Drake has had all eyes on him as of late. From the large-scale rollouts and promotion he’s done to the pure anticipation in his solo return following the feud between him and Kendrick Lamar reaching its peak in 2024. He took advantage of the opportunity, dropping three albums: “ICEMAN”, “HABIBI” and “MAID OF HONOUR”, with the latter of the two being surprise drops. “ICEMAN” is the focus here, with the most anticipation surrounding it. Despite the wait, however, “ICEMAN” has plenty of flaws, leaving a cold taste behind.
The main criticisms of Drake’s last few records are ever-present on “ICEMAN”, including a big one: his lyricism. Drake is a simple lyricist, which isn’t a problem in itself, but combined with his simple flows and lack of production-focused songs causes a glaring hole in his songs. Take a line from “Whisper My Name” for example, “This [expletive] like the bag that you bring on the plane, it’s gon’ carry on,” While some lines are boring, others feel like they’re written to be quoted in the caption of a teenage boy’s Instagram post, “Where is the GOAT? They need one, The mirror’s right here, I see one,” It’s disappointing to hear from a man who’s been around for nearly 20 years to still be this basic.
Drake’s struggles with lyricism don’t stop with his basic lines, they carry over into his disses as well, and he’s got plenty of them. Many of them are continued at Kendrick, which just proves he can’t let go. “Hundred million streams vanished, no one got questions,” Drake says on “Make Them Pay”. This claim originates from the notoriously unreliable AI Bot Grok, which goes to show how little effort he goes to ensure his disses are true. Others that are even slightly true simply aren’t interesting enough to be cared about. “Yeah, your baby mama ain’t even post your single, d*mn Where she at? Yeah, where she at? “ he shoots at A$AP Rocky on “Burning Bridges”. While Rocky’s partner, Rihanna, didn’t post his singles, she celebrated and posted his album’s chart success. But the fact that he thinks that a lack of a social media post is crazy enough to bring up against him shows how damaged he is from his previous battles.
Production wise, “ICEMAN” is at least a little more interesting than some of Drake’s previous projects. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its flaws though. The first time you hear the piano and pitched-up samples that longtime collaborator 40 produces, it’s interesting. The tenth time, however, it gets incredibly stale. The same goes for the constant beat switches present on “ICEMAN”. It feels like once “Sicko Mode” went big for its own switches, Drake has been addicted to them. “Shabang” and “Burning Bridges” are two prime examples, while the switch from the laid back beat to the extremely chirpy beat on “Ran To Atlanta” feels insanely out of place.
Drake’s flows are another example of a problem that remains present in his recent works. There’s really not much variety in his voice or cadence around. Sometimes it feels like he’s talking rather than rapping, which can produce some tired results with the chill production. The largest culprit of this is the album opener, “Make Them Cry”, where he very slowly reminisces over the past couple years for him while a choir-based beat in the back just barely makes it sound like he’s doing more than talking to himself. Some extra personality from Drake would just add so much more to these songs.
Even the enjoyable songs have some backhand problems with them. “Dust” has Drake feeling himself, singing out of his usual voice before switching to a bass heavy track where he opts out of the previously mentioned talking flow for something more fast-paced. It’s a fun time, but it just leaves you wishing he had more creative tracks like this on the album. “2 Hard 4 The Radio” is catchy, and has Drake rapping with a flow similar to Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” over a west coast style beat. Unfortunately due to the rest of the album’s contents, Drake’s diss that meant to convey that he can do what Kendrick does comes off as “I need to do what you do”.
It’s a real shame that “ICEMAN” can’t break the curse of Drake’s previous projects. Despite his return to solo projects, Drake’s style simply seems frozen in past years.
