{"id":727636,"date":"2026-05-15T18:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/drake-made-an-album-release-feel-like-an-event-again\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T18:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:10:16","slug":"drake-made-an-album-release-feel-like-an-event-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/drake-made-an-album-release-feel-like-an-event-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake made an album release feel like an event again"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a26ea2fe543f\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a26ea2fe543f\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/drake-made-an-album-release-feel-like-an-event-again\/#The_Iceman_rollout_was_simultaneously_annoying_unpredictable_and_genuinely_exciting_Thats_a_rarity_these_days\" >The Iceman rollout was simultaneously annoying, unpredictable, and genuinely exciting. That\u2019s a rarity these days.<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"deck\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Iceman_rollout_was_simultaneously_annoying_unpredictable_and_genuinely_exciting_Thats_a_rarity_these_days\"><\/span>The <i>Iceman<\/i> rollout was simultaneously annoying, unpredictable, and genuinely exciting. That\u2019s a rarity these days.<br \/>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"content_blocks\">\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-280505\" class=\"content_block paragraph image triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"media_wrapper\">\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1440,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/GettyImages-2089850800_vcjtro\/drake-iceman-habibti-maid-of-honour-album-rollout-op-ed.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_220,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/GettyImages-2089850800_vcjtro\/drake-iceman-habibti-maid-of-honour-album-rollout-op-ed.jpg 220w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_300,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/GettyImages-2089850800_vcjtro\/drake-iceman-habibti-maid-of-honour-album-rollout-op-ed.jpg 300w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/GettyImages-2089850800_vcjtro\/drake-iceman-habibti-maid-of-honour-album-rollout-op-ed.jpg 400w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/GettyImages-2089850800_vcjtro\/drake-iceman-habibti-maid-of-honour-album-rollout-op-ed.jpg 600w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_750,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/GettyImages-2089850800_vcjtro\/drake-iceman-habibti-maid-of-honour-album-rollout-op-ed.jpg 750w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_840,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/GettyImages-2089850800_vcjtro\/drake-iceman-habibti-maid-of-honour-album-rollout-op-ed.jpg 840w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_960,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/GettyImages-2089850800_vcjtro\/drake-iceman-habibti-maid-of-honour-album-rollout-op-ed.jpg 960w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1260,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/GettyImages-2089850800_vcjtro\/drake-iceman-habibti-maid-of-honour-album-rollout-op-ed.jpg 1260w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1800,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/GettyImages-2089850800_vcjtro\/drake-iceman-habibti-maid-of-honour-album-rollout-op-ed.jpg 1800w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_2400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/GettyImages-2089850800_vcjtro\/drake-iceman-habibti-maid-of-honour-album-rollout-op-ed.jpg 2400w,\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 640px\" alt=\"Drake made an album release feel like an event again\"><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"img_caption\"><\/p>\n<p>  <span class=\"credit\"><\/p>\n<p>      Photo by Carmen Mandato\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-280502\" class=\"content_block paragraph text triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"paragraph_wrapper center_align\">\n<p>\n            At 10:45 p.m. on Thursday night, I was sitting on my couch with <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube<\/a> open on my TV. On the screen was a livestream of Drake\u2019s Iceman 4 (now privated), the latest part of his album rollout that he\u2019d teased earlier that morning. I had clicked it on a whim, and was shocked to discover that he was debuting the new music, right then and there, over an hour early with full visuals to match. My friend, who was in the kitchen, recognized his laconic drawl, complained, and sat next to me to watch too; we were transfixed. We argued about the beats and the lyrics: he hated most of it, I begrudgingly liked some; I predicted the hits; we sat through the whole thing. At the end, when Drake revealed that three new albums \u2014 <i>Iceman<\/i>, <i>Habibti<\/i>, and <i>Maid of Honor<\/i> \u2014 were coming at midnight instead of just one, I had to play it back just to confirm I\u2019d heard correctly, even though the nearly half a million people who were also watching were already spamming the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> in the YouTube live chat. \u201cI\u2019ll give it to Drake,\u201d my friend said. \u201cHe knows how to do a rollout.\u201d\n          <\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>\n            In the hours since the records&#8217; release \u2014 and the r<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>er subsequently breaking both Apple Music and Spotify at midnight (which, according to a cursory Google search, hasn\u2019t happened to anyone besides Taylor Swift in recent years)  \u2014 I\u2019ve been thinking about what other artist could&#8217;ve gotten me to stay up on YouTube for an album. Not many names come to mind.\n          <\/p>\n<p>\n            It\u2019s true that there was a genuine and unique, anticipatory newsworthiness around this release; as cited by <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_new\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/rb-hip-hop\/drake-iceman-kendrick-lamar-essay-1236248220\/\">many<\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_new\" href=\"https:\/\/andrejgee.substack.com\/p\/drake-at-a-precipice\">music critics<\/a>, <i>Iceman<\/i> was poised to be a major inflection point in his career and reputation. As his first major release back from &#8220;losing&#8221; the great 2025 rap feud, there were actual stakes at hand. But there\u2019s also something innate about Drake that\u2019s always provoked abnormal amounts of intrigue.