Drake Has Officially Confirmed ICEMAN — So Now What?

Travis Scott just dropped the track “2000 EXCURSION” off the upcoming project JACKBOYS 2. In other news: 

• Billboard Hot 100 📈 

• Drake hits the road with ICEMAN 🧊 

• Rocky needs to get it together A$AP 🙄 

• Industry Insights 🔎 

Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here

Billboard Hot 100

The above chart shows Billboard’s Hot 100 ranking for this week. The Hot 100 ranks songs based on streaming activity, radio airplay audience impressions, and sales data —all measured by Luminate.

BigX’s country collab with Bailey Zimmerman, “All the Way,” seems to be the only track moving up this week. “luther” from K. Dot and SZA is still holding on to their spot at number six. Meanwhile, “Outside” by Cardi B takes a fall down the charts despite its top ten debut the week prior.

On the one-year anniversary of Kendrick Lamar's “Not Like Us” video (and that now-iconic owl piñata beatdown), Drake decided it was time to address...everything and confirm his next album era. Enter ICEMAN: EPISODE ONE, a livestreamed performance-slash-therapy session where Drizzy played both the employee and the egomaniac, while casually reminding everyone he still has the Apple Music stats to justify it.

Drake asks LeBron and K. Dot “What Did I Miss?” 

Drake told fans to lock in at 9 PM. He started at 9:30 PM. Classic. The stream opened with him cosplaying as a bored ICEMAN Toronto employee, watching old videos of himself like a dad revisiting his high school mixtape era. Eventually, though, things got... Drake-y.

The throwback footage cut to a new music video where Drake, now surrounded by a suspicious amount of firearms, rapped about betrayal and hurt feelings. The song, which fans speculated sampled The Weeknd (it doesn’t), starts with “I don’t give a f*** if you love me.”

Then he gets to the beef of it:

“Last time I looked to my right, you n***** was standing beside me,  How can some people I love hang around p****** who try me?”

Champagne Papi doesn’t seem ready to let all past tensions go. Fans are now speculating that one of his new bars takes aim at LeBron James.

“I saw bro went to Pop Out with them, but been dick riding gang since ‘Headlines,” Drake spits on the track. 

Drake and LeBron once appeared to be tight, but the basketball icon might be too busy pretending to know the lyrics at concerts to address the line. That said, the shot might not be about LeBron at all. Some believe it’s aimed at DeMar DeRozan, who also attended “The Pop Out,” appeared in the “Not Like Us” visuals, and was called a “p****” by Drake on the basketball court. 

Once the performance wrapped, Drake hopped in a branded ICEMAN truck, playing deep cuts and new tracks for anyone still tuned in. Alongside his Smiley collab “2 Mazza,” he previewed a new song rumored to be titled “Supermax,” where he reflects on a heart-to-heart with sports journalist Taylor Rooks. 

In the song, he recaps how he was once “talking to Taylor over drinks, and it was getting deep / 'Not everyone can handle this pressure and, in the city, you're the national treasure,' that's what she said to me…” 

Taylor Rooks seemingly confirmed the line was about her. Her rumored ex, Jack Dorsey, is somewhere clutching a quartz crystal and trying not to cry.

Is Drake an ICEMAN or just an old man?

In some ways, episode one of ICEMAN can be seen as a needed victory for the 6 God. Drake reminded everyone he’s still streaming royalty—claiming 39 of the most-played songs in Apple Music history, with “God’s Plan” topping the list for hip-hop. His new single debuted at No. 1 on both Spotify and Apple Music. On paper? He’s still him.

But if you actually watched the stream, he didn’t sound like someone on top—he sounded like someone still trying to prove it. The episode wasn’t just a flex of stats and hits; it was a full-blown vent session. From bringing up old beefs (many of which are now one-sided) to abruptly ending the stream after a fan called him a “bitch” in the chat (“we can fold that up right now,” he replied), Drake seemed less focused on the music and more locked in on the noise.

Even the visuals sent a message—Drake surrounded by guns, posing like he’s ready to unload. But at this point, the sneak disses don’t hit like warning shots. They feel more like hallway whispers: vague, bitter, and aimed at enemies he won’t name.

So, is Drake an ICEMAN? Or just a very rich, very online man with too much time and a chip on his shoulder?

Either way, the rollout is on. And with his headlining set at Wireless Festival kicking off July 11, more music (and more pettiness) is definitely coming.

Fans Say A$AP Rocky Fell Off—Did His Latest Video Prove Them Right?

A$AP Rocky has been thriving at fashion weeks, debuting sunglasses, and casually dropping hints about baby number three like it’s just any other day. However, while Rocky is busy serving looks and vibes, the rest of us are still waiting on the one thing he hasn’t delivered: his long-promised album, DON’T BE DUMB.

The album was supposed to drop last August. Since then, all we've gotten are vague updates, scattered interviews, and the occasional artsy snippet. Even though Rocky swears it’s “mixed and mastered,” there’s still no release date, no rollout plan, and honestly… no signs of urgency.

Yes, he dropped a new track called “pray4dagang” on July 3 (exclusive to Apple Music at first, then rolled out to other platforms the next day). It features KayCyy and production from James Blake, which sounds great on paper — until everything around it started falling apart.

Another day, another lackluster rollout

The track was first previewed during Rocky’s AWGE show at Paris Fashion Week, alongside one of his many “the era is coming” interviews — which, at this point, feel like Playboi Carti cosplay.

“The guy I am now is not the guy I came in this business as. [I’m] not the same kid. We all know I’m a father now … If I’m out here telling y’all how pretty I am again, it’s not talking about nothing. “If I talked about how I f***** your b**** or how I can take your b**** again, it’s not really talking about nothing,” Rocky explained. 

It may be time to let Rocky go

Just days after the video dropped, fans noticed it quietly disappeared from his YouTube channel on July 6. No warning, no explanation. Just gone. Around the same time, Drake’s favorite blogger DJ Akademiks gleefully pointed out that “pray4dagang” had only clocked 236k streams on Spotify — a number that’s not impressive for one of the 2010s’ biggest rap stars. Meanwhile, the track didn’t even crack Apple Music’s Top 200… despite being their exclusive in the first place.

Rocky, of course, hasn’t said a word about the video’s removal. Meanwhile, online sleuths and tired fans have filled the silence with their own theories. And most of them point to the same uncomfortable truth: Rocky may still be a fashion god, but in the rap game? He might’ve aged out of relevance.

If you’re still waiting on DON’T BE DUMB with excitement in your heart, congratulations — you might be one of God’s Strongest Soldiers™. From where most fans are standing, this rollout looks more like a slow, painful breakup than a comeback. No drop date. No explanation. No nothing. At this point, the only thing dropping consistently in this era… is the ball.

• Shoutout to the HITS ACT. Recently passed by Congress, the act will “allow recording producers and artists to deduct up to $150,000 in recording expenses immediately” instead of spreading the costs over multiple years.

• There’s still hope for TikTok. There are reports that a standalone U.S. app is in the works with a potential launch date of September 5.

• 50 Cent just secured another bag. On July 6 (also his 50th birthday), the rapper officially launched his own action channel on the platform Pluto TV.  

Like sports? 🏀🏈 Get up-to-date analysis and unique insight that’s actually interesting to read with the Playmaker Newsletter.