{"id":645266,"date":"2026-05-15T19:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T19:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/645266\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T19:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T19:24:14","slug":"5-takeaways-from-drakes-iceman-habibti-and-maid-of-honour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/645266\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Takeaways From Drake\u2019s Iceman, Habibti, and Maid of Honour"},"content":{"rendered":"

First off: Condolences to the people of Toronto. Drake\u2019s Iceman rollout<\/a> plopped full blocks of ice in the middle of downtown, turned the CN Tower into his personal projection room, and wrought two<\/a> explosives displays<\/a>, one of which \u201cunnerved residents who had lived through a propane plant explosion in 2008.\u201d Yes, the long road to Drizzy\u2019s first solo effort since 2023\u2019s For All the Dogs<\/a> has been paved with built-for-Twitch stunts and promotional hijinks ripped right from Looney Toons. But his greatest fake out happened during a May 14 stream previewing all of Iceman, before revealing the release had company: two additional albums, Habibti and Maid of Honour.<\/p>\n

All told, Drake delivered 43 new tracks (or nearly two-and-a-half hours of music) to sift through; among them are some of his best songs since Scorpion. So stretch out, get pajammy-ed up<\/a>, and let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n

Surprise! It\u2019s Triplets<\/p>\n

Although Drake\u2019s clear goal with this triple drop is unloading the clip, there\u2019s a semblance to the sprawl. Iceman is the blockbuster rap album, packed with his heaviest beats in years. Habibti is a watery rendition of Heartbreak Drake, fitted out with classic R&B (\u201cI\u2019m Spent,\u201d the on-the-nose \u201cClassic\u201d) and SWAG<\/a>-style acoustics (\u201cRusty Intro\u201d). Don\u2019t throw on the cozy oversized sweater<\/a> yet, though: Maid of Honour is the club record, landing like a more \u201cControlla\u201d-fied sequel to Honestly, Nevermind, thanks in part to the lights-out \u201cFergalicious\u201d flip in opener \u201cHoe Phase\u201d (which is basically what Jack Harlow\u2019s \u201cFirst Class\u201d could\u2019ve been if it hadn\u2019t, well, sucked<\/a>). While Iceman is the centerpiece here, Maid of Honour stands to get more mileage this summer. Deploying a top-notch, slutty house-meets-electro record is one of the canniest moves he\u2019s ever made. It\u2019s also the one arena where Kendrick can\u2019t compete.<\/p>\n

Smoke For Everyone<\/p>\n

Top of mind ahead of this album was how Drizzy would respond to the Kendrick Lamar feud that brought his career to such a low he sued his own label<\/a>, lost<\/a>, and decamped to Australia with faux sizzling bullet holes<\/a> in his techwear. There\u2019s plenty of smoke for K.Dot here, although it\u2019s notably less virulent than the fire-and-brimstone of Drake’s last diss track, \u201cThe Heart Part 6.\u201d On \u201cMake Them Remember,\u201d he compares Kendrick to petite basketball player Muggsy Bogues, deems GNX \u201cmid, mid, mid, skip, skip,\u201d and addresses the recent disappearance of \u201cNot Like Us\u201d and other Kendrick tracks from DSPs: \u201cWho is this guy for real \/ I guess a magician \/ 100 million streams vanished, no one got questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

If any pre-release single really set the table for the score-settling, though, it\u2019s \u201cWhat Did I Miss?,\u201d which has more ire for the friends Drake lost favor with amid Kendrickgate. Not-so-strays land on A$AP Rocky and Rihanna (\u201cYour baby mama ain\u2019t even post a single, damn where she at, damn where she at?\u201d), Jay-Z (“I’ll take $500K, not the dinner, I never could learn shit from none of y’all”), Lebron James (\u201cPlease stop askin\u2019 about what\u2019s goin\u2019 on with 23 and me \/ I\u2019m a real n\u2014a and he\u2019s not, it\u2019s in my DNA.\u201d), and \u201cNot Like Us\u201d producer Mustard (\u201cMustard heard about us, gotta catch up to the slaps \/ You ain\u2019t had one since me and YG rapped\u201d). Later, on \u201cMake Them Pay,\u201d Drake has bones to pick with Rick Ross (\u201cI was aidin’ Ross with streams before Adin Ross had ever streamed\u201d) and J. Cole (\u201cFuck a big three anyway, there was too many chefs in the kitchen\u201d). But his sharpest admonishment is for DJ Khaled, who Drake calls out for staying silent on the genocide in Gaza: \u201cThe beef was fully live, you went halal and got on your deen \/ And your people are still waitin’ for a free Palestine \/ but apparently everything isn’t black and white and red and green.\u201d It\u2019s not just posturing, either: Drake signed a ceasefire petition<\/a> back in October, 2023.<\/p>\n