Love him or hate him, Drake isn’t showing signs of slowing down anytime soon. After suffering a blistering defeat in last year’s great Rap Civil War, he’s been methodically picking up the pieces, revitalizing his fanbase, and working to channel as much goodwill as he can. Luckily, long before Kendrick’s eviscerating diss track “Not Like Us” — now the subject of pending, probably misguided litigation — Drake was the biggest star in the world, perhaps only rivaled by Taylor Swift (The Boy says as much on “Red Button” from For All The Dogs: Scary Hours Edition), so it hasn’t been difficult for Drizzy to make positive inroads over the past year. There was his mostly well-received collaborative project with PartyNextDoor, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, which featured the bona fide hit “Nokia,” which has proven to have a decent amount of staying power over the past few months. Then, there was Drake’s Australian and European run of shows, including his takeover of Wireless Festival in the UK, which saw him bring out guests like Lauryn Hill, Fakemink, and Rema.
In July, Drake began the rollout of his upcoming solo album Iceman with a live streamed clip of him, well, making ice. The first installment of his Iceman live streams brought us the single “What Did I Miss?” where he most directly addresses the past year’s rap beef. We were also treated to a clip of Drake driving around town listening to snippets of new music, including a song fans online are speculating might be called “Super Max.” A few weeks later, Drake followed up with a second episode of the series, this time bringing out Central Cee — and intorducing a curious Pinnochio motif, which we can only speculate is referencing the claims levied against him in “Not Like Us” — for a new song called “Which One,” that takes on a decidedly more Carribean influence.
So far, Drake’s Iceman rollout has been the kind of cryptic treasure hunt tailor made for a generation typified by fleeting attention spans which, depending on who you ask, is either a good thing or more proof that Drake is out of touch with the culture. In any case, here’s everything we currently know we can expect from Drake’s upcoming album Iceman.
Creators Will Undoubtedly Play a Part in the Rollout
This week, Drake released the music video for the $ome $exy $ongs 4 U single “Somebody Loves Me,” featuring 19 seperate videos directed by various creators as part of a contest Drake and Kai Cenat put together. This came a week after Drake announced he’d be the first guest on podcaster Bobbi Althoff’s revamped series Not This Again. Drake’s affinity for the new generation of content creators has been front and center for some time now, from referencing streamers on For All The Dogs, to calling up Kai Cenat as he reacted to the album. As a part owner in the crypto-based gambling platform Stake, which also owns the streaming platform Kick, Drake is also a frequent guest on popular streamers channels. He showed up on Xqc’s stream last year and famously called Steve Lacy a “Fragile Opp” for his appearance at The Pop Out. On a Kick stream with Adin Ross earlier this year, it was eve revealed that the popular streamer had already heard much of the new album. “I’ve already listened to the whole Iceman album. I already listened to everything, he sent me the whole album early… Great album,” Ross said to his chat. Drake responded saying, “Now people are gonna say that you’re underwhelmed by it when you fucking talking about it like that.”
We Can Be Sure He’ll Address His Feud With Kendrick Lamar
If “What Did I Miss” is any indication, Drake has some things he’d like to get off his chest. After what he cleverly described as a 20 v. 1, in which many of his past collaborators seemingly teamed up against him, Drake has taken on a role akin to a heel in wrestling, leaning into the public’s characterization of him. “I don’t give a fuck if you love me / I don’t give a fuck if you like me,” he raps. You can imagine him storming onto a wrestling stage as the crowd boos, relishing in their disdain like he’s The Undertaker. When the song debuted at No. 2 on the Hot 100, edged out by Alex Warren’s seemingly unstopable “Ordinary,” Drake took to his prefered medium of late, Instagram, alleging industry machinations working against him. With his lawsuit against UMG making its way through the court, he appears to be speaking more openly about what he percieves to be a rigged music business.
Drake Might Be Leaning Into His UK Connects
Drake’s Wireless Festival takeover was a clever move of gamesmanship and evidence that he still has fans around the globe. While some detractors saw the move as more evidence of Drake being a so-called “Colonizer,” the actual artists and fans on the ground couldn’t seem to disagree more. Some of Drake’s best music has come from his collaborations with UK artists and it should be noted that Toronto and London have enough similarities for the cultural crossover to make far more sense than, say, Atlanta (though Drake clearly doesn’t have much issue there, either). Last summer, Drake posted a photo to Instagram of him working with UK rapper Dave, and on episode two of his Iceman live stream, he debuted “Which One,” featuring Central Cee. With many of the biggest rappers stateside on Drake’s enemies list, he’s seemingly found a wealth of inspiration across the pond.
Late Nights Appear to be Drake’s Greatest Nights
During that same stream with Adin Ross earlier this month, Drake offered a brief update on how the recording process has been for Iceman. “I’ll stay up all night fucking recording for Iceman,” Drake said during a stream with Adin Ross. “They’re having a full-blown party outside. I can hear a thousand people, them having a street festival all day. I’ll fucking run out there. I’ll turn up with them, do shots, come back — like, I just want a little, you know, I wanna feel it.”
We’ll Likely Get The Album This Year
An enterprising fan page on Twitter put together a timeline of Drake’s past releases, noting that he typically releases an album within a few months of dropping the first single. With the exception of Views and Nothing Was The Same, Drake usually drops within three or four fomths after releasing an album’s first single. We’re currently just under two months out from the release of “What Did I Miss,” which would mean we might expect to see a new album by October which, as we all know, is Drake’s favorite month. Of course, this is internet-brained numerology to be taken with a grain of salt, but Drake’s cryptic posting as of late does suggest the Iceman era is indeed iminent.
