![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DRAKE_ICEMAN-ARTICLE-SHELL.png\")
<\/p>\nRapper said he hid the release date of his album Iceman in the ice blocks<\/p>\n
If you were near the Toronto Eaton Centre on April 20, you might have noticed a huge block of ice in a nearby parking lot.<\/p>\n
But no, winter isn\u2019t just taking a long time to thaw out \u2014 the ice block came from Drake, and was made up of 3,500 smaller blocks weighing slightly more than a million pounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cRelease Date Inside. 81 BOND STREET DOWNTOWN TORONTO,\u201d Drake told fans on a post to his Instagram account.<\/p>\n
Turns out the whole thing was a marketing stunt the rapper set up to draw attention to his upcoming album Iceman, which drops on May 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Along with the parking lot block, Drake also \u201ciced out\u201d two courtside seats at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto where the Toronto Raptors play<\/p>\n
Those are definitely interesting ways to get people listening to your music, but was the stunt a good one?<\/p>\n
A clever way of engaging fans<\/p>\n
Marketing experts say the stunt was actually a pretty good way of getting people not only talking, but sharing.<\/p>\n
“People are going to come and be part of that event and post on their social media,” said Natalie Coulter, a professor in communication and media studies at York University in Toronto, Ontario.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The ice block stands at 81 Bond St., in downtown Toronto, where people gather to be near it. (Patrick Morrell\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Along with that, the stunt was a unique and memorable one, which experts say helped garner fan engagement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a unique form of user engagement, by having it go from the online space to this real life interaction,\u201d said Amara Pope, a marketing and communications manager whose PhD project focused on Drake.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coulter, who studies youth digital media, said it also created a positive experience for young people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung kids are showing up and getting pictures with ice,\u201d she said. \u201cHe could have done something that made young people look dumb.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The ice sculpture was hosed down on April 22 by Toronto Fire because fans were starting fires on top of it and using sledgehammers to try to break it apart. (Evan Mitsui\/CBC)<\/p>\n
The ice stunt also symbolizes a rebrand in Drake\u2019s home city, according to Pope.<\/p>\n
“We’re going to see Drake moving from that heartbroken lover to a more iced-out version, something more cold,” she said.<\/p>\n
But what did kids and teens in Toronto think about the stunt?<\/p>\n
Click play to hear what they had to say. \u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Check out these other videos:<\/p>\n
Have more questions? \ufeffWant to tell us how we’re doing? Use the \u201csend us feedback\u201d link below. \u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rapper said he hid the release date of his album Iceman in the ice blocks If you were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-409330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}