Key Takeaways
- Drake dropped three albums in one day— Iceman, Habibti, and Maid of Honour—splitting his personas into a focused rap war record, a moody R&B set, and his most experimental dance project yet.
- Iceman is a bar-heavy, beef-obsessed record that cautiously jabs at Kendrick Lamar but goes hardest at former allies like A$AP Rocky, fixing past complaints about Drake’s scattered albums while risking replay value with its one-track-minded bitterness.
- Habibti hints at what Drake in his 40s might sound like—introspective, emotionally present R&B unpacking the emptiness behind his playboy lifestyle. While Maid of Honour pushes his club instincts into polarizing, side-quest territory that still delivers cult-classic moments and big looks for young women rappers.
How was Drake ever going to live up to the hype around Iceman? He had to do something out of the box.
An album teased for months—and one representing his longest break between records—Iceman, in some ways the most important project of his career. This would be the official response to Kendrick Lamar’s onslaught in 2024. On May 15, after years of waiting, he finally dropped Iceman. Then, in an act of pure maximalist craziness, he dropped two additional surprise albums—Maid of Honour and Habibti. In one single day, Drake dropped 41 songs spanning two and a half hours.
The starting point, of course, is Iceman. It's easily the best out of the three—a full-on rapping exhibition hyperfocused on the beef with Dot and the fallout, including the perceived friends who left him to fend for himself. Iceman is what 1 vs. 20 sounds like as an album.
The second album is Habibti, which is slower, more R&B-based, with hints of a Drake that we have been hearing since So Far Gone. Like Iceman, there's tension here—mostly about romantic relationships. It also doesn't carry the same score-settling energy. .
And then there's Maid of Honour—which is, in the best and most frustrating sense, completely batshit. Easily his most experimental album yet and one of the most electric mainstream releases in recent memory, it’s a dance record, spanning everything from EDM to Jersey Club to dance hall. Out of the three albums, Maid of Honour has easily been the most divisive from fans, with memes mentioning that Iceman is doing the heavy lifting.
So what's the verdict? After listening to 41 songs in a couple of hours, here are our first reactions to Drake's trio of albums: Iceman, Habibti, and Maid of Honour.
Drake is back to square one with Kendrick
Going into Iceman, the big question was how he would handle the events of 2024. In a lot of ways we're back to where we were prior to the beef, where subs were being traded. Much like we predicted, Iceman does not offer many particularly scathing lines towards Kendrick Lamar. There are many lines that address the beef, but he never says the name and there are few that twist the knife deeper.
The hardest jab comes on "Janice STFU," where he raps: "White kids listen to you, 'cause they feel some guilt, And that's how yo' soul gets refilled, Handin' out turkeys on camera inside of yo' hood, then you go back to the hills, How many houses you build?, How many souls did you heal off the back of yo' deal?"
On "Make Them Pay," Drake reaffirms Kendrick's anti “Big Three" sentiment—"Fuck a big three anyway, there was too many chefs in the kitchen, it was a mess to begin with"—and questions UMG faking streams for Dot.
On "Make Them Remember," Kendrick is subject to short jokes ("And Muggsy Bogues dunked for once, even I'm a bit amazed") and having his "What is it, the braids?" lyrics thrown back in his face.
Drake navigates the situation with extreme caution; there does seem to be a fatigue with going through the motions of a beef, but also a bitterness that won't let it go fully. —Mr. Wavvy
Really, the hardest disses were for ASAP Rocky
Kendrick Lamar is far from the only friend-turned-foe to receive choice words on Iceman. Other victims of Drake's pen include LeBron James ("Please stop asking what's going on with 23 and me, I'm a real n***a and he's not"), DJ Khaled ("And your people are still waitin' for a free Palestine/But apparently everything isn't black and white and red and green, damn"), J. Cole ("I love you 'cause of the history, but if we being real, I could never forgive ya/And you never called me back, but destiny's written."), DJ Mustard ("’Rack City,’ bh, we remember that, yeah, you should try and get back to that") and DeMar DeRozan ("Crodie, we threw you away/G Pops sent us a real one from Diego/And next thing you knew, he was doing parades").
But no one got it worse on Iceman than A$AP Rocky. Drake is relentless, needling Pretty Flacko on numerous occasions throughout the project. On "Ran to Atlanta," he takes a shot at Rihanna ("We sharing women I already fucked at the height of my success"). On "Burning Bridges," Drake spends the first verse terrorizing the Harlem rapper's newfound life as a family man settling down in Los Angeles, before taunting, "Your baby mama ain't even post your single" on the hook. On "Firm Friends," Drizzy encourages his Club Paradise Tour opener to "K-Y-S-A-S-A-P" (read: kill yourself).
Rocky already threw some punches at Drake on Don't Be Dumb's "Stole Ya Flow" ("You Stole My Flow, So I Stole Your B*tch"). With a reported disc 2 dropping later this year, it will be interesting to see if Rocky continues the beef. —Mr. Wavvy
Iceman fixes a common Drake complaint of past albums
Although Views is among the best projects in Drake's catalogue, its mixed bag of genres and flows that highlights a problem that has persisted throughout his career. Ultimately, Drake is a people pleaser, with much of his past decade defined by trying to create songs for every type of Drake fan on each project.
