On the one-year anniversary of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” video (and that now-iconic owl piñata beatdown), Drake decided it was time to address…everything and confirm his next album era. Enter ICEMAN: EPISODE ONE, a livestreamed performance-slash-therapy session where Drizzy played both the employee and the egomaniac, while casually reminding everyone he still has the Apple Music stats to justify it.
Drake asks his opps “What Did I Miss?”
Drake told fans to lock in at 9 PM. He started at 9:30 PM. Classic. The stream opened with him cosplaying as a bored ICEMAN Toronto employee, watching old videos of himself like a dad revisiting his high school mixtape era. Eventually, though, things got… Drake-y.
The throwback footage cut to a new music video where Drake, now surrounded by a suspicious amount of firearms, rapped about betrayal and hurt feelings. The song, which fans speculated sampled The Weeknd (it doesn’t), starts with “I don’t give a f*** if you love me.”
Then he gets to the meat of it:
“Last time I looked to my right, you n***** was standing beside me, How can some people I love hang around pussies who try me?”
This could apply to plenty of Drake’s former collaborators — like Future, who joined Kendrick Lamar on the explosive diss track “Like That.”
Champagne Papi didn’t seem ready to let all past tensions go. Fans are now speculating that one of his new bars takes aim at LeBron James — even though Drake still has the man tattooed on his arm.
“I saw bro went to Pop Out with them, but been dick riding gang since ‘Headlines,” Drake spits on the track.
Drake and LeBron once appeared to be tight, but the basketball icon might be too busy pretending to know the lyrics at concerts to address the line. That said, the shot might not be about LeBron at all. Some believe it’s aimed at DeMar DeRozan, who also attended “The Pop Out,” appeared in the “Not Like Us” visuals, and was called a “p****” by Drake on the basketball court.
Either way, let’s be honest — Drake’s probably never confirming who it’s really about.
Once the performance wrapped, Drake hopped in a branded ICEMAN truck like the ice cream man, playing deep cuts and new tracks for anyone still tuned in. Alongside his Smiley collab “2 Mazza,” he previewed a new song rumored to be titled “Supermax,” where he reflects on a heart-to-heart with sports journalist Taylor Rooks.
In the song, he recaps how he was once “talking to Taylor over drinks, and it was getting deep / ‘Not everyone can handle this pressure and, in the city, you’re the national treasure,’ that’s what she said to me…”
Taylor Rooks seemingly confirmed the line was about her. Her rumored ex, Jack Dorsey, is somewhere clutching a quartz crystal and trying not to cry.
Is Drake an ICEMAN?
In some ways, episode one of ICEMAN can be seen as a needed victory for the 6 God. Drake reminded everyone he’s still streaming royalty—claiming 39 of the most-played songs in Apple Music history, with “God’s Plan” topping the list for hip-hop. His new single debuted at No. 1 on both Spotify and Apple Music. On paper? He’s still him.
But if you actually watched the stream, he didn’t sound like someone on top—he sounded like someone still trying to prove it. The episode wasn’t just a flex of stats and hits; it was a full-blown vent session. From bringing up old beefs (many of which are now one-sided) to abruptly ending the stream after a fan called him a “bitch” in the chat (“we can fold that up right now,” he replied), Drake seemed less focused on the music and more locked in on the noise.
Even the visuals sent a message—Drake surrounded by guns, posing like he’s ready to unload. But at this point, the sneak disses don’t hit like warning shots. They feel more like hallway whispers: vague, bitter, and aimed at enemies he won’t name.
So, is Drake an ICEMAN? Or just a very rich, very online man with too much time and a chip on his shoulder?
Either way, the rollout is on. And with his headlining set at Wireless Festival kicking off July 11 (catch it on someone’s livestream), more music (and more pettiness) is definitely coming.
