Which Album is Better?
Lilliana Escobar
Staff writer
The competition between two new rap albums, Donda by Kanye West and Certified Lover Boy by Drake, have caused trending opinions about the two as memes and discussions. Both albums have surfaced on social media platforms such as Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.
Since the albums were released only five days apart from each other, both of the artists’ fans raised a dispute over the big question: Which is the ‘better album’?
Kanye’s Donda features artists such as “The Weeknd” in “Hurricane”, “Playboi Carti” in “Off The Grid”, “Travis Scott” in “Praise God”, “Lil Yachty” in “Ok Ok”, and “Don Toliver” and “Kid Cudi” in “Moon”. Drake also works with many other artists as well, such as “Young Thug” & “Future” in “Way 2 Sexy”, “Jay-Z” in “Love All”, “Lil Baby” in “Girls Want Girls”, “Kid Cudi” in “IMY2”, and “Travis Scott” in “Fair Trade.”
As the debate continues, I asked some Alexandria City High School students their opinions on the albums.
Which album has better features?
Tayshaun Moore (11th grader): Donda had better features 100%… That’s just a fact.
Tori Medearis (11th grader): Donda had better features. I liked Lil Baby, Fivio Foreign, and Baby Keem’s [features].
Mel Hernandez-Ramos (12th grader): I believe Donda has better features because when you’re listening to any of Kanye’s discography, he does a really good job at bringing out the best in the artists he’s collaborating with and you really see that in Donda. [When] Drake’s collaborating with all-star artists, he focuses more on having chemistry with them rather than bringing out the best in them like Kanye does. People can say CLB (Certified Lover Boy) had better features just based on the list of names but won’t consider how the actual feature came together.
Zoe Allen (12th grader): Donda, but it would be cool if Kanye actually put the names of who he featured in the actual songs [titles] on the album.
Which album has better rapping from the main artist?
Moore : Donda has better rapping from the main artist, [especially in] “Off The Grid”. Better than CLB.
Medearis: CLB.
Hernandez-Ramos: I would definitely say Kanye, don’t get me wrong, I love Drake but lyrically this wasn’t his best work. I like CLB because it has more corny lines that you’d see in Instagram captions which isn’t bad but it’s not something I look for when listening to Donda. It’s a lot more personal, either he’s talking to you or to himself. Both artists had their pros and their cons but in this scenario, I feel Kanye rapped better.
Allen : I’d say CLB because I feel like a lot of Kanye songs are just repetitive words.
Which album has more playability (will age well)?
Moore: Donda definitely has more playability.
Medearis: Donda, because I think it’ll be more remembered. CLB is a good album, but Drake has had better ones that had more memorable songs.
Hernandez-Ramos: Considering who we are talking about, Kanye is known to have timeless albums and with Drake, it’s kind of hard to say because nobody really seems to talk about ¨Thank Me Later” and his older mixtapes. Both albums [Donda and CLB] will continue to grow on people… no doubt about it, but I feel like Kanye has a better timeless discography compared to Drake. When people talk about Drake, they talk about specific songs but never an entire album. When [people] talk about Kanye, they usually refer to a whole album because the album most likely has multiple memorable songs on it. If you had to say which album will most likely be more timeless, I’d say Donda because so far, I’ve only really heard people talk about specific songs on CLB compared to the entire album.
Allen: I say CLB because Drake’s lyrics aren’t as repetitive as Kanye and repetitive lyrics are so easy to get tired of. I’ve heard more people say they don’t like most of the songs on Donda but I think I’ve only heard few say anything about CLB and if they do, it’s about one song on the album, not the whole thing. I love Kanye but he didn’t deliver on this one and it’s mid [okay] to me.
Which album do you prefer overall?
Moore: I prefer Donda.
Medearis : Certified Lover Boy. I like the energy from the album more. Some of the songs on Donda are too slow for me, and not really my type of beat.
Hernandez-Ramos: Both albums are soon to be very repeatable and are going to grow on me more, but for right now, I have to say Donda. CLB gives me what I’ve already heard from Drake before but you can’t say the same for Kanye’s work. He’s constantly changing things up sonically and lyrically every album, so you never know what to expect. Both albums are good in their own ways but right now, I’m sticking to Donda.
Allen: I prefer CLB. I love Kanye and I’ll always be a forever Kanye fan but he was disappointing. I think with his mom passing and his mental breakdown and stuff, he hasn’t really been as focused on his music and I wish he would have waited until his mental [health] was good enough to focus on it instead of just going on lockdown and rushing to get anything out.
The albums are unique in their own way, but one difference that stood out were the lyrics and message of these artists in the songs. In the song, “Girls Want Girls” ft. Lil Baby, Drake states ¨…say that you a lesbian, girl, me too” which fetishizes lesbians and women-loving-women (WLW) relationships, as well as not making any sense coming from a man. Not only do these lyrics fetishize, but it is uncomfortable to hear. Donda is more diverse and creative in the songs lyrically, without having the focus on sexualizing women, despite Kanye’s sexualization of women in previous albums. Overall, these two artists are very different and create distinct unique music, which is a factor on why many people have different opinions on both of these albums.
Photo credits to Lilliana Escobar (Myself)
