Of Music & Men #47

Drakes doesn’t just release music here, he stages a takeover. We talk through the Iceman Stream rollout, the chaos of a three-album drop, and why the “music videos in order” idea turns the project into something closer to a film than a playlist. When platforms stutter and the whole internet is watching at once, that’s not luck, that’s strategy.

From there, we get into the real headline: the music business behind the move. We break down the idea of finishing album-based obligations with UMG, how that can unlock true negotiating leverage, and why independence at Drake’s level is a completely different game than a typical independent artist path. We also dig into what makes this rollout hard to copy: deep streamer relationships built over years, a team that can execute fast, and the kind of cultural pull that can make a city like Toronto feel like its own music hub.

Then we review Iceman as a full package, not just a first listen. We talk bars-heavy tracks, cohesion, production choices, beat switches, and how the visuals change the way the album lands. We also compare the post-beef landscape and ask uncomfortable questions about rushed reviews, outrage marketing, and why people who claim something is “mid” still can’t stop listening.

If you care about hip hop industry strategy, streaming marketing, label politics, and what artist ownership could look like next, this one’s for you.

Transcript

Cold Open And The Big Claim

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's Laine L.A. of Music and Men episode 47. It's ice cold. The Iceman is not a nice man. We are reviewing Drizzy Drake Rogers, and we're not talking about just the music. We're talking about the business behind it. Because this is business. Probably the biggest business we've ever seen at this level in scale, in execution, in results so far. It's dangerous. So when I I watched the Iceman stream, right? I watched the ice stream live, right? So I got the news that he was dropping three albums at the end of that stream. So we had an hour after the stream went off, and then all the music came out. Okay. Now the news of it was crazy. Like Spotify got shut down, Apple got shut down, and then he had the music videos up probably at the same night. Right on YouTube, yeah. Right on YouTube. So the stream is music videos. So like if you wanted to watch the stream, or if you missed the stream, just watch the music videos in

The Stream Reveal And Triple Drop

SPEAKER_00 1:15

order of the album. That's the entire stream. So the Iceman Stream 4 is the album Iceman, like in its entirety, from top to bottom. When I initially was listening to it, I thought it was like the other three. So that was a whole other thing I'll talk about. But bro, the business behind this is nuts. Drake has fulfilled his obligations to UMG by doing three albums. This is the last part of it. He already recouped the money. So he wasn't worried about the money. They just wanted the last couple of albums out of him. And now he's in position and there's talks and there's a lot of things, but to fulfill those obligations and put yourself in a position to be truly independent. And if you're listening to the album, I think he's dead set on this. And this is what everybody was talking about before him. That's, I don't know, bro. It's crazy. Let's sit with that. So we've talked about it before, right? We've had, I would say, like B, not B list, but smaller, medium-sized artists take that avenue because they're not in a position to leverage against labels, right? So that's not always what people wanted, but I think it's a lucrative idea to go independent and do that. And we've seen people try it over the years, get their masters, do stuff like that. We saw what J. Cole was doing previously when he made his website and he was selling his CDs and stuff direct through the website and trying to do that. He was even on the even out, which that kind of blew up originally through LaRussell. And people were trying different avenues. And so J. Cole was the first huge artist to like, okay, let's move into this. I think with Drake's power and Drake's leverage, we could actually see a substantial and a good independent push, not something. And I think if he does it the right way, we could see a return of something kind of like title for independent artists, something like that. I think Drake's been rubbed the wrong way through all this stuff with UMG and Spotify and stuff like that. And it takes someone with that level of connections and money to make independent popular. Yeah, I think Drake is the only artist that will go independent and actually have the team to do so. Like the OBO team is actually pretty elite. The rollout, the influence in Toronto, like if you've seen some of the videos, he's in the governor's. So they the so it was the mayor. So they actually interviewed the mayor about that. They're like, so Drake's in the mayoral office. He's putting on the mayoral chain. Like, what's up with this? And she's like, hey, you know, Drake's in a lot for the city. We had an agreement. He'd come in, he could just shoot his video. I think that kind of cements, you see a lot of rappers putting on for their city, doing stuff like that. Right. And I think this shows the level of business that Drake has, where other people don't, right? Other people they put on for their city. They're like, oh, they're respected by some fans and this, that. But they have connections with your city government, right? To get in on that level shows that he's maybe done more for the six or for Toronto than just like putting it in his lyrics, right? She said he brings tourism, uh, he's bringing money and stuff like that. I mean, shoot, he got four videos in the CN Tower, basically Patriot plays like his home. He's bringing revenue to the city, and that was a cool kind of respect from the mayor. They're like, hey, like you've stood by this in your image. So, you know, here. Yeah, absolutely. I I mean, this is this calls to the larger business afoot with Drake. And I think this is why he's been bumping heads with so many people. And I'm glad, like, you know, I know people have listened to the album, but for me, it wasn't easy like the music was great, but for me, this is UMG versus Drake, and he made it public. All the little tidbits we've been going back and forth about since this whole whole thing started was in the album. Um I'm not suing a rapper, I am suing the men. I don't know how, I don't know which way y'all are gonna take it. I don't know why y'all have an issue with that, but I'm gonna clear it up here for you. He said, I'm the golden goose shaking up Lucian's house. So, like, this is big boy talk at a higher level, and to fulfill your obligations, knock out the opposition. There's no competition for this album out here at all. Nobody tried to step on it, nobody tried to do anything. And I think it would have just made it better if they did. Right. It would have validated everything that was coming from the music, even though we could talk about it, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Like we could talk about it later, but like, you know, if you believed on that side what was going on from your guy, if you jumped up to go listen to three albums after that, I I don't I don't know what I'm supposed to do with you. But um, this UMG versus Drake thing is in court, it's in the music, it's public. This is a real dispute, and I think they're gonna let them out of the I think the only thing now is time, right? Whatever, however long the contract was for, or the period they recoup off of the album, or how they got that situated. It should honestly be something that gets done in like a few months, right? Because, like you say, now they're not gonna be happy with the idea because in their head, they're like, all right, well, he releases an album in this frequency, so we're gonna get this many years of staying power out of him. And they were probably thinking they were getting three to four more years. Putting three albums out now contractually, the contract is not off time, it's off albums, and in our head they could wait two as the same. Albums are done. The song list is out, but the amount of tracks that he was owed, right? And I think I don't know if it was the amount of tracks owed or studio albums owed, either way, it's both complete with these three albums. And so after a few months, that frees him up, and he's probably able to pursue other legal situations when he's no longer in a contract with them. A lot of people make you sign contracts, and while you're under them, there's also only so much you can do legally against them when you're signed to them. So if he chooses to take this step further and take different avenues and maybe starts trying to go after music industry people directly and not UMG as an overarching thing, that might become possible when he gets out of his label. Bro, it's Drake versus the OGs. We're gonna get into the album, but if you heard the album, this is the most direct he's been to his mid tours that he does not look up to anymore, who have tension with him, who tried to use him as a pawn. I'm starting to see these guys like these older state, these elder statements in rap, like the Kanye, the Jay-Z, the Dr. Dre's. They are one, they want a piece of whatever comes out. Yeah, they're they are the exact same people who took advantage of them. Yeah, they are exactly they they mirrored their oppressors. So like it's it's the exact same thing and predatory and disgusting background behavior because all these guys gave you all these chances, all these ruffles in the relationship between Drake and Kanye, Drake and Jay-Z over the years, they'd be like, yo, bro, I'm a fan of yours.

