Drake has fans wondering if his three-projects-at-once release strategy is part of a larger plan to bring his label deal to a close.
A key line highlighted among the onslaught of new music from the 6 god arrives on “Make Them Pay,” the same song in which DJ Khaled gets called out. Toward the end of the track, Drake raps, “I’m better off independent, they should let him leave, yeah / ‘Cause I just wanna be free.”
Naturally, this, when taken alongside some other choice lyrics (including on fellow Iceman tracks “Janice STFU” and “B’s on the Table”) quickly led to fans pointing to Drake’s legal action against UMG, i.e. Universal Music Group, the parent company of Republic Records and other labels.
“Swear my label gotta free me, baby,” Drake asserts on “Janice STFU.”
On “B’s on the Table,” featuring 21 Savage, he argues that he’s “fightin’ the man, not suin’ the rapper,” marking a clear allusion to Kendrick Lamar.
All three of Drake’s new projects—Iceman, Habibti, and Maid of Honour—are listed on Apple Music as being released by OVO, “under exclusive license to Republic Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.”
Though there’s been no direct confirmation, or denial, of what the future of Drake’s label situation might look like, fans were quick to pounce on all of this in the immediate aftermath of Friday’s triple release.
Notably, there is some precedent here. Back in 2016, Frank Ocean was widely speculated to have fulfilled his Def Jam deal with the Endless drop, followed just one day later by the modern classic Blonde, released independently. This speculation was complicated somewhat, however, by an Associated Press source later that year.
