Is R. Kelly Really Featured on Drake’s New Album ‘Certified Lover Boy’?

Amil Krzaczynski, Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Drake dropped his much anticipated album “Certified Lover Boy” on Friday, and the track list features an unexpected and controversial credit.

R. Kelly, who is currently on trial in a Brooklyn courtroom for racketeering and sex-crime charges, is credited as a songwriter on CLB’s eighth song “TSU.”

Despite the credit, Kelly is not actually featured on the song, and his attorney Devereaux Cannick told Vulture that the R&B singer is likely “totally unaware” of the credit “because he’s consumed right now.”

Kelly’s contribution to the album comes from a sample of his 1998 single “Half on a Baby,” which is featured in “TSU.”

“It just speaks to his genius and the demand for his work. I mean, he’s a literary genius, it doesn’t surprise me,” Cannick added of the sample. “I don’t think it’s that much about the money, I think the public and other artists want his participation.”

In addition to Drake and Kelly, “TSU” producers Harley Arsenault, Noel Cadastre, OC Ron G are also credited alongside Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, and Christopher Cross, as the song also features a sample of ‘NSYNC’s 1997 song “Sailing.”

Kelly’s credit is not only surprising due to his status as an accused abuser and sex trafficker, but also because of Drake’s public obsession with the late singer Aaliyah — full name Aaliyah Dana Haughton — who Kelly illegally married when she was just 15-years-old.

The union between the two singers has recently become a key part of the federal case against Kelly, as prosecutors alleged someone bribed Chicago officials to create a fake ID for Aaliyah so that the marriage could take place.

Prosecutors have also claimed that Kelly may have married Aaliyah after impregnating her as a minor, while a woman who went by “Addie” testified that Kelly raped her when she was 17-years-old on September 2, 1994 — just two days after his secret marriage.