Of Music & Men #48

Three Drake drops. 43 songs. A real chance to flood the Billboard Hot 100.

This episode starts with the impact of Iceman and what it does to the Jay-Z comparison, the “Big Three” debate, and the bigger question: is the best rapper always the biggest artist?

Then we talk hip-hop culture: the “hip-hop is dying” narrative, mystique vs quality, street credibility, media bias, beef turning into scandal, and why selective outrage makes real accountability impossible.

We close with the business: UMG pressure, takedowns, masters, streaming math, clean vs explicit versions, label leverage, platform deals, and AI licensing.

Transcript

Late Night Intro And Iceman Buzz

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Late in LA. Episode 48 of Music in Mid, me and Dre all day. Bro, how you feeling, man? Are you feeling chilly?

SPEAKER_02 0:12

You feeling chilly because of the Iceman?

SPEAKER_01 0:15

He brought winter back, man.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

He brought winter to summer?

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Dear summer, dear winter? Dear Jay-Z?

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Dear Jay-Z. Bro. Speaking of Jay-Z, after the Iceman album has dropped, it's hitting the chart and everything like that. It's gonna hit number one and he's gonna pass Jay calling the top number one rapper list. And I think it's it's all serendipity, bro. This is all supposed to have. Yeah. I don't know. This wouldn't have happened if they didn't do what they did, though. I think Drake really wanted to chill after for all the dogs. You think he was trying to f I do think he was you're right. Like this, he this wouldn't have come. Not that he was unmotivated. He had nothing left to do that. No, Drake was unmotivated, bro. He was unmotivated before this shit, bro. He had nothing left to grind for, nothing left to prove. He really was about to do an early retirement, and they really brought energy back to him. Bro, he dropped 43 songs, and I know he has songs out because I'm listening to the leaks. He still got fire leaks out. Really? This is a leak called ayahuasca. Go listen to that shit. It's crazy. He's interloping Eminem Key, please stand up. Yeah. Okay. I was just listening to shit. I was like, wow, man, this could have been on an album. Supermax could have been on the album. Like, this is shit from the Iceman from the streams that I was like, oh, this is still music. He still has music, bro. And maybe he's, you know, saving it for some more summer singles or something. Like, I think, I do think this triple drop, whatever he knows a lot. But I think it's gonna be a situation back, like, not to the same extent, but like when K Cuddy played his label and he dropped his little visual, and then the next day he went and dropped. It might have been blonde, but like he dropped those to get out of his deal. You talk about Freak Ocean. Uh yeah, Frank. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Frank. He dropped those to get out of his deal. Drake now has the rest of the year to drop music that's going to be 100% his. I think they went straight to litigation, bro. And decide there's some things that shows that they have gone straight to litigation. There's some YouTubers getting strikes, and we'll talk about it. There's YouTubers getting strikes, and people on Twitter getting strikes. And now I just saw it on TikTok as well. They're all getting strikes for doing Drake positive content. And that's from U of G. And that's like a whole conversation. But like, let's wrap this whole thing with Jay-Z. I feel like it's serendipitous, you know, he had his hand in the Super Bowl, and now he's being surpassed. And that's I think that's the thing about Jay-Z. He's a great rapper, but he was never. This is the thing, like him and Kendrick probably feel this way. Like, they were probably the best rapper, but not the guy at the time. They're never the best of their era. They're never the best of their era. Kendrick had 2024. Let's give him that. 2026, and then the years before that. We could say Good Kids City and damn did great, but they weren't as commercially successful as any Drake project around that time. These guys are great, but they weren't the greatest at their time, at their peak. It cole can say the same thing. Like, you could be one of the greatest rappers, but to be number one, you have to have everything. You can't just have bars. I actually don't even think good kid Mad City would have been Kendrick's time to be number one. I think it was damn or to pimp a butterfly, where his two stand like, this is when this should be your year. I can genuinely say for J. Cole, and J. Cole is my favorite rapper, outside of 2014 Four Souls Drive.

unknown 3:55

J.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Cole has never put out an album that said this is my year. But I also don't know if he necessarily was chasing for that after that either. But I would say 2014 Four Souls Drive was his only shot at being I'm the best rapper.