Which makes the three-album strategy interesting is the fact that you can judge each album on its own terms. If you want singing Drake, Iceman isn't for you. Iceman gets straight down to business. There's no song for the ladies, no song for the dancefloor, and no chasing a No. 1 record. This is pure bar-you-to-death Drake. For years, many have yearned for Drake to be more intentional with his rapping, and that's exactly what he achieves. As of publication, it is easily the most acclaimed of the three albums he dropped last night. But does too much of a good thing work against it?
Iceman is aggressively about the beef and those who turned their back on him, and that singular focus is both its strength and its limitation. In spots it's thrilling, but the one-topic nature of the album makes it harder to sustain as it goes on. In a lot of ways I think of Eminem's Kamikaze, where he corrected the lulls of recent work while opening fire on anyone who crossed him.
Despite arriving a full two years after the beef, the album succeeds on the strength of Drake's ability to channel his anger into a sense of urgency. But like Kamikaze, once the dust settles, Iceman may find its replay value limited by the very score-settling that makes it compelling. —Mr. Wavvy
Habibti gives clues on what Drake in his 40s will sound like
In the past, Drake has dubbed Aaliyah as something of a North Star, drawn to her ability to reach male and female audiences authentically yet unconventionally. He's honored her as the go-to for status-conscious it-girls while also giving alpha-athlete dudes space to simp, yearn, and express loneliness.
That accumulated cultural goodwill gives Habibti, the R&B album, the space to soundtrack Get Ready With Me TikToks and hungover pillow-hugging—but could it be bigger than that? Simply put, Drake is either more compelling or more emotionally present than R&B's current leading men. His singing leaves something to be desired, but his blend of celebrity intrigue and boutique production could eclipse a competition that's become redundant or absent.
Still, Habibti offers a glimpse of what Drake could sound like both in his 40s and in his feelings. Releasing a short, solo, focused R&B project for the first time—strange, given his catalog—it recenters Heartbreak Drake not just as an avatar for emotion and genre fluidity, but as an auteur capable of servicing his fanbase and staking out new territory entirely on his own terms. —Ian Stonebrook
Iceman is bitter, while Habibti shows introspection
It's hard to feel sorry for the Iceman when he's flanked by co-ed co-stars in his Toronto and Texas estates. Still, The Boy's brand of R&B has always reflected a man only willing to go full force once a love interest left. The "Sooner Than Later" lover chose the world over the girl—and kept choosing it.
Having it all materially is not the same as having it all intimately, and Drake unpacks that candidly and cleverly through Habibti. The chaotic opener "Rusty Intro" is equal parts accountability and trolling for his tumultuous dating life, leading to a roller coaster narrative of vacation-dependent situationships on "WNBA," the strip club framed as a conquest casino, and eventually landing on more vulnerable musings about actually settling down on "Gen 5" and "White Bone." Drake's had his cake and eaten it too for well over a decade. On Habibti, he admits that indulging in all the frosting is finally making him sick. —Ian Stonebrook
Maid of Honour is the most experimental music Drake has ever made
Last night, Gordo, one of Drake's go-to producers and one of the masterminds behind Honestly, Nevermind, said that if you loved that album you would love this one. It's an interesting proclamation, because that is easily the most polarizing album in Drake's career—so plenty of people actually hate it. And Maid of Honour is far more experimental, which means plenty will hate this one too. Even so, it is very good in spots, including "True Bestie" and "Road Trips"—but it's a lot to ask of fans who want to see Drake go for blood.
This really is ultimately another sidequest project for Drake. And attaching it to another album is probably a good strategy; it almost guarantees that it will have a cult classic reputation to it. —Dimas Sanfiorenzo
Really, the young female rappers show out here
A new Drake album is always a showcase for new names and talent. With this trio of albums, he embraces three young rappers representing three distinct lanes—underground, drill, and trap—with Molly Santana, Stunna Sandy, and Iconic Savvy. Not only are all three of their songs album highlights—"Ran to Atlanta," "Outside Tweaking," and "True Bestie"—but all three steal their respective tracks outright.probably a good strategy; it almost guarantees that it will have a cult classic reputation to it. —Dimas Sanfiorenzo
There has to be a deeper meaning behind Drake's three-album strategy
When Drake dropped More Life in 2017, it was marketed as a "playlist"—a complete curation of his catalog for every type of Drake fan. Nearly a decade later, Drizzy took feeding every flavor of his fanbase to a new level, by dropping these three albums simultaneously.
Drake's decision to parlay his versatility into three distinct projects isn't just shocking, it's historic. Drake will most likely become the first artist in history to chart three albums in the Top 3 of the Billboard 200.
So why do it? Is making chart history enough? Or is this Drake pulling a Frank Ocean, trying to get out of his UMG deal? Maybe this is Drake trying to prove that he alone is in fact the big three, by dropping three albums that will dominate the charts? Or was he just sitting on a mountain of music and wanted to hit all demographics?
Who knows, but it's a fascinating move from a rapper who has had one of the most interesting rollouts in recent memory. —Jon Barlas
