The Remorse
"The Remorse" closes Certified Lover Boy on a reflective, weighty note, its title naming the regret and self-examination that anchor the track. Production is credited to Noah "40" Shebib, with additional vocals from the soul singer Anthony Hamilton lending the closer a gospel-tinged gravity. The song is widely read as Drake taking stock at the album's end — surveying loss, the cost of ambition, complicated relationships and the loneliness embedded in his position — and returning to the project's central tension between triumph and unease. Given the album's dedication to the late models Nadia Ntuli and Janae 'Miss Mercedes Morr' Gagnier, the closing reckoning carries an added memorial weight. Rather than resolving the album's anxieties about loyalty and isolation, it lets them settle, bookending the two-part opener: where that set triumph against restlessness, the closer leans fully into accountability rather than victory.
Sources & verification
Citations below were matched specifically to "The Remorse" 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.
