The long wait for Drake‘s Iceman album will soon be over.
The OVO Sound superstar has announced that his eagerly anticipated ninth LP — and first solo project since his high-profile rap battle with Kendrick Lamar — will be released on May 15.
The release date was revealed on Tuesday (April 21) after fans successfully chipped away at the huge ice structure he had erected in Toronto and retrieved a folder hidden inside.
The coveted package was discovered by Twitch streamer Kishka, who later filmed himself opening the freeze-proof folder outside Drake’s “Embassy” mansion in the Canadian city.
Inside was a Frank Ocean Boys Don’t Cry-style magazine featuring a page that read: “ICEMAN MAY 15,” as well as images of Sexyy Red, Drake’s father Dennis Graham and Pinocchio — a character that has appeared throughout Drake’s Iceman rollout and sparked theories about its meaning — in crosshairs.
Kishka was also gifted a bag of cash by Drake for uncovering his album release date.
The 6 God himself later confirmed the date on Instagram.
The development comes almost a year after Drake first began teasing Iceman through a series of livestreams, as well as the singles “What Did I Miss?,” “Which One” with UK rap sensation Central Cee and the Yeat and Julia Wolf-assisted “Dog House.”
He also told fans during a show in Australia last year: “When the time is right, I’ll be back with another album, a one-on-one conversation with y’all that you need to hear.”
While further details about Iceman remain scarce, media personality and OVO insider Mal recently shed light on the project, claiming that it contains “some of the best rapping I’ve ever heard from Drake.”
“Y’all don’t even know what Drake is preparing to do [with Iceman]. The music he’s created, the way he’s getting ready to entertain the culture, it’s on a whole different level,” he said during an episode of the New Rory & Mal podcast.
Mal also claimed that the album will make it “crystal clear who the top dog is,” alluding to Drake’s fierce rivalry with Kendrick Lamar.
Iceman will serve as the follow-up to Drizzy’s collaborative album with PARTYNEXTDOOR, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 last February with almost 250,000 first-week sales.
