What if Drake had instead gone for cutthroat brevity with his first new solo project since 2023’s For All the Dogs, mercilessly trimming it down to a lean and versatile 10-track project?
Drake’s three-pronged Iceman rollout strategy, as expected, has led to another round of busted-up charts records and continued discussions on where, exactly, the type of cultural omnipresence Drake has sustained for years now fits into the larger lineage of stratospheric, too-big-to-fail superstardom. Namely, we’ve seen even more Michael Jackson mentions, especially in light of Drizzy’s newly confirmed King of Pop-besting Hot 100 feat, but we’re not here to debate any of that.
Instead, we’re taking a closer look at Drake’s three new albums—Iceman, Maid of Honour, and Habibti—while inviting you to do the same. In the latest Billboard 200 update, the projects are resting comfortably in the top three spots, giving the 39-year-old yet another charts accomplishment to boast about.
With the benefit of nearly two weeks of hindsight, practically a lifetime in the streaming era, the intended identity of each project has become clearer. In this writer’s opinion, despite Iceman hogging the conversation thanks to its surplus of headlines-ready lyrics addressing (or at least alluding to) much of what fans would have hoped for Drake to address (or at least allude to), the real gem here is Maid of Honour.
MOH closer “Princess,” specifically, calls to mind the downtrodden melodrama of Scorpion highlight “Summer Games,” while the more playful tracks on the project—“Cheetah Print,” “BBW”—balance Drizzy’s characteristically woeful approach to romantic reflections.
This is not to say that Iceman doesn’t have its own standouts; “Janice STFU,” for one, feels handily poised to be the kind of song we’ll be hearing all summer, and for good reason: it earns its hookiness with a tight, just-leftfield-enough chorus that shrewdly builds on a Lykke Li interpolation.
Habibti, too, has its moments, though—for this writer, at least—it has admittedly gotten a bit lost in the shuffle of a combined two and a half hours’ worth of Drake songs.
Given the sheer volume of new music here, it’s no surprise that some fans have taken up the task of pulling their personal favorites from each album and combining them into a single playlist, some in an effort to imagine what a leaner, single-project release strategy for this high-stakes 6 god era might have sounded like.
Below, get in on the action yourself and curate your own perfect 10-track Drake album using songs from across Iceman, Maid of Honour, and Habibti.
