43 songs, 2.5 hours, three albums at once: Drake makes an impressive comeback after the lost beef with Kendrick Lamar. All information about the triple drop.
Three hard drives. On the screen: “I made this so that I could make this.” Drake didn’t drop one album today, not two. He hit three straight away. “Iceman”, “Habibti”, “Maid Of Honor” – 43 songs with a total playing time of over 2.5 hours. Anyone who thinks this is overwhelming generosity hasn’t been paying attention over the last two years.
It is a comeback from a position that can rightly be described as damaged. The beef with Kendrick Lamar 2024 didn’t end in a draw. Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us” won several Grammys, and Kendrick performed the track at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. And Drake stood there like someone who got caught up in a discussion he didn’t order. Music journalist Peter A. Berry summed it up for the Canadian news channel “CP24”: Drake’s loss against Kendrick is probably the biggest loss a rapper has ever suffered in a public conflict. That sits.
The slightly different promo
The fact that “Iceman” appears in this shadow is not a coincidence, but the only possible context. Drake knows that. The promo knew that. A 7.5 meter high ice sculpture in the middle of Toronto was supposed to announce the album. The release date was hacked early by Twitch streamer Kishka. That’s fitting, because the world of content creators is no longer a marketing channel for Drake – he is part of it: investor in “Stake”, which owns the popular streaming platform “Kick”, regular on “XQC” and Adin Ross.
On the album itself, the processing takes place on several tracks at the same time. “Ran To Atlanta” turns Kendrick’s diss line right into the title: “You run to Atlanta when you need a check balance.” Lines about fake streams, about lost confidants, about people who were at the Pop Out and still took part since “Headlines”. In any case, the feature list reads like a classic Drake roster: Future, 21 Savage, Central Cee, Popcaan, Sexyy Red, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Molly Santana. Plus Noah “40” Shebib back behind the controls. Anyone who missed the sound of the early OVO years can look forward to a whole armada of new songs. And with the sheer selection of songs, there should be something for everyone – from classic hi-hat settings to distorted guitars like on “Princess”.
Quantity as an argument
At the same time, one can ask oneself whether 43 songs at once are still an argument for art in a music landscape that is increasingly flooded with AI-generated material. The question Drake raises with this drop without answering: How does it help art when even its human representatives start thinking in terms of content output? Three albums at the same time is an announcement – but also a strategy that is structurally almost indistinguishable from what it implicitly competes against.
In 2.5 hours you can take a flight from Berlin to London, watch two episodes of an HBO series or wander completely through Ikea. Or you can listen to all three Drake albums now.