Leaks, Leftover Tracks, And Momentum

SPEAKER_01 4:10

That was his year. I genuinely think the like Kendrick's biggest influence was probably to Pepper Butterfly. Like I think that year was like I mean, that's when he won everything. I mean, the album is the album. It's a great album. Phenomenal. It's phenomenal. It's a great album. You can't take that away from people. But like, okay. So Drake passes Jay. Drake has dropped the three albums. Next week, when we get the billboards, we're gonna have one, two, and three occupied by Drake and his three albums. Does this put the bid through the big three conversations? Like, at the commercial conversation. Like at a commercial level, which it shouldn't have even been a conversation, but yes, no one else is doing numbers like this. Drake talks about it a long time. No one's doing numbers like this. And no one will do numbers like this, probably in hip hop ever again. The amount of lanes he has is insane. If you can't come from these 43 songs and not understand that Drake is the artist of his generation. The artist, the artist of his generation, is a big difference between him and Kendrick, him and J. Cole. Honestly, that's why J. Cole and Kendrick never went at it because they're very similar. Yeah. Their lanes touch. Their lanes touch a lot. And I'll talk about that a little bit later. But let's get into this. He's gonna blow Morgan Wallace's record out the water, bro. Like Morgan Wallace, the big country star, is getting outpaced by the rapper Drake. 42 songs. And the only song that did the chart was an interlude. So it wasn't even a song. Uh I think it was. I don't care for that one. That's the only song I could I I listened to both albums. I've listened to everything. I was like, Rusty. And you know what's crazy? People like Don't Worry. So like I can't even say that. Oh, yeah. It is an art to turn interludes into full standalone works. Not everyone is capable of doing that. Yeah, he's dope for that though. But yeah, how do you feel about that? Like, the this is the commercial success. 42 out of 43 records is going to be on the billboard hot 100 next week. Not only gives you a like Drake aside, we can put Drake aside of this, what they've now considered like urban music and all of that, where that stands in the music industry and what that means and what the listener's appetite is. People thought hip-hop was dying. People thought black music was dying. And it's funny, like this still has some of the same typical hip-hop elements, but this wasn't 100% like let's sell drugs, let's do violence, let's do this, this, and this. Right? It was a very different sound, like holistically. And to see that this is charting so high just lets people know that like hip hop's not dead. There's still an appetite for if you're at the top of your craft, there is still a place for hip-hop. The thing is, I've seen a lot of people say this is like you gotta have the in-factor, bro. You gotta have more than just your skill set. Playboard Cardi, he gets away with a lot of shit because of his mystique. Yeah. If you take away following, yeah, if you take that away, bro, like it's not much, right? But like what I'm saying is like I am music dip numbers because of the mystique. The music itself is not so like I'm just talking about project, like dudes can't even put out great projects. Like, like I I'm talking about the young guys, like, like the quality that's coming out at Drake's level and at his stature is crazy. And it's very violent. For most of them, yeah, it takes years apart. They don't have the stamina to drive the culture. Like, it's a real thing. Like, you have to be a part of this shit all the way. And that's why I liked when Drake was the guy, because he's the guy, he's in Atlanta, he's in Houston. He might even do some shit with French Montana. He's working with so many artists. And I think 2026 is such an important year because we've gotten, right, we've gotten stuff from Cole. We got stuff from Drake, right? And I know a lot of people wanted to dodge that release window to not really run into it, but now we're getting other artists dropping music. And it's like we've warmed up the appetite for hip-hop for the ears, for the listeners. We're getting quality acts from older traditional artists in hip-hop to release this year all in the same year. So 2026 is gonna be a year to eat and to reintroduce people. Like, yeah, we got there's a lot of new guys, they're making a lot of music, may not have much substance to it outside of the character they're putting on that's giving out the music, but we're getting quality stuff from a lot of people, and Drake is gonna be like the foundation of that for the year. Yeah. Him Cole did really well to start the pace of what this year is gonna look like for hip-hop and just being leaders. Now, speaking of leaders, we got Aiden Ross, DJ Academics, Drake, they're all leading something. Something must be going on. There is a plot going on. They've been brought in for questioning, they've been handed off subpoenas, they've been brought into arbitration. They sent up the paper as far as this Rock Nation situation and this back and forth in between the Megan and the Stalin situation that was going on, the Tori Delane situation is going on. They are looking and trying to find collusion between those three people to see if Drake is paying for this stuff. That makes it easy to try to drag these people in, obviously, being on D-Jack. Did makes closely aligned himself with Drake. Drake's done streaming stuff closely

