After months of cryptic teasers, including a nearly eight-metre-high mountain of ice blocks placed in downtown Toronto and a takeover of the CN Tower, Drake released his anticipated ninth studio album, Iceman — and revealed two surprise albums to accompany it.
Habibti and Maid of Honour dropped at midnight alongside Iceman, with Drake showcasing the surprise projects at the end of his recent livestream, titled Iceman Episode 4. In total, he released 43 songs totalling approximately two hours and 30 minutes, with Iceman being the centrepiece.
Drake has been alluding to Iceman for a long time, first mentioning it in August 2024, following his highly publicized rap battle with Kendrick Lamar. In 2025, while touring Australia, Drake told fans that the record would be a “one-on-one conversation with y’all that you need to hear.”
While Drake released the joint album Some Sexy Songs 4 U with PartyNextDoor in 2025, these are his first solo albums since 2023’s For all the Dogs, and a lot is on the line. Drake’s reputation as the crown prince of rap, as well as his ability to land a No. 1 song — he’s one away from beating Michael Jackson’s record — have been put on ice since losing the beef with Lamar, so expectations are high.
Drake addresses his feud with Kendrick Lamar
Drake wastes no time on Iceman‘s intro, Make Them Cry, referencing the aftermath of losing the beef to Lamar and its impact. “I came here to turn a new leaf and maybe finally get some sleep,” he raps. “With Dot back in 2024 was a big piece.… Y’all keep on asking me what it did to me, that’s what it did to me.”
WATCH | Drake’s official visualizer for Make Them Cry:
Of the three albums, Iceman serves as the revenge dish, where Drake not only gets introspective about what happened, but takes new shots at Lamar, DJ Khaled, A$AP Rocky, DeMmar DeRozan, LeBron James, Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge and even questions his relationship with J. Cole.
“F–k a Big 3 anyway, there was too many chefs in the kitchen,” Drake raps on Make Them Pay, referencing First Person Shooter, the 2023 song with J. Cole that first set up the feud with Lamar. On the track, J. Cole rapped: “Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? We the Big 3 like we started a league.” Lamar’s 2024 rebuttal on Future’s song Like That — “Motherf–k the big three, n—a, it’s just big me” — officially kicked off the beef, which ultimately ended with Not Like Us, Lamar’s incisive diss track served over a bouncy West Coast beat.
On Iceman standout 2 Hard 4 the Radio, Drake flips that formula around, not only rapping over an Oakland-type beat, but also interpolating legendary Oakland rapper Mac Dre and his song 2 Hard 4 the F–kin’ Radio. “Imma show you what to do, lil’ boy,” he raps, a clear reference to Lamar. Dre is an early influence on Drake, and Drake famously paid homage to him on 2011’s The Motto.
It’s not the only beef reference Drake uses as inspiration. Ran to Atlanta is a direct reference to Lamar’s line on Not Like Us that accused Drake of being a music colonizer. It also notably reunites Drake with Atlanta mumble rapper Future, a longtime collaborator until the two had a falling out when Future’s track Like That, featuring Lamar, sparked the beef. “Cuttin’ ties with all my friends,” Future raps on Ran to Atlanta. “Ho went down that road, I can’t go again.”
WATCH | Drake’s official video for Ran to Atlanta:
Toronto visuals, Canadian symbols
Many of the music videos for Iceman spotlight Toronto landmarks, with imagery being shot at Yorkville restaurant Sotto Sotto, strip club Brass Rail and more.
In the What Did I Miss video from his livestream, Drake rides on a truck with ice blocks around downtown Toronto, cruising past King Taps, the Fairmont Royal York hotel, and other businesses. In one shot, fans can be seen recording Drake as he rolls through Union Station’s underpass.
The video for 2 Hard 4 the Radio features Drake inside the CN Tower, dancing inside of the white ring below the observation deck.
WATCH | Drake’s official video for 2 Hard 4 the Radio:
Fans were also quick to notice he also filmed inside Mayor Olivia Chow’s office at Toronto’s City Hall, where he put on the Chain of Office while seated at her desk. “He borrowed [my office] one evening, and we had an arrangement, and put it back in, and so all is good,” Chow told Breakfast Television.
Perhaps the most “Canada down” piece of all, though, was the Slap the City music video, in which Drake wears a fur jacket featuring logos for Canadian brands including Canadian Tire, Sleep Country, Manchu Wok, RBC and Molson Canadian. The song also includes a Canadian reference, as Drake raps, “You went to Queen’s University, now you a graduate, shout-out your family them.”
WATCH | Drake’s official video for Slap the City:
A number of other Canada-specific lyrics appear on Iceman, including: “Out in the 6, I’m a national treasure” (National Treasures); “From Vancouver you a BC baby” (Janice STFU); “Took a jet ski from Windsor to Michigan” (Make Them Know); “I was on Coulson Ave. with my mama, numbers started goin’ through the roof” (Make Them Remember); and more.
Drake delivered something for everyone
Where Iceman was about rehashing the beef and airing grievances over icy beats, Drake’s two surprise albums, Habibti and Maid of Honour, allowed the Toronto rapper a bit of sonic exploration.
Habibti, which translates to “my love” or “my darling” in Arabic, is Drake’s offering of love songs, but for him that means exploring the dysfunctional, transactional nature of his relationships. On I’m Spent, featuring Florida rapper Loe Shimmy, he wistfully sings through vocal pitching: “What if I go broke and I got no more racks to spend on you? / F–k on me and they just get out of dodge.”
WATCH | Drake’s official visualizer for I’m Spent:
The album sees the return of singing Drake, as he emotes over downtempo R&B beats. His longtime collaborator Noah “40” Shebib has production credits on High Fives, but otherwise Drake worked with more emerging producers, including rl, from Edmonton.
On Maid of Honour, Drake explores even more sounds: dancehall, house, Afro-swing and U.K. rap. If Iceman was about revenge and Habibti is his way of working through his emotional woes, Maid of Honour is the party record.
Featuring Central Cee, Sexyy Red, Popcaan, Brooklyn rapper Stunna Sandy and Chicago rapper Iconic Savvy, Maid of Honour is designed for the strip clubs and block parties of summer 2026. New Bestie, with its rolling drums and cheeky one-liners (“Ay yo my girl, suck in your waistline”), is the closest he gets to the sound of 2016 hit One Dance.