Finishing The UMG Album Obligation

SPEAKER_00 8:40

And they're like, uh, I'm gonna I'm gonna finesse you because of that. Like, you can't. Like, hey, bro, I'm your biggest fan. I rap because I uh man, let's sign this contract. Come on, the title. What what you don't you don't fuck with me, duh. Come on, man. Let me get all your money, bro. Let me get the royalties, man. Come on, man. They uh the you know what I think of every time I think of these guys. What was his name? Was it Jerry in the NWA movie? I think it was their manager's name was Jerry or something like that. That's how I think about how these older artists are to these new guys that they have under the labels. Like I think of them as the same kind of like conniving, greedy, play them against their other artists kind of people. Like, it's we never learned. We were just like, this is how you get the bag. This is the only way we know how to do music business, because that's the way they did music business to us, and they never tried to do it a different way. I mean, these guys have no ethics. The narratives is that they tried to run with. We know why everybody was doing interviews, right? Like, we now know why everybody had an interview before this album came out. Jay-Z saying we're over beef, we're beyond beef. Jay-Z always says we're beyond something after he gets a bag for telling us to be beyond it. Like, because he wasn't this vocal while the beef was going on. He wasn't this vocal and he he profited from it. He had Kendrick perform the song five times in a row, and then that song got green-lit and produced by Amazon, and then that shit fell off the charts like it never appeared before. Like the business behind it and the OGs behind it, because they legitimize or they make people feel comfortable to abuse us. They make them feel comfortable. He's like, Oh, I just gotta give Dr. Dre a slice, and it's straight. We're gonna get all these kids from LA.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Like, I just gotta give, I just gotta give Jay-Z a slice, we're gonna get all these kids from New York. They look up to him, they trust him. Put up on the exactly it. And they're like, well, Jay-Z says it's cool, and he's, you know, the business-wise, Jay-Z is the top figurehead in hip-hop. Like from the black side, all right? Artists turn businessmen, Jay-Z is at the top. There's there's a lot of people who are, you know, I don't even think anyone's directly a tier below him. I think everyone's like two tiers below him. But that's what people look up at aspire. They're like, oh, we want to get in a position like Jay-Z. And it's like, well, just gotta see how he's moving. You know, you gotta be more than what you've been through. Like, I I don't I don't understand like that mindset behind it as an elder statement, statesman in hip-hop. Like, we're supposed to look up to these guys, but I'm not gonna harp too much on it, bro. But I like I just really see the clarity. Like, if if people don't understand media literacy and the narratives behind this music before they even listen to it, it's gonna be a big disconnect. Like, Rick Ross is putting out love letters and oh man, we can, man, this and that. And and he just went and did a versus against French Montana, and they both going drink for drink. Like, that's embarrassing, bro. That's pretty embarrassing, and then you got this this narrative in your head that you're better, or that because he was in the grassy when you was rapping, he is not hot. Like, which is like like I think if people still have to pick on I think the biggest issue with Drake, and this is a person issue, period. When you change, when you pivot and you adapt your life to something else, most people have a hard time seeing you in a different view than when they first met you. Some people genuinely don't like to see you grow. And this is just in life, period, right? They're like, oh, well, I always gonna see you as this kind of person, no matter who you are, who you want to be, or who you want to change. And you can't do nothing about how people are gonna see you. People are always gonna see Drake as this corny guy who was in the grass. Like, I'm sorry, we always talk about it. What's wrong with your kid? Drake was 15 when he went into Degrassi. He was an actor at 15, more than most of these guys have ever done. And then he moves on and he moves into hip-hop. He gets pushed into a lane, he pivots out of that lane, and he makes his own stand on who he wants to be in hip-hop. Yeah, people can keep harping about the grassy thing. They can keep harping about Drake starting off as a singer or whatever, but this is where he is now. We got the numbers, we got the people who aspire and want to work with Drake, the people he's put on. Like, I'm gonna make a hate on that. You can see Rick Ross, bro. He literally was wishing, he said, nobody wants to see Drake lose. He literally said this. The album comes out and he's talking of, he's looking at hate comments, posting it on his Instagram story. And this is a grown man, he like 40 plus. Like the maturity is crazy. Like a lot of these dudes are still stuck in boyhood. Like, you think these dudes are still on the block or in high school or some shit. Like how they move. Right. Right? And how they uh perceive uh, you know, perceive things. Like, you see uh Joe Budd and I didn't even look at Joe Buddh's review, but like Me either, actually. I why would I waste my time, bro? And there's gonna be hate. You can't listen to a review that the person is not gonna be objective, not even a little bit. That's like me going to listen to a Faetano interview or based upon anything in rap. I'm not listening. I I really I can't like I can't, bro. Somebody's telling me about hip hop, it's not from that ilk at all. And they have an abrasive like take on it. Like, like they're like their point, like their opinion is supposed to like it's Trump anything else, bro. It's crazy. But let's talk about these Iceman streams, let's talk about the business behind it. Now he had four streams, Dre didn't see stream four, but I'll talk about that. We can talk about one, two, three. This is probably one of the best rollouts we've seen in recent times, yeah. And I'll talk about it on when we talk about the music, but if people were listening, Drake has interwoven the streaming community into his album. Yes, and if you don't understand the power and business behind that, I don't know what y'all are doing. Like, I don't think y'all understand like what's going on because it's very, very powerful. Well, it it plays into the rollout. So for anyone who's not media literate at all or not into marketing or anything like that, streaming inherently is the final frontier of marketing. There's no better form of immersion and connection and all of that. There's negatives to it, but if you're on the marketing side and you're trying to push something, streaming is the final frontier. Drake has built those streaming relations for years. This is really years in the work. He's built those streaming relations. Early too. Yeah, he was early on the streamers, and he's because of his position, right? And it's not everyone is going to be able to utilize these things the same way Drake is, right? Because not only was he early into the streaming, but the people that he connected with in streaming are the biggest names in stream, which gives validity, yeah, which gives validity. And what and the people, however, you feel about the the specific streamers, it's just that connection and that audience is a genius marketing ploy. And the way, like you said, he incorporates them into the album. And a side note from Drake's album for a second, streaming on social media, the only other people on the charts right now are songs that blew up due to social media pushes right now. So, like the whole like the Spotify top 10 right now, all today, it's Drake and then it's older songs from Justin Bieber and Dominic Fike who blew up. Oh, and then Michael Jackson