Passing Jay-Z And The Big Three Debate

SPEAKER_01 10:05

aligned around Aiden. But that's such an interesting take when we also know that, and this is kind of what Drake talks to alludes to, like, UMG, you've been doing the same stuff. Yeah, and that's the crazy thing. These guys are, and this is what people don't understand. They are doing exactly what they're complaining about. They're playing bully ball. They want to do whatever they want to do. Like, they really want Drake to just be an artist and take the slap on the face and sign the contract, not making it a big thing. Um, Jay-Z said it was cool. We're beyond dealing, stop dealing. You know, and to be fair for the the critics out there, because this is the complaint they had with Drake and Kendrick, right? They they actually don't care that Drake's not suing Kendrick. They're fully aware. Oh, semantic they're mad that they're saying, well, Drake, you weaponized the industry for years, and now that the industry and the machine was weaponized against you, now you want to complain. Valid critique, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Does that make him suing Umg bad for artists? Right? Like valid critique. We can take that and both these things can be true at once.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

There's a machine in his favor. Yep. Okay. In what way are they say the machine is in his favor? Because I never see the machine in his favor in a beef.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

And if we want to be pro for all, Drake has lost the only other two.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Like I say this, Drake's. I would I would say Drake is actually 0 for 3 in V's. Let's say that. I would say I don't think he won against Meek. I wouldn't say he won against push-up because he actually had dirt to be put on him, which was his kid. And then we can say he lost his beef.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Drake has never used the machine, as you said in his beat. He wasn't squashing radio plays, he wasn't squashing YouTube plays, he wasn't withholding releases.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

He wasn't white labeling the ops released so they could be reacted and used against him. He wasn't botting streams, botting comments.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

When he was beefing with me, I don't even know if Twitch was up at that time. Let's be honest.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

I got a hot take here. Yeah. Now, you just said that Drake lost every battle, right? Yeah. I think he's never been out wrapped in any battle. Meaning, like they use context, but they didn't actually lyrically beat him in a battle. Yeah, the bars that beat Drake. It was the it was mud slinging. It was almost like they gets turned into TMZ where they beef Drake. Like they tell you something about him. Because we're more interested in Drake than we are the person he's beefing with. Like Dick was like, hey, hey, he ain't writing all that shit. He's like, is he? Oh. And at this point, right? It's the same story, and which valid if you if that is the only thing you care about in hip-hop, this person individually wrote their own lyrics. Sorry to tell you, a lot of people have co-writers, it's not just Drake. But also, that is the thing that gets brought up in all of his beats. Meek, it was the same with Pusha, and it was the same with Kendrick. Like, you got ghostwriters, you're not writing stuff like that. It sounds good as an overarching just like label to throw on. If you actually look into the way OVO sound as a company works, it's not the vultureist idea that everyone has it out to be. Not to say that Drake's perfect. I'm not saying that he hasn't taken things, right? The dealings he had with the weekend, still not great, right? Take care. That's a whole issue. But for most of Drake's career, and if you look at the way O'Veal sound works, business wise, it's not the culture vulture thing that everyone's coming up and saying. But most of your favorite artists have had lyrics written for them on a couple of songs. So let's that's not what y'all really care about. That's not y'all real concern. They don't care about that shit, bro. Because if writing was what mattered, him writing Unthinkable for Alicia Keith.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

And he's written for Beyonce. But we don't care about that.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

