Drake is currently gearing up to drop his ninth studio album, ICEMAN, following months of teasing. At the time of writing, the project doesn't have an official release date, though it's expected to arrive sometime soon. It was previously expected to arrive before the end of the year, but according to DJ Akademiks, he's losing hope.
During a recent livestream, the internet personality discussed what's to come from the Toronto rapper. He set the bar high, though he thinks fans might have to wait longer than expected for the new album.
“So, ICEMAN is absolutely dropping, I’m losing faith that it’s dropping this year,” he said. “This ain’t a 300 album. This ain’t a collab with PARTYNEXTDOOR. Next album is doing 400 to 600, and honestly, if I could control Drake’s marketing, he would’ve been doing 750 constantly.”
Whether or not Ak is onto something remains to be seen. So far, Drake has previewed the upcoming LP with the release of "What Did I Miss?", "Which One" featuring Central Cee, and "Dog House" featuring Yeat and Julia Wolf.
Drake ICEMAN
Earlier this week, he even posted a black and white video of himself singing along to an unreleased song, which was featured in one episode of his ICEMAN livestream series. Fans were impressed, and are looking forward to hearing what else Drizzy has up his sleeve. He discussed the unique rollout during an interview with Complex last month, revealing that he was looking for a challenge.
“I was asked by a creative partner what I love and hate about rolling out an album,” he recalled at the time. “I expressed that I love the opportunity for a clean slate of thoughts and excitement and messaging when it comes to the music. What I hate is the redundancy of this formulaic approach that’s engrained in our brains from early label days. Single, video, single, video, album cover post, etc.”
“I have been dying to act and have been dying for a challenge,” Drake added. “The game is extremely calm seas right now. Nobody is rocking any boat on the water and so once we discussed a live stream rollout, it just sounded like the perfect mix of risk and reward for me.”
