Like him or not, Drake doesn’t think about slowing down. After his crushing defeat in the great rap civil war of 2024, he has methodically picked up the pieces, revitalized his fanbase and tried to build as much goodwill as possible. Luckily, long before Kendrick’s disastrous diss track “Not Like Us” – which is now the subject of a pending, hardly effective lawsuit – Drake was the biggest star in the world, surpassed at best by Taylor Swift (The Boy himself says this on “Red Button” from “For All The Dogs: Scary Hours Edition”).
So it wasn’t hard for Drizzy to make up ground last year. First there was his largely positively received collaboration project with PartyNextDoor, “$ome $exy $ongs 4 U,” which featured the veritable hit “Nokia” – a track that has proven surprisingly durable over the past few months. Then came Drake’s Australian and European tour, including taking over the Wireless Festival in the UK, where he brought guests like Lauryn Hill, Fakemink and Rema to the stage.
Drake started the rollout in July his upcoming solo album “Iceman” with a livestream clip of him, well, making ice cream. The first installment of his Iceman livestreams brought us the single “What Did I Miss?”, in which he most directly addresses the rap beef of the past year. We also got to see a clip of Drake driving around the city and listening to snippets of new music, including a song that fans online are typing as “Super Max.” A few weeks later, Drake followed up with a second episode of the series – this time with Central Cee at his side – and introduced a strange Pinocchio motif that probably alludes to the allegations from “Not Like Us”. There was also the new song “Which One”, which sounds much more Caribbean.
Drake’s “Iceman” rollout so far has been the kind of cryptic scavenger hunt tailor-made for a generation with fleeting attention spans – which, depending on your perspective, is either a smart move or further evidence that Drake has lost touch with the culture. Anyway, here’s everything we currently know about Drake’s upcoming album Iceman.
Creator culture as an integral part
This week, Drake released the music video for “$ome $exy $ongs 4 U” single “Somebody Loves Me” – consisting of 19 individual videos shot by various creators as part of a competition co-founded by Drake and Kai Cenat. This comes a week after Drake announced he would be the first guest on podcaster Bobbi Althoff’s rebooted series “Not This Again.”
Drake’s affinity for the new generation of content creators has long been evident: from the streamer references on “For All The Dogs” to the call to Kai Cenat when he responded to the album. As a co-owner of the crypto-based gambling platform Stake, which also owns the streaming platform Kick, Drake is also a regular guest on the channels of popular streamers. Last year he appeared on Xqc’s stream and famously referred to Steve Lacy as “Fragile Opp” for his appearance on The Pop Out.
In a kick stream with Adin Ross earlier this year, it was even revealed that the popular streamer had already heard the new album in full. “I’ve already heard the whole Iceman album. I’ve heard everything, he sent me the whole album in advance… Great album,” Ross said in his chat. Drake responded, “Now people are going to say you’re not thrilled when you talk about it like that.”
There is still a need for discussion
If “What Did I Miss” is any indicator, Drake has a lot to talk about. After what he aptly described as 20-on-1 – many of his previous collaborators seemed to be ganging up on him – Drake has taken on a role akin to a heel in wrestling: fully embracing the public characterization of himself. “I don’t give a fuck if you love me / I don’t give a fuck if you like me,” he raps.
You can literally see him storming onto a wrestling stage while the crowd boos and he enjoys the scorn like The Undertaker. When the song debuted at No. 2 on the Hot 100 — just behind Alex Warren’s seemingly unstoppable “Ordinary” — Drake turned to his favorite medium of late, Instagram, and claimed that industry forces were working against him. As his lawsuit against UMG makes its way through the courts, he appears to be speaking more and more openly about what he perceives as a manipulated music business.
Still popular worldwide
Drake’s takeover of the Wireless Festival was a smart move and proof that he still has fans worldwide. While some critics saw the move as further evidence that Drake was a so-called “colonizer,” local artists and fans could hardly disagree. Some of Drake’s strongest tracks come from collaborations with British artists, and it’s worth noting that Toronto and London have enough in common to make cultural exchange far more meaningful than, say, Atlanta – although Drake clearly has no problems there either. Last summer, Drake posted a photo on Instagram showing him working with British rapper Dave, and on the second episode of his Iceman livestream, he debuted “Which One” featuring Central Cee. With many of the biggest rappers in the US on Drake’s enemies list, he’s apparently found a wealth of new inspiration across the Atlantic.
Nights in the studio
During the same stream with Adin Ross earlier this month, Drake gave a brief insight into his recording process for “Iceman.” “I stay up all night recording for Iceman,” Drake said on the stream. “There’s a huge party going on outside. I hear a thousand people having a street party all day long. I run out there, party with them, take shots, come back – I just want to feel a little something, you know?”
A diligent fan page on Twitter compiled a timeline of Drake’s releases to date, noting that he typically releases an album a few months after the first single. With the exception of “Views” and “Nothing Was The Same,” Drake usually releases an album three to four months after the first single. We are currently almost two months after the release of “What Did I Miss?” – which would mean we could potentially expect a new album by October, Drake’s notoriously favorite month. Of course, this is internet-fueled numerical mysticism that should be taken with a grain of salt, but Drake’s cryptic posts lately actually suggest that the “Iceman” era is just around the corner.
Explosions in Toronto
There was a massive explosion in Toronto last night, and it looks like it was related to Drake’s long-awaited album Iceman. The rapper posted a cryptic Instagram story on Friday night that at first glance looked like news footage of a disaster. A huge cloud of smoke could be seen in the far distance on the Toronto horizon. The explosions took place at Downsview Park, the site of the EDM festival Veld, across from the temporary Rogers Stadium. On April 13, the park’s website posted a public notice alerting residents to “planned pyrotechnic effects.”
“During the week of April 13, residents and visitors may experience loud noises, flashes of light and/or smoke in the area for short periods in the evening,” it said. “These effects are part of a pre-approved controlled activity at Downsview Park and are being conducted by licensed professionals in coordination with the Toronto Police and Fire Services. There is no threat to public safety.”
A filming permit for “Project Bot” informed residents and businesses in the area; April 15th was given as the preparation day and April 17th was the end of filming. Toronto Police Service media spokesperson Ashley Visser confirmed to Rolling Stone that it was a film shoot, not a music video. “We can inform you that this was part of a film shoot. It was a controlled incident,” she wrote.
