Drake previewed the release of his three new albums via a livestream last night (Thursday, May 14), ending it with the following message: "I made this so that I could make this." It referred to his new album ICEMAN and its release alongside two other LPs, HABIBTI and MAID OF HONOUR. When the projects finally dropped on streaming service, fans immediately theorized this message and these records' releases reflected a complicated relationship with Drizzy's parent label, Universal Music Group (UMG).
As covered by Kurrco on Twitter, all three of these new full-lengths were released under OVO, under exclusive license to Republic Records. That's the division of UMG The Boy is under. Considering Drake's lawsuit against his label over "Not Like Us," this caused a lot of commotion.
In the replies of the tweet below, you can see fans speculating about what this could mean. The leading theory posits that the Toronto superstar released three albums at once in order to fulfill his present contract with the record company, thus allowing him to move elsewhere in the future or, presumably and most likely, go independent.
Other speculations include the idea that UMG didn't want to count his 21 Savage and PARTYNEXTDOOR collab LPs towards his deal. This is all still in pretty vague and unconfirmed territory, as fans don't exactly have access to these business conversations. But it all lines up with the narrative and the 6ix God's contentious relationship with UMG.
Drake's UMG Lawsuit
For those unaware, Drake's defamation lawsuit against UMG is in appeal, following a dismissal last year. He even referenced it lyrically on ICEMAN, making it clear he's not backing down. We'll see if that gets a revival in court or if the dismissal is its final fate.
Elsewhere, the Toronto superstar is making sure fans have all the access they need to fully enjoy his triple drop. Drake's new music videos show off some of the ICEMAN visual album experience highlights from the livestream. Some of them are from the other two albums, HABIBTI and MAID OF HONOUR. He's still dropping more as of writing this article, and we might get even more visual treatments.
