elsewhere in his testimony, Shebib mentions that at the beginning of “TSU” a sample from OG Ron C speaks. “Behind that quiet voice that you can’t even hear, there’s a Kelly song playing in the background,” he writes. “It doesn’t matter that there are no lyrics, Kelly’s voice isn’t even there, but if we wanted to speak to Ron c we had to license it.”
