Drake promotes new album with icy downtown stunt

The Toronto rapper is trying to redefine his image following a long and ugly feud with Kendrick Lamar.

Published Apr 20, 2026  •  3 minute read

Toronto rapper Drake Photo by Mark J. Terrill /The Associated Press

Drake’s bringing his very own song of ice and fire to his hometown.

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The Toronto rapper is teasing the release date of his new album Iceman, underneath a massive structure of ice blocks near Dundas St. E. and Bond St.

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The big blocks of ice come after a great ball of fire that exploded at Downsview Park in North York overnight last week, part of a controlled film shoot that got local residents talking on social media and was later confirmed by police.

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The stunts are to promote his newest album, which Drake has been teasing for more than a year, according to XXLMag.com, with a steady stream of content including his Iceman YouTube series and singles such as Which One with Central Cee, What Did I Miss?, and Dog House featuring Yeat and Julia Wolf.

Drake reinvents himself

The album is part of Drake’s effort to reframe his public persona following a long and public feud with hip-hop rival Kendrick Lamar. The pair were friends following a series of collaborations in 2011 and 2012, but things started to turn sour after Lamar called out Drake and 11 other rappers as a guest on Big Sean’s song Control in 2013.

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At the time, Drake tried to downplay the rivalry, saying that the pair remained friends, but Lamar took another shot at Drake at the BET Hip-Hop Awards that October, around the time Drake released his album Nothing Was the Same, which mentioned Lamar.

The pair went back and forth until 2020 and for three years following, it looked like water under the bridge. But it didn’t stay that way. In October 2023, Drake and fellow rapper J. Cole collaborated on a track called First Person Shooter, in which Drake compared himself to Michael Jackson. Lamar responded in March of 2024 with his diss track Like That, ridiculing Drake for comparing himself to Michael Jackson while he compared himself to Prince.

Drake responded to Lamar’s track, calling him a “pip squeak” on April 2024 diss track Push Ups, which mocked him for collaborations with pop acts such as Maroon 5.

Things get ugly

Incensed, Lamar released Euphoria (Drake was an producer of the HBO show) on April 30, and followed up with 6:16 in LA on May 3, a track that spoofed Drake’s tendency to put time and place in his tracks and trashed Drake’s independent label OVO.

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The very next day, Drake responded with Family Matters, a nearly eight-minute diss that accused Lamar of abuse and infidelity with fiancee Whitney Alford. Drake went on to take aim at A$AP Rocky, Metro Boomin, Future, Rick Ross, and Scarborough’s The Weeknd.

Kendrick Lamar performs at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2025. Photo by Timothy A. Clary /Getty Images

Not Like Us

That same day, Lamar responded with Meet the Grahams, a six-and-a-half minute track that accuses Drake of being a deadbeat dad and hiding another child alleged alcohol abuse, addiction to gambling, and claimed he used Ozempic for weight loss and had cosmetic surgery.

Lamar didn’t wait for Drake to respond when he released another diss track Not Like Us, alleging a taste for young girls and bringing up his legal battle with the estate of rapper Tupac Shakur, who was killed in 1996. The track landed at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100, won eight awards at the BET Hip Hop Awards in October of 2024 and won five Grammys in February of 2025.

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The song also prompted Drake to file a lawsuit against his label Universal Music Group for defamation and harassment, alleging UMG helped spread a “false and malicious narrative” about him when they released and promoted the track.

UMG “approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track that falsely accuses Drake of being a pedophile and calls for violent retribution against him,” the lawsuit claimed.

That month, Lamar performed the song at the Super Bowl halftime show, looking directly into the camera as he accused Drake of liking them “young.”

– With files from Anne Bacani

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