Race My Mind
"Race My Mind" turns its title into an image of mental overdrive — thoughts moving faster than the speaker can settle. The album credits document a layered sample stack including The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Dead Wrong," David Axelrod's "The Signs Part IV," Sun Ra's "Rumpelstiltskin" and an interpolation of Rick James's "Give It to Me Baby," and production is credited to Noah "40" Shebib, Monsune and Govi. The song is widely read as Drake in a reflective, romance-tinged mode, weighing a relationship against the distractions and obligations that keep his attention split. Rather than resolving the tension between connection and preoccupation, it sits inside it, capturing the familiar Drake position of wanting intimacy while remaining mentally elsewhere, and functions as one of the project's mood-driven catalog cuts.
Sources & verification
Citations below were matched specifically to "Race My Mind" and Certified Lover Boy. Drake Universe catalogs songs by album placement, verified collaborators, producers, samples, and themes, and avoids unsupported lyric-level claims.
- Pitchfork: Kanye West 'Donda' album reviewPitchfork · 2021-09-09 — Dated album review covering Donda's release-week proximity to Certified Lover Boy.
- Pitchfork: Drake 'Certified Lover Boy' album reviewPitchfork · 2021-09-07 — Dated album review covering Certified Lover Boy and the Donda release-week framing.
- The New York Times: Drake's Certified Lover BoyThe New York Times · 2021-09-03 — NYT Joe Coscarelli CLB feature.
- Wikipedia: Certified Lover BoyWikipedia · 2026-05-18 — Primary reference for CLB release, rollout, billboard campaign, Damien Hirst artwork controversy, full track listing, sample/producer credits, critical reception (Metacritic 60), commercial performance (613,000 first-week units; tenth #1; nine top-ten singles), Grammy withdrawal and certifications.
- Pitchfork: Certified Lover Boy Unseats Donda, Debuts at No. 1 With Biggest Week of 2021Pitchfork · 2021-09-12 — Chart-context source for CLB's 613,000-unit debut overtaking Kanye West's Donda (309,000) atop the Billboard 200, the biggest US week of 2021 at the time.