Toronto Power And City Hall Access

SPEAKER_00 16:55

covered his movie. Most people aren't gonna be able to take that avenue, like, oh, I'm gonna make a movie and then push my songs. No. Realistically, streaming on social media, those songs are only up there right now because of TikTok and pushing. So it's like you either have the avenue that Drake has, or y'all gotta start learning how to utilize social media and streaming to push y'all music because that's the way to win. Yeah, to completely incorporate those guys into the album. Like it's or it sounds organic, but like if you're paying attention to it, right? Like really paying attention to the business, like he sampled Kai, he sampled Yona, he uh mentioned Aiden Ross. And and he streamed these four things. Like the the entire experience was it was crazy marketing. And this is and this is what I'm talking about as far as like when Drake becomes independent, he actually has the vehicle to do it. With Toronto, because he's Canadian, he doesn't have to really deal with America. Like he can be in, he can have an issue with UMG, right? And go get an LLC in a different you know, just figure it out. I'm over here now. And and I think in one, we watched that when the beast first happened, Drake said America taws, went straight to Australia and did seven shows, right? And he kind of talks about that in one of his songs, and he has snippets from when he was in Australia in some of those streams, but it's like, yeah, I know right now in America it's LA, Atlanta, and then like New York, right? If you want to do music, Drake fully has the capability to make Toronto and a music hub competitive with our largest music hubs through his own connections. If Drake starts doing talent, and he already has a lot of talent from Canada, but I'm talking about if he did what Kevin Hart just did with 20 AF on Netflix, turning into a show, turning it into content. Oh, this is the top rapper from this area in Toronto. He knows Toronto well enough. He can separate it into different areas, right? If I was doing it for Philly, I'd do Uptown, West Philly, North Philly, South. So one, you got four different people, four different crowds, all of a sudden you got the whole city paying attention. No, it's so many things you could do with that. And once he gets that leverage, and I think that's why he did everything. Everything was so Toronto for a reason. He's building like true roots there, and I think he's done, like he'll do business, but he's done with the you know, he got the crib in Houston, but like he's done fucking around with the Americans, bro. And he and if he is dealing with the Americans, he's gonna treat them like the Americans. He's gonna be just like them. Like, I've seen it. I see the videos, I see what he's on these days. He went and got his license to carry. I can tell. Yeah, yeah, he wouldn't have let that broke down. It's like, fuck this dude. Fuck it. I'm gonna have my license to carry, bro. These dudes is pissing me off, man. Crazy. But how did you feel about the first three Iceman streams? I thought all three were like cultural moments, so they all mattered. Everybody's tuning in, especially the first one. And that was the one that had the most mistakes in it anyway. But like the concept that he carried over for three pro three streams is crazy. Oh, oh, you were talking about No, I was gonna say, what do you mean mistakes in the first one? Like, I like the way he liked the way. There's editing. There's editing.

unknown 20:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

I mean, yeah, it was like a couple little mistakes. I didn't think I didn't say like artistically, yeah. Just like sound and audio and shit like that. Okay. Yeah, the formatting of it. But no, the first one's fire as fuck, because like what did I miss, right? Like, I wish he didn't put that on the album, but I understand why it's on the album. So the lead single.

unknown 20:46

Right?

SPEAKER_00 20:46

It's the lead single. But that when it first dropped during that first stream, and it was one of the ones that went right after the beef. He had two number, like top ten, no, top five hits after the beef, Nokia, and what did I miss? And then we get into this era of it. It's it's pretty cool, man. You know, I like I like the streams. I like when he was riding around because people can tell, and this is how people could find him. He was riding around in the truck, the ice truck, and it was being streamed on the billboards downtown for people to follow and find them and come and make it a moment for the city. I like the other stream he did. It had Central C in there, and they had uh, you know, just the girl down there dancing to the music, and it was up top. Like it was very artistic. And it was way, not everyone's gonna see art the same way, but incorporating his idea of art and his idea of the rollout, and once again, spanning this across, I think from the first stream till the fourth one, I think was a span of 10 months. So letting that go like every quarter, basically, and just the art of it all. Is something that no one else to me has done for an album at that level. And I think that's something that people may try to replicate. It's going to be very hard. It's going to be very expensive. And it also incorporates so many things. Once again, he's able to do this stuff in his city. Most people may not be able to have those connections to even do that. Yeah, and just to speak on like Iceman 4, it was the entire Iceman album that played. So if you tuned into Iceman 4, you saw the album individuals. Like basically all the Icemans are one, two, three, four different lemonades, right? When Beyoncé dropped the music video to her album at the same time, Eliminate. Like I think this is the hybridized, modernized version of that. And there was some snippets of music that we didn't get on the album. I think he's gonna go on tour. He still has music. Drake still has music, bro. There's some songs that Lake Como, Supermax, in there's one more song that was like when he was in the year. He was like, it was like a house sounding song. And it sounded like it would go like if he was in like on a rave or some shit like that. Were those on the other two? Those are like on a it's either a two or three where he was like late como or those on those other two albums. No, bro. No, no, okay. They're not bro. I'm I'm sure, brother. I'm sure. Because I I thought those are the ones that go. I was like looking for those. I was like, I need I can't wait to see Lake Como in there. So like we when we get an album, I I can't wait to see how people are. I you can't tell me these songs are bad, but all right, we'll get it, we'll get into it. Um let's talk music videos and budgets, bro. It looked like he spent a lot of chicken on this. It looked like his team spent a lot of chicken on this. He didn't get any push from his label like that. I'm pretty sure you can feel the corporate push. But we saw the corporate push when not like us came out. And I'm gonna use people's best moments for a great example. When Kendrick had that push from the system, you saw that shit on Target, you saw that shit. Like, yeah, everybody has some not like us sometimes. Like it was crazy. But that's because he had the backing. So that's that he had a he had a corporate machine and like UMG, what's up, bro? What's going on, bro? And you know the crazy thing, some people might be like, well, why would they do that? He's suing them. It's about money. If this album is going to make them money,

