If current projections are to be believed, it’s all but guaranteed that the top 10 (if not the top 20, or more) of next week’s Billboard Hot 100 will be a Drake-dominated affair, save for “Choosin’ Texas,” a hit from Alabama-born country star Ella Langley that looks to remain a charts mainstay for months to come.
Yes, as expected, Drake’s three-pronged Iceman rollout strategy is leading toward another round of busted-up charts records and continued discussions on where, exactly, the type of cultural omnipresence Drake has sustained for years now fits into the larger lineage of stratospheric, too-big-to-fail superstardom. Namely, we’ll almost certainly be seeing even more Michael Jackson mentions in this context, but we’re not here to debate any of that.
Instead, we’re taking a closer look at Drake’s three new albums—Iceman, Maid of Honour, and Habibti—while inviting you to do the same. With the benefit of a few days of hindsight, practically a lifetime in the streaming era, the intended identity of each project has become clearer. In this writer’s opinion, despite Iceman hogging the conversation thanks to its surplus of headlines-ready lyrics addressing (or at least alluding to) much of what fans would have hoped for Drake to address (or at least allude to), the real gem here is Maid of Honour.
MOH closer “Princess,” specifically, calls to mind the downtrodden melodrama of Scorpion highlight “Summer Games,” while the more playful tracks on the project—“Cheetah Print,” “BBW”—balance Drizzy’s characteristically woeful approach to romantic reflections.
This is not to say that Iceman doesn’t have its own standouts; “Janice STFU,” for one, feels handily poised to be the kind of song we’ll be hearing all summer, and for good reason: it earns its hookiness with a tight, just-leftfield-enough chorus that shrewdly builds on a Lykke Li interpolation.
Habibti, too, has its moments, though—for this writer, at least—it has admittedly gotten a bit lost in the shuffle of a combined two and a half hours’ worth of Drake songs.
Given the sheer volume of new music here, it’s no surprise that some fans have taken up the task of pulling their personal favorites from each album and combining them into a single playlist, some in an effort to imagine what a leaner, single-project release strategy for this high-stakes 6 god era might have sounded like.
Others are viewing all three projects collectively, but in their respective entireties, leading to some re-sequencing and/or ranking decisions that may or may not be questionable at best, and appalling at worst.
Below, get in on the action yourself and curate your perfect 12-track Drake album taking songs from across Iceman, Maid of Honour, and Habibti.
