What Does Drake's Certified Lover Boy R-Kelly Credit Song 'Tsu' Stand for?

What Does Drake's Certified Lover Boy R-Kelly Credit Song 'Tsu' Stand for?

CERTIFIED Lover Boy is Drake's newest album that was released on September 3, 2021.

Following the release of the 21 song album, Drake as made both good and bad headlines.

What does Drake's Certified Lover Boy R-Kelly credit song 'TSU' stand for?

One of Drake's newest songs includes TSU and while Urban Dictionary defines the term as "Tear S*** Up," that's not what drake had in mind.

After going through the lyrics, it seems that Drake's TSU stands for Texas Southern University and the “TSU ladies” could be in reference to the female students at the school.

Despite the popularity of the song, fans became outraged when they found out that the disgraced singer R. Kelly was credited to the song as the controversial move comes while Kelly is currently standing trial in New York on child sex abuse charges.

One Twitter user wrote: "R. Kelly, while currently on trial for sexual abuse of countless Black women and girls, is going to be making money off the most anticipated album of the year thanks to Drake giving him a songwriting credit on #CertifiedLoverBoy And that's why both #CLB and #DONDA are trash."

Why did R. Kelly get a credit on CLB?

Kelly's credit is due to song publishing rights as TSU samples his 1998 single "Half on a Baby."

In order to use the samples from Kelly's song, Drake had to acquire legal permission as well as give him songwriting royalties. 

Justin Timberlake is also credited on the new album because Drake uses NSYNC’s version of Christopher Cross’s “Sailing.”

Prior to his legal battles, Kelly's songs were frequently sampled by other artists including:

“It just speaks to his genius and the demand for his work. I mean, he’s a literary genius, it doesn’t surprise me," Kelly's attorney Devereaux Cannick said of the credit. "I don’t think it’s that much about the money, I think the public and other artists want his participation. I’m sure he’s totally unaware of it because he’s consumed right now but I will share with him.”

Marcus Vance
Penulis

Marcus Vance

Marcus Vance is a cybersecurity auditor and technology writer dedicated to educating the public about online safety, data privacy regulations, enterprise security, and emerging cyber threats.