Streaming As The New Marketing Engine

SPEAKER_00 24:35

they would have like you wouldn't have to be able to do that. That's how you know it's personal. Yeah, so they're willing to lose out on bread to prove a point, but uh that seems to be the case on both sides, honestly. If they had to push this album, they would have made way more money off of it. But yeah, but this also is like an audition for hey, anybody that wants to sign up for do business with me, this is what I do organically, no push. No push? No push. This is what I do organically. It's good to see that bread gets spent the right way. I think Drake, that dude has capital. I think like he talked about it on the album, like bees on the table. I think he already touched the bee, man. I think he already touched. Which will be very interesting to find out. And if he does do anything else, like all right, UMG paid you $400 million, someone has to. And he mentioned that he was like the next one is gonna be double or triple. It's gotta touch that. But just talking on the videos, I liked every, and then they were different styles, right? And yeah, maybe the one that he did, oh my goodness, whoever that was, that was great. But you have 18 songs on this, and you only didn't do a video for three of your eight. So you put out 15 videos for an album, no one else is doing that. You'd be lucky to get two to three, maybe, and they're gonna choose their best songs. He's treating every song on this album like it's his best song, and he's giving it the effort it deserves, and that is a different viewing experience altogether. That's a different level of immersion when I can watch the network. And so getting 15 videos for the album, like treating every song like it's his best, like it's his favorite, instead of just picking one or two. And I think a lot of people obviously come down to money, but when you put that level of effort into your songs, that helps them grow as well. And the immersion and the interaction you have with the artists, watching their visual representation of maybe how they came up with their songs, the idea they had with them, songs, the way they felt about the songs, and listening to it, that beats just a normal album job. You're just sitting back, maybe you're in your car, and like there's that too. Sitting through and watching these 15 videos played through while you're playing with playing the album, gives this album a new height that regular ones just don't have. Yeah, the album has continuity. I can't wait to review it because it's solid. It's very solid. It's a very solid album. So I want to see what people think about it and shit like that. But like they get to your point as far as like the music and the videos and everything like that. I think he made it a point to do that. Like, I think he believes in this project. I think there was real effort in Iceman. I think the other two albums were obligations, right? But they also have purpose, right? Like, here's a pocket. I know y'all fuck with it. I, but it's just this. But DJ Academics finally gets his OVO change. He also finally takes the picture with Drake. Bro, he's been campaigning for this shit his whole career. It and it's good on him, good on Luke in that relationship. Good on him, good on Drake. Don't like act as a person. I think he does a lot of corny shit. Yeah, but at least if you're gonna be riding, at least get rewarded for it. And I he finally got his reward for the dedication he's been as the unofficial, official Drake news source, man. He's putting the work. Good for him on that front, and that's about it. Yeah, I just thought that shit was funny, bro. Huxley went hard for that chain. Shout out to him, bro. Maul was there. Maul was with the Joe Budden podcast, is now at the Iceman release in Toronto. Who would have dunked years later when we was watching the Joe Budden podcast, it'll get like this. But hey, this is the business, bro. He also got ties with Jay-Z. So I wonder how he can have ties with Jay-Z, ties with Drake. I'm sure those ties are very tense these days. But um, it's good to see everybody who was supporting Drake and the Beef get rewarded in some way. People who have affiliated with Drake and done good business have a good reputation. With speaking on that, he pulls from the Bay Area sound on this album. And it's day one, people are giving a lot of critiques, and then we got Gwap Dad 4000 and Kamaya jumping out the window saying everything Drake did for the Bay was straight and legit. Two plaques, Gwap Dad as an artist, got broke. Everybody was like, I didn't know who he was until he did that bet with Drake. I swear to God. And he's a great artist. And you know what's crazy? We know this. We know Drake is willing to put people on. There's a there's a lady in Molly Santana, never heard of her before, before. Right. Every album, Drake is putting on at least one new artist at this point. I gotta say that's his thing. That verse from her is like a fucking ad, though. And here's the thing. And so this is what people are gonna state. They did the same thing, right? When they complained about JB Blockboy and a couple other people, it's right. Drake puts you on, you get a time to shine. He's not critiquing, he's not saying, hey, you better come with your best stuff. He's like, I'm gonna give you a chance, do it this what you will. If you fall off after this, because you got introduced to an audience this big and you weren't able to capitalize on it, that's on you. I don't like her verse at all. But when he's putting you on, you gotta capitalize on that. And if this is what you're coming with, when you get a feature with Drake. Hey. Hey, that shit sounded like an ad. I feel like that was more business than anything. I feel like Future and Drake do good business and better business. I don't think they've surpassed Kittrick and Futures Collabs haven't surpassed the business that Drake and Future have done, right? We're not even adding the tour that they went on to each other as far as revenue. So I just I didn't understand from a business perspective why Future would even get himself involved. It was obviously some petty shit that they got fixed behind closed doors. There was. But as far as the future thing, that's all I wanted. Like ignoring everything else from this album, some of the best music we've gotten from the mid-2010s was music from Drake and Future together. And it was some petty stuff by the beef or whatever, right? And throughout the whole situation, Drake never burned that bridge, never came at Future crazy. Like all the other people he came at, he was like that. He was hellbent on being like there's room for preparing here. So whatever the issue is, I'm glad they pieced it up. Future wouldn't cut his dreads. Maybe he was going through a midlife crisis. I think he was there's a lot of shit with Future. I don't think he like, I don't know how he does business, and I don't know what petty shit they got going in the undercut, in the underline. You know, these guys are playing dynamics all the time. So hopefully, if they don't understand each other, you know, business, not business, personal-wise, then they can understand each other business-wise, because the mu the music's great. Yeah, people are reviewing three albums in one day. Can you even review three albums in three days? Like, I I don't know how we're how we're getting I I've seen it, right? Like, I seen it. I looked at my phone, people gave me a review of an album, three albums that came out at midnight May 14th, and May 15th, they woke up and they have an album review. So there's not a lot of digestion in the in the market's the market. People don't really want to sit with their food, but I think when you get overserved, you gotta deal with what you gotta deal with. So, me, I only listen to Iceman. I also want to, before we get into the album and our reactions to it, I can't say as a man and as a person, if I believe someone is a PDF, I believe someone is doing these activities that I'm gonna run and join and listen to their album. There's a lot of people putting that jacket on Drake. They went to go to the album. I seen it. Yeah. People posted this shit. People got reaction videos to this shit. They woke up, they stayed up late reacting to that shit. Up all night reacting to 43 songs and somebody you don't fuck with. Hate fuels people, sadly, a little bit more than love and all the other stuff. And they hate Drake so much they wanted to listen and see him fall. And that's, you know, first of all, all attention apparently good attention in business. So like y'all don't nothing but profit on him. But as you said, if these people, and I'm not saying Drake's cleared of all strange things that Drake may do. But if you put the title of the serious title of pedophile on Drake, then y'all shouldn't even listen to his music. Then that's how I feel. Like, I don't think, and I never seen Drake, Kendrick, Jake, Meek, Mill. Like, I never seen these people after a certain amount of age and maturation, is like, oh, I need to be exactly like these people and follow their morals and ethics. Right. So, like, I don't know why people are looking towards. And here's another thing when people are going into this album, we're about to talk about the album. I don't know how you go into this album not wanting to hear his side of things when we just left GNX and we heard Kendrick's side of things. Kendrick did a victory lap. Right? So now we see two sides of the same coin. And people are going into the album, like, well, you can't talk about the if I had that mindset, then I can't turn on GNX. I'll have to turn my TV off. I just don't understand. And hey, GNX TV up is hard, bro. I was just watching the show and they did they shot this dude. It was like, turn his TV off. I was like, oh shit. Like, that's not hard, right? And GNX was a decent album, right? I don't expect anything bad from Kendrick. It didn't live up to what I thought it would be as an as his first album, I think it'd be. But I'll get into my thoughts on GNX in combination with the rest of the stuff. Yeah. Let's get into Iceman, the nice man. How are we feeling about Drake Iceman? First react reaction. You know, I'm gonna sit with it. I have a lot of opinions on it, but um, I'll let you go first because I think we'll have different. So obviously, I listened to it just playing it through when it first dropped, but I'll tell you right now, this morning, this morning, dedicated some time, and I sat, and that's why I brought the music videos earlier. I sat and listened to it the way