\n          <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-280506\" class=\"content_block paragraph embed triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"media_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"\">\n    <iframe allow=\"autoplay *; encrypted-media *;\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"450\" style=\"width:100%;max-width:660px;overflow:hidden;background:transparent;\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.music.apple.com\/us\/album\/iceman\/6769568449\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-280507\" class=\"content_block paragraph embed triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"media_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"\">\n    <iframe allow=\"autoplay *; encrypted-media *;\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"450\" style=\"width:100%;max-width:660px;overflow:hidden;background:transparent;\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.music.apple.com\/us\/album\/habibti\/6769551464\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content_block paragraph triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-280508\" class=\"content_block paragraph embed triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"media_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"\">\n    <iframe allow=\"autoplay *; encrypted-media *;\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"450\" style=\"width:100%;max-width:660px;overflow:hidden;background:transparent;\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.music.apple.com\/us\/album\/maid-of-honour\/6769556940\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-280503\" class=\"content_block paragraph text triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"paragraph_wrapper center_align\">\n<p>\n            Like the rapper himself, the <i>Iceman<\/i> rollout, which had been going on for the greater part of a year, had been over-the-top and annoying. Drake first alluded to the title, <i>Iceman<\/i>, as <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_new\" href=\"https:\/\/hypebeast.com\/2026\/5\/drake-iceman-rollout-album-drop-stream\">early back as August 2024<\/a>, posting a screenshot of a folder called \u201c2.0 \u2013 Iceman.\u201d <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_new\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VTPxU2nZ7ro\">Iceman episode 1<\/a> dropped July 4, 2025, alongside the first single, \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_new\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/weU76DGHKU0?si=SeEM7tFx94EOBJfY\">What Did I Miss<\/a>.\u201d The real show kicked off in earnest in March when he posted memes properly teasing the release \u2014 then Drake broke the fourth wall and everything went off the rails.\n          <\/p>\n<p>\n            He <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_new\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/48478158\/drake-toronto-raptors-courtside-seats-covered-ice-frozen-iceman\">covered his courtside seats at a Toronto Raptors game<\/a> with ice. A <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_new\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/22\/world\/canada\/drake-album-ice-block-toronto.html\">massive, ridiculous, ice block structure was erected outside of the Bond Hotel in Toronto with the album\u2019s release date sealed inside<\/a>, a stunt that felt like it was masterminded by a less-evil Jigsaw. Streamers pulled up with flamethrowers. In less than a day, a piece of paper was freed from the ice. I absolutely rolled my eyes when these posts took over my Instagram but secretly&#8230; I was also entertained?\n          <\/p>\n<p>\n            Say what you want about Drake (this very publication certainly has) but music needs someone like him right now. A hateable target is one way to look at it; more generously, Drake\u2019s an incredible showman. A real, shameless diva. Someone who, for some reason, feels they\u2019re at a disadvantage going into every music release and will go to desperate measures to do everything they can to draw attention to themselves. This may have been genuinely the case for Drake going into <i>Iceman<\/i>, but this quality has defined him since way before this moment, really. In 2016, journalist Leon Neyfakh remarked in his <i>FADER<\/i> cover story of the rapper that the hate he received online felt \u201ctailor-made\u201d for the rapper; he was a target, \u201cthe kind of cultural giant who inspires love and derision in equal measure.\u201d For Drake, he processed that by doing things like giving out <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_new\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xpVfcZ0ZcFM\">thousands of dollars to strangers<\/a> on the street for a music video in 2018, years before Mr. Beast made it gauche to do so. Annoying. Ballsy.\n          <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-280504\" class=\"content_block paragraph text triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"paragraph_wrapper center_align\">\n<p>\n            Unfortunately, that ballsyness is rare today. In the contemporary streaming era, the standardization of album releases (when, exactly, did everyone agree on Friday as <i>the<\/i> release day) and the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a> devaluation of music has made everything extremely predictable and terribly dull. Most major artists prefer the nonchalant, subtle rollout of deleting their whole Instagram grid and then perfectly curating what follows; fans don\u2019t just get one album cover anymore, they get 20. Nothing is mysterious, weird, worth taking a deeper look at. If we\u2019re lucky, someone with major cachet like Justin Bieber will surprise-drop an album, but even that tactic isn\u2019t as novel as it once was. Every release suffers from the same disquieting sense of anticlimacticness that the <i><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_new\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/infinite-scroll\/why-albums-drop-and-movies-launch\">New Yorker<\/a><\/i>\u2019s Brady Brickner Wood said \u201ceven a very good\u201d album has trouble shaking.\n          <\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>\n            Except, Drake now might be the exception \u2014 and with a album(s) that might not even be \u201cvery good\u201d (my colleague Vivian Medithi will be the judge of that one). The public will be the judge and jury of that. But at least the public is talking for once, together, in one moment, like we used to. In the end I believe that just like battling the onslaught of AI sameness, the music industry needed someone human, insane, and truly unhinged to break simulation. Maybe it\u2019s not Drake we wanted, but it\u2019s Drake we got.\n          <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"author\">\n    <span><br \/>\n      By <span class=\"credit_name\">Steffanee Wang<\/span><br \/>\n  <\/span><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thefader.com\/2026\/05\/15\/drake-iceman-habibti-maid-of-honour-album-rollout-op-ed\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Iceman rollout was simultaneously annoying, unpredictable, and genuinely exciting. That\u2019s a rarity these days. Photo by Carmen Mandato\/Getty Images At 10:45 p.m. on Thursday night, I was sitting on my couch with YouTube open on my TV. On the screen was a livestream of Drake\u2019s Iceman 4 (now privated), the latest part of his&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":727637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/c_limit,w_1024\/c_crop,h_533,w_1024,x_0,y_272,f_auto,q_auto:eco\/GettyImages-2089850800_a7cccq\/GettyImages-2089850800_a7cccq.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[73968,70532],"class_list":["post-727636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-drake","tag-hip-hop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}