Drake’s Nike ‘Certified Lover Boy’ merch is here to make you cry

More than a year after it was first announced, Drake’s new album Certified Lover Boy is finally scheduled to release this week. The prolonged rollout has rendered the original crop of Nike-produced merch old news, but the king of sad boys has revealed a new run of T-shirts to coincide with the album’s release.

Drake took to Instagram Monday night to tease three T-shirts fans can wear as a cry for help. Each features a rose-adorned Swoosh on the front, but on the rear comes three different messages that could very well be lyrics from CLB and are certain to appear in a surplus of IG captions going forward. The bitter tidings are “Something other than me has got to give;” “I don’t miss. Let alone miss you;” and, “Should’ve said you loved me today because tomorrow is a new day.”

Cue the collective eye roll and godspeed to any woman who receives any of the above as a text message.

Stay tuned for a release — The self-anointed lover boy announced members of his OVO team would be handing out the T-shirts for free last night in Toronto, but no word has come yet for a wider release. But with how essential a component of album releases merchandise has become, expect to be able to purchase something by this weekend at the latest.

Damien Hirst designed the CLB album cover, which sees pregnant woman emojis serving as homage to the artist’s “Spot Paintings.” And although the artwork was immediately lampooned, including by Lil Nas X, it’d be shocking if the imagery wasn’t used for additional merch that would assuredly bring in oodles of money.

Also in the pipeline are Air Force 1 and Hot Step Air Terra collaborations that have previously surfaced. The two sneakers would naturally fit in well with the CLB cycle, but then again Nike could sell them at any time and expect a quick sellout. Toss in Kanye West’s recently released Donda apparel and it’s a banner week for red flag music merch.