Video Volume And No Corporate Push

SPEAKER_00 35:40

I feel like it's meant to be consumed. And I listened and watched all the videos through in order while listening to the album. I give this an eye. The way I feel it's meant to be consumed with the full art that he gave us, because to me, this is not just an auditory experience. I give this an eye. And that's just off the art of the album, the music, the videos together. Without the videos, I was giving it an eight, and then I listened to the videos and I was like, no, this is the way I feel like full package. This is a full package. This is what it's like when people, you know, back in the day when they used to have the you know, the the disc, and you'd have to play one side, play it on the other, that's the way it's supposed to be consumed. That's why they still sell discs like that. And it's like, okay, this is the way this is meant to be consumed, and this is a solid nine for me, strictly off of that. If I'm talking about the rollout of Iceman and the music and everything together, the videos, the streaming, this is a 10. This project is a 10. So I don't think people are gonna be ready for this, bro. Iceman did exactly what they thought Drake could never do. This is a bar-heavy rap album. This is the most he's raped since nothing was the same, or if you're reading it's too late. He has not one but five tracks dedicated to pure bars. All those make them. Make them pay, make whatever you saw, make he made it happen. Yeah. Oh, make them know, make them remember, make them cry, make them cry. All of these songs are high-tier bars. I so that's five of those. So, like, I was I was like brutal when I went through months. Hold on. I was brutal when I first listened to it, and when I first experienced it from the Iceman stream before, I was like, oh, this is a great project. Uh this is great. Is this the album? Or is this a stream? So that's how I was a little apprehensive. I know I was like, is this an album I'll listen to? Is this a stream? I was you know, brutal with my listing. If you want to be an asshole, you can take three songs out of this album. It's a but no, like I really think this album is one of his most cohesive projects to date. I think it's gonna age well. I think it's high up with everything rolled in together. It's in the 9-10, but like just the bars here. And it is this album is better than G and X. Yeah, we're gonna get into it. And this so we're talking about post-album, post-beef, who's doing better so far? I got and I it's it's neck and neck with the J. Cole situation. But that's it's a whole different thing, right? Because J. Cole and Drake are two sides of different coins. Jake, J. Cole's more mature, Jake is more petty, and you know, more successful, but you know what I'm saying? It's different, different paths. But like, let's stay into Iceman. Let's stay in Iceman. Let's stay in Iceman. We will, but I want to, because you brought it up, and I I had thoughts on that same thing. One, if we're talking strictly after the beef album releases, these are each of these people have dropped an album after the beef, and they each had their own slight involvement in the beef, even though J. Cole's was short. They've all had ramifications from the beef, whether they wanted to be part of it or not. To me, GNX sits at the bottom of all three of these. Yeah. To me, Iceman, as a like, excluding the other two albums, don't care what Iceman alone sits right up there with J. Cole's. But to me, I still see J. Cole's album having longer longevity in it. And so I still rate J. Cole's higher, but I put J. Cole's in this Iceman far above GNX. Like, I really think Kendrick dropped the bar putting out GNX after the beef, knowing what these two were capable of. This is a quality check. At the end of the day, can you make music? Like, you can have your moment, but you have to be able to deliver. And Drake delivered, bro. Everything people have like questioned him on, his deepness, how vulnerable he can be, how how uh how how how how how he can rap, how he's perceived. Um, he's like, I'm glad that you think it I'm a shy. I'm glad you like like how introspective and vulnerable he was in parts of this album, and then like he's become like a menacing force as well. Like, Dust is crazy. Right. Like, Dust is crazy, and he's having fun too. Like some of these songs, and this is why I say you gotta watch reviews. Drake is he's serious, but he's going to have fun. Like, he enjoyed making this album. He's proud of it. They're like, oh, nice man, Iceman. You don't think he pays attention to what y'all are saying? He's a meme guy, too. He's a meme guy. He knows the he knows how to drum up business, he knows how to manage outrage marketing to his favorite. And it was crazy to see, even in the like the album, even though it was great artistically, it was fantastic business-wise. This is hey, this is a master class in business. I do think though, that this is not something that everyone can replicate. This money this costs bread. And if I have to look at all the artists who are even capable of doing this, there's probably only like seven that even have the connections and the money to pull off and the pool in their own communities to pull off a rollout like this. Executed perfectly. I think uh anybody that's rating Iceman, mid, trash, anything like that, you're not listening to the music. You can be rude about it, like as far as like certain songs, they're bad. Like, uh if somebody told me don't worry, it's trash, I'm like, all right, cool. Are you saying? Like, I didn't like it that much. Like, like, and people aren't gonna get little birdie because it's Florida. So, like, if you don't like Florida music, you're not gonna like Florida. Everyone is saying please get Kodak to do a remix on one. Well, Kodak's too hot. Kodak's too hot, bro. You got too much shit going on in his jacket, bro. But uh, he just got booked. Kodak just got booked. He just came out. That's probably why that didn't happen. But yeah, that little bridge, he needs to do a remix of that. He needs to do a remix to go to Florida, get the goals in, and get everybody from Florida down there. Because it's hard as fuck, bro. Like, I I like I easily went through each song. Like, Bernard Bridges is crazy fire. I can't believe he's talking to ASAP like this. I can't believe it. That was yeah, no, that was. Don't be dope. Yeah, no, that would that was fire. But and as you just said, too, and

