YouTuber and music critic Anthony Fantano has offered his thoughts on Drake’s long-awaited Iceman, and it wasn’t exactly glowing.
Fantano hasn’t been the biggest fan of Drizzy’s output, especially his more recent material, but his review of Iceman places the album among the worst of the Canadian superstar’s career. At the top of the review, he recapped the last few years of Drake’s output and said that it’s become increasingly clear that the rapper doesn’t quite have the “juice” that he used to.
He ultimately described Iceman as “sad” and “bitter,” and suggested that Drake spent too much time on the record calling out people who he believes wronged him. “Getting a few bars off on some goofball like DJ Khaled is not some lyrical feat, even if you are making a valid point about Palestine in the process,” Fantano said. “Drake insists on making the lumps he took in the midst of this battle Iceman’s focus.”
He compared how Drake came back from the beef with Kendrick Lamar in 2024 to how Jay-Z recovered from his beef with Nas.
“Jay was the master of his own reality and the ultimate dictator of his narrative and showed us that through good lyricism and giving the fans what they wanted: Good music, not just grievance masquerading as music,” he added. “Conversely with Iceman, Drake can’t help but confirm pretty much all the worst criticisms against him. That’s he’s a duplicitous creep and a numbers-obsessed clout goblin. Even the cover of this record seems like a massive misstep.”
He also criticized the large number of beat switches on the album, the length, and some of the songwriting choices. “This album is Drake at his saddest, his lowest point ever,” he said. “And the silver lining to all of that, in my view, is that I would hope it can really only go up from here. Like, this is really pretty much rock bottom.” He awarded the album a “light two” out of ten, and indicate that he will review the other two new Drake albums, Maid of Honour and Habibti, in the future.
Previously, Fantano gave Drake’s last full-length solo album, For All the Dogs, a five out of ten, but he was even harsher on Drizzy’s 2022 surprise-released house record, Honestly, Nevermind. He gave the album a “not good” out of ten, and later clashed with the rapper himself after he shared a video featuring fake DMs from Drake detailing a vegan cookie recipe.
After the video circulated online, Drake responded by sharing a screenshot of his real DMs to Fantano. “Your existence is a light 1. And the 1 is cause you are alive,” wrote Drizzy. “And cause you somehow wifed a Black girl. I’m feeling a light to decent 1 on your existence.” Ultimately, Fantano left Drake on read, but responded in an Instagram Live stream calling the DMs “quite sad and unfortunate.”
He joked that Drake was “obsessed” with him considering that he was familiar enough with his ratings system, and that if he wants to come through with better insults, he should consider hiring a ghostwriter. Drake later laughed off Fantano’s controversy last year, when he faced criticism for his past use of the N-word.
Iceman has received a polarized response from critics, with many major publications such as The Guardian and Slant Magazine ripping into the project. Pitchfork, which has praised previous Drake albums, gave the record a 4.8 out of 10 in a review by Jayson Greene. However, Maid of Honour was given an 8 out 10 by the publication in a review from Alphonse Pierre.
