Can Drake’s upcoming solo album shift the conversation back to him being the best?
The arrival of Drake‘s Iceman is the biggest moment in rap since Kendrick Lamar took the stage at Super Bowl LIX in February 2025. Album-wise, few artists generate buzz quite like Drake does, and even the imminent arrival of his first post-beef solo LP is making more noise than usual. This isn’t just a new album from Drake but a generational event — seemingly his first official statement following his loss in the breathlessly reported beef with Lamar. He’s dropped a battery of loosies since his defeat, but few have stuck. For many, the past two years have brought to mind a question: Has Drake spent the last decade coasting on the goodwill of an unimpeachable catalog?
When’s the last time Drake released an album that critics and fans unanimously agreed upon? Scorpion? Views? We’re approaching a decade since Drake has dropped what many believe to be a classic. He’s shared projects with undeniable hits since, but did any of them — Certified Lover Boy, Honestly, Nevermind, For All The Dogs, and collab albums Her Loss with 21 Savage or $$$4U with PartyNextDoor — build upon his catalog? Or did they simply reiterate that, at this point, he is more a major cultural figure than he is a rap superstar?
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With Iceman, Drake has a chance to reassert himself as something more than a celebrity and hitmaking machine; this is a chance to shift the conversation back toward him after it has been dominated over the past few years by his adversary. Even as Drake gears up for the Iceman era, though, this week has made clear how inextricably linked the two icons’ careers are. For unknown reasons, Lamar’s Grammy-winning album GNX was removed from Apple Music and a few other streaming services, while videos for “luther” and “Not Like Us” were removed from YouTube and reuploaded a few hours later. Consumers immediately took to social media to toss around rumors and theories in an attempt to explain why this would happen the one week Drake is dropping his much-hyped album.
Was this a false flag by Lamar? A sly way to get into Drake’s head as the 6 God continues to pull out all the stops in the build-up to Iceman? All signs point to no. But still, it shows that both artists will be unable to operate without fans trying to connect their moves to the other.
So, what the hell can Drake do about it? He can make a hit-filled triumph that re-centers everything about the artist back onto the art itself. Back in 2013, on the Boi-1da and Vinylz-produced “5 AM in Toronto,” Drake laments that other rappers are “PR stunting like that’s the movement,” while he’s “the only [one] still known for the music.” At the time, that was absolutely the case. Is he still capable of reaching those heights? Possibly. He’s certainly promoting the record like he knows he has something special.
He’s been all over his hometown teasing the record, serving up livestreams from a truck owned by a local ice business. His famous courtside seats at Raptors games were covered in ice. He cooked up an explosion while shooting a video that terrified residents of Toronto. And most recently, he hid the album’s release date in a massive block of ice on Bond Street in downtown Toronto, leading fans to attack the sculpture with weapons and flamethrowers.
Everything else about Iceman has been kept entirely under wraps. It’s unclear whether the singles released over the past year — “Dog House” with Julia Wolf and Yeat, “Which One” with Central Cee, and “What Did I Miss?” — will be featured on the album. If they are included, that would be disappointing. The songs are fine, but everything surrounding the album suggests something bigger, newer, greater. It’s been a while since Drake and 40 have been working like they did at their peak, but rumors have circulated that perhaps the producer is more involved than he was on previous releases.
Outside of these breadcrumbs, the only other puzzle pieces we can fit together are based on nothing but conjecture. There’s likely to be a swipe — or 20 — at Kendrick, Rick Ross, and others, and Drizzy is probably going to touch on his ongoing lawsuit with Universal Music Group. After all, there was a photo in Drake’s recent zine of Dr. Dre and UMG boss Lucian Grainge high-fiving, overlaid with a church sign that read: “Remember you are dust.” There is clearly some lingering ill will between Drake and his rivals — both real and imagined. Much like Michael Jordan, the 6 God is at his best when he’s disgruntled. For too long, he’s had to concoct enemies, build a world of haters from scraps and perceived slights. Now, though, the enemies haven’t only stormed the gates, they’ve taken over the castle. Drake is finally armed with the tools to turn in his best work. Now, let’s see if he makes good on that potential with Iceman.
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