OG Gatekeeping And Narrative Warfare

SPEAKER_00 42:55

I didn't even think about this, right? You talk about little birdie being Florida. He got his West Coast song, he got a Florida song, he got an Atlanta song, right? Which feeling like he's letting, he's reminding people, right? That like there's not an avenue, there's not a place where he can't do business, A can't connect with people where he doesn't have a voice. That West Coast song is crazy. Like he's flipping the knock, the NLU beat, like the wah, wah, wah, wah. Like that shit. That show is crazy, bro. Like, and I and it sounds really good though. Like, no, it's not a lot of things. I'm not letting him dance and all that, but like that that's gonna go in the bay. Like, people who dance are already making videos to that shit. So he's hitting different communities as well. I think this album showed me that it just for the ending of it, like far as my first rate and my first reaction, I got this at a 9 10 range. Um, this is probably his best project to date. I think they did something that Drake never had to he. He hasn't been this for a long time. He hasn't been hungry. He hasn't been counted out. He hasn't been laughed at. You know, Drake's best bars is when he was coming up, and everybody was clowning him. Yes. He out talented his corniness. People kept saying he was corny, he kept being talented. And that's this is what he did. He just out he outworked me. And there's another thing, bro. Dick Hole and Kendrick will never touch Drake in business because he just outworks them. He's a workhorse. He's chasing validation more than those two because of his start in hip-hop and his and how people perceive him. Perceive him. So like I think for good and bad. Yes. For good and bad. So like he's going to keep validation, so he has to stay relevant. He has to stay relevant. So he's always going to be making some music or he's going to be in a music conversation. That's good for us if you like his music. People, I think the only way you can rate this album low is if you don't, you know, like Drake or hear what it or like what he wants to say. Like, I don't know why people want him to like. And I think that it's a lack of emotional maturity, too. Like, oh, this get over it. Like, did you not listen to GNX? Did you not listen to J. Cole's album? To judge it. And they were ready to judge these people when they listened to it. And they were, bro. And in GNX, listen, it was alright for casual fans. Me, I'm gonna take a look at this album and where it's gonna place where it's going with the rest of your albums you just put out. Coming off of your biggest win, how did you knock it out the park? You know what I'm saying? And GNX didn't do that for me. And I think Kendrick is on the clock. He needs to drop 2027, 2028. I would like him to drop this year. But we need something else from him because if GNX is well, no, he don't get another chance. GNX this is what we're comparing. These are all the albums after the beef. These are all the albums after the beef. So you can have four years to process, but your song, your album after the beef is GNX. Yes. So we're gonna compare it to Iceman, and we're gonna compare it to Cole's album. And Cole and Iceman are far above. And even with that being said, I actually you could remove Cole's album out of the conversation specifically for the fact that Cole's album was premeditated and had to actually have things taken off from the beef. Technically, Iceman and G and X were the only after beef developed albums. Cole's stuff was made prior. They had been sitting on Kendrick came out with GNX after the beat, like that was a direct after the beat quirk of music. Iceman is a response to Drake's hunger and his pushback and his public perception after the beef. So if we just put these two up to each other, GNX is looking bad. Yeah, no, GNX is looking real bad in that perspective and light, right? Because this is like if so, let's put it in the inverse, right? Like Hendrick wins the beef and he drops his version of Iceman. They were like, oh, Drake's dead. Drake should make music. Like it was palatable, like it was cool for him to come outside when DNA after GNX came out, like we had like whatever. It wasn't even there that long. Luther was the only track that was there, and let's be real, the sample covered it. So and and to be fair, it's a gro it is a great song. But when I look back on GNX, there are I think GNX was maybe like 12, 14 songs. There are three songs that I like on GNX. Four, maybe. It's Luther, it's Man at the Garden, it's Black Dall Murals, and there's one other one. And it's like that, like if you made an album sounding like those songs, GNX could have been a long-standing album from you, Kendrick. But you went and you pivoted to a lane that I don't know. I don't know what he was doing with that. You know what's crazy? Kendrick came out of the beef. The biggest he was, it turned into a regional act. And Drake came out of the beef and did business regionally, but did he did his music regionally far as the sound, but it was a global attack. And it was a global album. And I think his business people should be telling him this. Yo, we we just beat Drake. We should be doing a lot of poppy shit because people think we should take his spot. Because and if you're not doing it for his spot, then why did you do it? You don't tell me you you beefed with him because you were jealous of him. You did it for his spot, right? You did it for a spot because he said he's the biggest in hip-hop. So if you're the biggest in hip-hop, you got an obligation. And this is why we gotta talk about we gotta talk about the die era now. But this is not even a question, but like the die era was what two years? Oh all right, I'm gonna stop capping. It was the summer 2024. Because when did uh wasn't the beef? No, the beef was hey, no, you're right. It was 24. Beef was 24, he did a Super Bowl in 25. Yeah, it was summer 24 up until maybe the fall of 25. And then after the Super Bowl, some sexy songs for you came out, and we in Miami another night. So yeah, I mean, that's the die error from the summer until February. Crazy. Yeah, and that's the thing, like lyricists, bro, they'd be wanting, like, they'd be like, I want to take it, I want to take the spot. All these generic rappers, all these guys, right? It all right, now you're the guy. What are you gonna do? Take the world to stay there. TV off, come on. Uh, you gave me that one. I want another one, and that's the thing you gotta feed the people, bro. Through the I'm still I gotta sort through the next two. But you know what's an issue with that? In a different time period, Kendrick's air would have lasted longer. But we got we just had 10 years of being conditioned by Drake. Yeah, the person at the top needs to act like this. Uh previously, people at the top weren't doing that. They were giving you music, there'd be some years between it. You'd be like, but they got that, they got this what they gave us. Drake conditioned uh culture that uh this position is held by people who are consistently releasing, trying new avenues, doing this, this, and this. So when Kendrick went and took it, it could be good food, but if that's not what we're used to eating, uh we may not have an appetite for it. And that's the position he came into, and he didn't do anything long enough to change how we view what should happen at the top. We got uh people from the Some Sexy Songs for You album, you know, the features like Pema and other people who are launching and got signed and have started careers. I'm I'm still trying to look and see what the people from GNX is doing, bro. And that's the biggest thing. And this is the like, it's not just being the biggest rapper, you have responsibilities. Can you handle the business of it? Because Jay Z played, he was on everybody's side, like he was on all the features of the hottest MCs coming up because he's at the top. That's the part of it too. Jay-Z conditioned us to that too. Jay-Z was dropping consistently as well. So, like, there were torches being passed, so some people don't have the fire to carry it. I mean, just I mean, the biggest example of that is the reaction to watching all these new guys come up, and then we get wash the throne, right? Like, it's crazy. Yeah,

Reviewing Iceman Against GNX And Cole

SPEAKER_00 51:55

and this is the healthy competition that we needed to be able to do. That's the healthy competition we need without it being a beef, without it being anything. Oh, these guys are coming on hot. Yay, let's get in a studio. And to this day, Wash the Throne is one of the greatest works of hip hop that we have ever received.

