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In August 2024, a few months after the release of Kendrick Lamar\u2019s diss track \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d Drake tried to distract the public from his humiliation by data-dumping 100 gigabytes of content onto the internet. Included in the drop was a new EP, footage of conversations with other celebrities, and videos capturing the recording sessions of beloved songs, but to find the compelling gems tucked away in this labyrinthian volume required fans to spend hours upon hours sorting through it. The goal wasn\u2019t to shape or combat any one particular narrative, but to complicate the entire story through brute force. If Drake couldn\u2019t get people to believe he\u2019d won his beef with Kendrick, maybe he could at least feed them so much content they were no longer sure how they felt about him. It didn\u2019t work. The dump came far too soon after \u201cNot Like Us\u201d for full curiosity in Drake\u2019s output to be restored; Kendrick spent a full year taking victory laps on this song in the form of his Super Bowl performance and grammy wins. But it hinted at the marketing playbook Drake would pull from going forward. It was Drake\u2019s first real attempt at flooding the zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlooding the zone\u201d is a contemporary mode of propaganda often attributed to the thinking of MAGA political strategist Steve Bannon, which operates based on the belief that controlling the public in the digital age isn\u2019t about feeding them favorable messaging, but rather dominating cycle after news cycle by introducing so much dubious and misguided messaging that they no longer know what to focus on or how to think. If Drake\u2019s first attempt at this was a failure, he\u2019s clearly had extra time to see the Trump administration employ the tactic to great effect, because on May 15, the artist deployed it more successfully when he released three albums on the same day, the long-awaited Iceman, plus the surprise releases Habibti and Maid of Honour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For context on just how much Drake material this is, the three albums comprise 43 new songs and a combined runtime of almost two and a half hours. But that\u2019s not the extent of the new Drake content. The album premiered during the fourth episode of Drake\u2019s \u201cIceman\u201d livestream series on YouTube. It was accompanied by 14 new music videos, one of which (\u201cDust\u201d) includes a headline-generating cameo from semi-controversial comedian Shane Gillis<\/a>.\u00a0And this is to say nothing of the album\u2019s rollout, which involved Drake hiding the Iceman release date in a big block of ice in his hometown of Toronto, creating a public frenzy in the process.<\/p>\n If the goal was simply to make himself the main character again, Drake\u2019s strategy worked. Since tracks from Iceman began leaking piece meal on May 14, people online have been discussing them endlessly, and quoting individual lines where the rapper takes shots at adversaries like Lamar, Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky, LeBron James, and J. Cole. This, in turn, has created curiosity, which will inevitably drive up streaming numbers. But where does one start when it comes to actually evaluating the creative merit of these three projects?<\/p>\n Ideally, Drake would have used these albums to prove that he\u2019s still relevant and undeniable enough to make a chart-topping hit, regardless of whether he\u2019s a punch line. But whether he succeeded will continue to be debated. On Maid of Honour and Habibti, he leans into sounds he previously found success with, like the dance-vibes of Honestly, Nevermind and the R&B-warbling of More Life, evoking memories of when he did have this power. No matter that the melodies are less sticky this time around, or that the crooning is more grating. There are enough undeniable moments across these albums\u2019 25 songs, like the house outro of the Sexy Redd-featuring \u201cCheetah Print,\u201d for fans to gravitate to.<\/p>\n Likewise, traditional logic would have said it\u2019s incumbent on Drake to respond to all his high-profile critics to reestablish his rap bona fides, but by virtue of flooding the zone, his responses don\u2019t need to be unimpeachable. On \u201cMake Them Remember,\u201d he raps that LeBron James made his \u201ccareer off switching teams up,\u201d a thin critique given Drake has faced similar criticisms for hopping between regional sounds. Does it matter, or is it even true, that \u201c100 million streams\u201d of Kendrick Lamar\u2019s vanished, as Drake claims on \u201cMake them Pay?\u201d Unclear. For all his talk on the album about how he won\u2019t forget about people who refused to take sides during his Kendrick beef, the album features his friend 21 Savage, a person who refused to take sides\u00a0 during the Kendrick beef. Individually, each of these inconsistencies matter. Over the course of the album, none of them do. The average listener isn\u2019t going to spend their time scrutinizing all these claims, nor would it be entertaining for them to do so. At a certain point, it all becomes noise.<\/p>\n On Friday morning, the official X account of the White House took to the platform to post an edited picture of Drake\u2019s Iceman album cover. Where the official version features a diamond-encrusted silver glove, a la Michael Jackson, the White House\u2019s version shows that glove holding up a similarly glittery MAGA chain. It\u2019s an illogical choice, given the album is not politically oriented in any way. Drake is not an avowed Republican, nor does he, as a Canadian, have an interest in Making America Great Again. It doesn\u2019t matter. The post got people talking. It distracted people temporarily from whatever horrors the administration is currently committing. It\u2019s what happens when you put out so much content that nothing means anything.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Vulture Daily<\/p>\n An entertainment newsletter for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n