Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Drake's highly anticipated ninth studio album, Iceman, is here. As are his tenth and eleventh record. It turns out, after the year of teasing, Iceman is not just one album but three: Iceman, Habibti, and Maid of Honor. Together, the package makes up a gargantuan 43 songs.
The trilogy includes features from Future, 21 Savage, Molly Santana, Stunna Sandy, Sexyy Red, Central Cee, Popcaan, Iconic Savvy, Loe Shimmy, and PARTYNEXTDOOR. Alongside the package of music, visual counterparts for each song debuted early via a YouTube stream before the official release at midnight. Underground rapper Molly Santana, Future, DJ Akademiks, Comedian BenDaDonnn, and more have cameos in the videos. Stream the records on Spotify and Apple Music, below.
For many of Drake's longtime audience and music critics, a lot is riding on these projects. Following his 2024 major summer beef with Kendrick Lamar, from which he emerged as the loser to many, the Toronto legend has kept his head down choosing to make his feelings known primarily through prolonged legal battles with Kendrick Lamar and his label.
This trilogy of new music marks Drake's musical return to the spotlight — and is the first time the world is hearing how the beef and the fallout of the beef hit his conscience. An early leak of "1AM in Albany" suggested that the the event is still a deep and festering wound of betrayal within the rapper; ruminative bars on the track dissed everyone from Lamar, to Lebron James, J. Cole, and Joe Budden, if the rap blogs were to be believed.
Across the three projects, album tracks like "Burning Bridges," "2 Hard 4 The Radio" and a song where the rapper burns down a pro-Kendrick Lamar bot farm, only double down on that feeling. Elsewhere on the records, Drake delivers more pop radio-sensible, R&B-inflected songs.
It's still too early to see how these projects will be digested by not only the rap community but the general public. For those who abandoned their allegiance to Drake after "Not Like Us," Iceman, Habibti, and Maid of Honor are his opportunity to win them back; for those that stayed loyal, they're a moment to prove to others that the 6 God always had the chops to return to the top. But more importantly, for everyone else, the apathetic majority, Drake's return could means something more: that the rapper still has the power to summon even a fraction of the cultural relevance from his golden years. By Friday morning, we'll all likely know how it's all shaken out.