SPEAKER_01 52:15

So it's what is this shit called with him in the future?

SPEAKER_00 52:19

What I still I still think Wash the Throne is the best collab. I think Wash the Throne is of the top three best collab albums I think we've got. Yeah. I mean, that's because Kanye was a producer and he got his lyrics written for him, like Jay-Z and Larry to stand over top. I'm like, all right, does this go on my bar? Hey, but that's the thing. Like, this is no, no, no, but like cohesion is cohesion. I'm not talking about the biggest thing. You the best, yeah. You the best producer at this current time, 2010, it was Kanye. So you got the shwany one. He has the only people that can compete with that, it's not Drake and 21. I do think it's Drake and Future. Yeah, I just, you know, future guy, if Future had his bars up, right? Like, if Future had bars, it's Future has some slick, like you say some crazy shit. But I never like, I never like, he says some outlandish shit, and I think it's hard, but like I never thought it was bars. You see what I'm saying? Like it could have been Drake and Cole, but they're never gonna do it. They're good. Yeah, I listened to the album. That's his cook. He could never forgive them. All right. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. Well, Drake doesn't have an issue with Cole. He ain't got an issue with Cole. He's like, he's like, look, I'm not like that married rapper. We're not getting over this. Like, they've kept their comments about each other very respectful. But he's like, yeah, that top three, you know what? Shit was lame anyways. Look, I'm back. It's whatever. We're not gonna get a clab from them, and I think that's fine. I think Drake and Future still have a chance of doing a collab that could put themselves in a running for a top three collab out. In the run for independence, Drake has been rumored to have bees on the table referencing the album's track. And I don't think he's playing at all. I think he's saying some real things on this album. He was talking about the appeal event and arbitration in that and getting paid for things. And there is people saying he didn't get paid, U of G didn't pay him, and people. But he's talking about things get handled in arbitration, you know, in silence. Like he got some money. Oh, he got something. They're like, all right, bro. Because they got their business, it's too shady. It's it's too shady. And if any of that comes to light, it's not gonna be like UMG, you're not the only player in the space. You are the biggest, but you're not the only player in the space. And wherever Drake goes, he's gonna make massive. And I yeah, if I'm him, I'm cooking. I wouldn't, I'll be still in the studio. He's on the clock, too, because once he turns 40, he has to mature. I mean, he started it, you see the album, right? Yeah, he said. He did it. I'm almost, he said, I'm almost 40. This might be the most mature album we got. This is the most mature album we got from Trey. If you're reading too late, mature on there.

unknown 55:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:24

Dark though. It wasn't mature, it was just dark. Just dark. It was it was all right. It was subtracts are mature. There was some. I feel like it was it was dark, though. Like I over, like I feel like at the end of Iceman, he is prepared to face his enemies in battle. He's prepared to do business the way he wants to do business. And I think he understands his trajectory from how he started to where he's going. And he doesn't look up to anybody anymore. I don't think he will have the OG sickness he was having and dealing with all these people looking up to him. Yeah, his whole career, he had somebody trying to fuck him over. That was like he looked up to. So what does independence look like for him? Does it look like something similar, right? Like what let's I I hate bringing it up, but the biggest name in independency right now, like you have Russ and LaRusso. LaRusso just went and signed his deal with Jay-Z. That's not a publishing deal per se, but it's a deal that bridges the gap for getting in certain venues and stuff like that. Drake doesn't need that. He has his own leverage. So, what does independence look like for Drake if he was to take money from someone? What can they even offer him? They're gonna do the shit he doesn't want to do, push his album, hit the streets, deal with legal shit. They're gonna give him a bunch of money and capital, right? Drake is gonna use him like a piggy bank, bro. Whoever who got the biggest bag for him, right?

SPEAKER_01 56:50

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 56:51

And whoever can handle the facilities, because he knows he can do it himself. I think either he starts something. A media company. I think he, Drake's biggest bet, should be a media company. That's what I'm saying. He should start it. I mean, if I'm Drake, I'll start my own podcast. I would have so many things, my own stream. Like I'll pick, you know, that like that streamer that broke into the ice and shit. I'm like, yo, young girl, you're my streamer for OBO. So I'm gonna send you to OBO stores forever, you know, whatever. To push product, push clothes, do shops, go to tours, you go to uh pop-ups, go to deal with you've been to Don, start doing comedy shows, you start getting fighters. Like technically he already has a media company because he owns one when he started partnering with Euphoria. So you take it, you move, you have film, you have actors, maybe he makes something where he starts putting stuff in shows. Like advertising, Drake at this point does not have to be pigeonholed into music. I think, like you said, he hasn't been challenged in Ralph. He got challenged, he answered, and I'm like, all right, had to remand them, I'm out of my deal. The sky's the limit. The sky's the limit. He doesn't have to even be an artist anymore. He could just sell his catalog and say, fuck off. I think EMG has his catalog for a certain amount of time, but like even that's gonna run out soon. So, yeah, I mean, because wait, uh Drake doesn't have his Drake doesn't got his master. Drake has his masters, he doesn't have his publishers. So it's like they own his catalog for a certain amount of time, but he owns the masters, so he still gets paid off of it. That's why you see OBO on all his other shit, too. Like you see young people, you see OBO or some other freezing, right? Rotent moments or one of those holdings, or they'll put it through somewhere else. Like So this next deal, he's gonna keep his shit. He's not giving it time locked to anybody. He's not gonna get time locked or anything like that. Like you said, publishing, marketing, he may just get with someone. But once again, does he even need to partner with someone for that kind of stuff? Look who's on his team doing this stuff with him now. I think he's gonna do it himself. And I think that's gonna it's gonna ruffle some feathers, and you're gonna see some real ugly shit. You're gonna see some crazy shit at that time. Some lawsuits, some real white lawsuits, colour activity going on. People are gonna have some real energy for him. And I think that's what he's tooling up for, too. Yeah. Because the shit's no game at all. He's about to be a disruptor. Yeah. I mean, as a disruptor, Iceman is projected to do 520K first week. The other projects are due, are projected to do 100 to 150 million per album first week. Altogether, that's almost 800. Oh, really, it's projected to do a million collectively. And this is unprecedented. You know, this guy was supposed to be dead, he's supposed to be over, the music's bad, it's trash. People that people keep saying this. Like, I see in the comments, people are saying it's mid. Then why are you listening? That don't make any sense. Like, if I don't like something, right? Like there's songs on GNX that I don't like. I I I never played them again. Take them off as soon as turned my TV off. You see, I like that one. Yo, TV on's hard, bro. I I think it has good songs on GNX. I just uh it's crazy to see how like well Iceman is. I like it's so good. I didn't think like it would be this good, bro. I thought it'd be like something wrong with it. Like every people's talking about the beat changes and having issues with the beat changes. I'm like, Oh, you know what? And you know what? I that's a valid argument people can make. Usually people may have one to two songs on an album that have mid-beat changes. Drake does that a lot, and that may be an avenue that he's pursuing in a thing, but it'll it opened the door because you're basically getting two songs in one. Um also, yeah, he has the talent to cover both ends. Like the hooks that he made, he's like, for real. And then the bars, though. The bars, though, in between, and they both matter, and they make loan what it is. I I will say though, and this is actually gonna be screwed. Like, I do think because Drake pivoted so hard away and for so long from being the hook guy, one small critique I would make is I do think Drake was a better singer in the early 2010s. I think Drake's singing ability has come down. Yeah, uh, I think he's older, bro. He can't hit those highs no more. Yeah, which no, no, and to be it's just cool. Go ahead and hire somebody through the background vocals, bro. Let's hire somebody, though. Yeah, it's it's

Independence Plans And Mogul Endgame

SPEAKER_00 1:01:50

I that's what I would do, too. I think though that that is fine because that's part of when we see Drake get features and we see Drake put people on and like you said, Pimmy and stuff like that. He's getting people to do some of that stuff. But yes, I I still wanted to make a treat because it was funny. People talk about J. Cole, like, oh, don't want to hear you sing on and stuff like that. It's like Drake come down and with his. Oh no, we kick your foot. I'm not comparing something funny, and I'm like technically, but I'm like technically, if I want to talk about it. Jake has gotten better quality as being a hook person, and Drake's quality as being a hook person has come out. I don't think you would notice a lot of things bad though. There's some good artists.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:30

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:32

Even comparing some sexy songs for you to this, I genuinely think the quality has gone down, even from some sexy songs for you to this. Well, I think Drake's hook quality is gone down. I think Iceman's bars, bro. He I like this the singing was a part of it, but I think the emphasis was the bars. And I think that's the difference. Because like you just said, some sexy songs for you. We can listen to Greedy, bro. The vocals are there. Yeah. So I think if he's focusing on the shit, he gives a fuck. But like if he's like, yo, I'm gonna like, because like if you even if you see the song or you listen to the song, uh Shut the Fuck Up. Uh yeah, Janice, shut the fuck up. Yeah, funny song. Shut the fuck up. That initial, you know, I thought that initial hook was trash when I first listened to it. I was like, what the fuck is he doing? And then I ran it back. Yeah, I ran it back. It did, it leads into the bars. I was like, all right, this is crazy. And that's like that's like a it's a top five song of the album. Like outside of what did I miss, obviously it's just been around for a bit. His top five songs are the first five songs. Make them cry, Dust, Whisper, and Angela shut the fuck up and ran to Atlanta or the top stream songs in the album. Bro, and they're all his. Yes. They're all eaters. They're very good. I want to see a music video for make them cry. I think there is a music video for make them cry. Maybe it's just not on Spotify.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:59

It's kind of YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:01

Yeah, because I think I nah. It's not. Hey, no last. He got one for Make Them Remember, Make Them Know. He got it for all the other ones. I want to make them pay. He got that and that's the animated one. Make them cry doesn't have a music. I want to say Make them Cry. That's your intro side. Make them pay is so fire, bro. Yeah. That was like that, like there's some crazy. Let's talk about the music over here. The production over here was immaculate. It's insane. He could have just put out the the fucking beats and it would have done some numbers. That's how crazy the album was musically. So, like he he paid a pretty penny for the experience as far as having all those people on there, but it was worth it, bro. And and we we talked before, right, about uh labels, right? Artists run labels. Everyone's done their thing a little different, right? And outside of like Dreamville, which is really just a nice collective of artists, OVO is really a full-body enterprise of writers, producers. Just like it is really a media identity, more so than just an artist-run collective of other artists. And I think like I don't know if that was his intent when he originally made it, but that's what it's turned into. And it is like OVO is a powerhouse. They could scale up, you know. Uh his singer, he he uh he created a collective like this.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:28

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:29

He just did the verses against Tyrese. Oh do you know what I'm talking about? Nah, I gotta uh dang, I'm so mad I'm missing his name right now. But he has this collective of writers, right? And that's how he made his music in R B. Drake should scale up that idea, bro, and outsource his writing teams, his production teams. And then even rappers start like once he starts, you know, Smiley is on the re is He's next to Drake and he's done a lot of records with Drake that went big. I know he's eaten off that shit. And it it'll be it'd be nice to see him scale up and become a real music mogul. I think that's like his last stage of life. And I think he can be successful because he knows the music business. Yeah, because right now it it depends. I think Drake's uh he's mentioned Drake's already big on legacy. Right now, it depends on him, and he's going to turn into an enterprise that can run when he's no longer an artist. And I think we're watching that happens. Yeah, it's like uh LeBron's last year, bro. I think he's gonna take one like last contract for like two or three albums, east two or three albums. If I'm Drake, I'll do it just like this. Aubrey. Yeah. What is it? Uh Drake. Drizzy. Drizzy. Or Drizzy Drake. You know what I'm saying? Like, like whatever. It's like Drizzy Drake Aubrey. Yeah, yeah. Like Aubrey maybe be the last one or whatever. Yeah, he's returning the form. It was Drizzy Drake and it's Aubrey. I think those should be his last three, bro. And I think he should slowly fade out of music because I'm not saying it's gonna get ass, but like at a certain point, he's either gonna become super mature, or I'm just gonna stop tuning in. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, where do you go from this? Yeah, you can't really go. I understand Iceman, I understand the whole thing, right? But like going forward, I'm gonna want something mature for you. You're at that age for me. Like, like if this was Drake's last album, I'm satisfied. I tell you that right away. Yeah, if this was Drake's last album, I would be happy. So where do you go from this? Because that is a hard thing to come to terms with. And like, I'd be satisfied. Yeah, I don't I don't know how people are ranking it outside of us, bro, but I think we count we're calling it right. This has been a episode 47 of a music in men, me and Dre all day, every day. We are back from the UK Gulf. It's Lane LA.