We don't care. Like that's just this gone, bro. That's just like a bandit, bro. That shit is not used. People don't want to use their frontal logo that one, but like. He's written for Kanye.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

He's written like none of this matters.

unknown 14:18

You know.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

It's a wild concept to run into that. But like there's these new narratives popping up, right? And there's things being not addressed, right? Like, I've sat and watched The Breakfast Club, Hot 101, fucking the Apple TV show with Ebro, that's got all them. Oh my goodness. Bro, journalism and hip hop is bought and paid for. And I'm tired of acting. How is DJ Academics the most opinionated in both at least the most free-thinking person we're gonna get? Well, well, I will say journalism and hip-hop is not objective across the board, right? Like journalism, news reporting. When you're talking about real life stories and facts, that's where it comes in to be important. In music, in hip hop, especially, journalism is strictly based off your ties, based off your biases, and it's based off who can pay you a bigger share to push something out. And that's just across the board today. It's so obvious. I haven't seen a single one of these guys talk about the real lyrics or too hard for the radio. It's the reason he put this shit in the fire. Listen, that's fire. It's the reason he put it that in there, bro. He said, He said, nigga's names got redacted. Now we got a fact check. Like, yeah, after island hopping. Like, come on.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Come on, we're not talking about that. Jay-Z and them got caught on that list, and niggas is

What Chart Dominance Says About Hip-Hop

SPEAKER_02 15:55

cool with it, bro.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Like, that is wild, bro. This is why I don't really bear any credence to somebody who's like, yo, Drake's a PDF. I was like, all right, she's a PDF, right? They told me this. I was like, you listen to the new album? They was like, yeah. I was like, why would you listen to that album? Be the lady and explain it, bro. People just like shitting on somebody that's successful. And I'm starting to understand that too. It's kind of scary because I plan on being successful. It's like, damn.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Oh, yeah, they're gonna hate on you.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Yo, they got a better house. Nah, I mean, it's as you said, and we talked about this from the beginning. It was the same when Kendrick was beefing. He was talking about, you know, pedophile, this, this, and that. He had the pop out Kendrick. You on stage with domestic abusers, pimps, pimps, race, like actual pedophiles, dudes over there who've been less than after 16-year-old girls. You got Dr. Dre up there. Come on now. So y'all don't care. Y'all don't actually care. And then later we found out you're taking pictures with dudes in your circle. That like one of the dudes had just gotten convicted of an assault. Y'all buddy up a picture, stuff like that. He was in your circle. You had people around him. You involved with you was in TDE. There's issues there. No one's talking about that. So y'all don't actually care about the things that you're accusing Draco. And I said it from the jump. Any of these people who did these things, send them to jail. Please give the evidence. Don't allude to nothing. Call the FBI. Next time he lands in the States, call the FBI, send him to jail. Don't call Buster up. Tell him you give a beat. I just but the process me, it's just wild for me, bro. But like to see all these major hip-hop media heads. I mean, even academics, he has his narratives, right? But like I feel like academics is impartial because he's sloppy, because he's Drakey, right? Like he's like, but like I'd rather him than Ebro, because Ebro's gonna be like, he got a script and he's gonna stick to that. Yeah, yeah. Charlemagne, like, they all got like a real narrative. I haven't heard none of them covered the sexual assault case with TDE at all. We heard no words about that situation. Never brought it up. Or Dre. Never brought it up. Or Dre. So you know it's crazy. So like when he talked about them or to make them remember, he's like, if if Dre, if Drake takes the AK out of AK out of Drake, you know, that's that's how you'll get it. You get arrested based off how the name spells. About Dre, did he look into the history with that 16-year-old shorty, what he done to women, and when he dated women, because people told me the situation with Drake in the shorty that he kissed on stage was the standard. Because he, I don't know how old he was, but yeah, because like, well, she was 16 and he kissed her, and like Canada's the age of extended 16, whatever, like that. Like, no, that don't fly hire in America. And I'm first off, I'm not excusing that. Drake was a creepy. But we're not gonna do selective outrage. Yeah, Drake kissed that girl on stage, but he found out she was 16, shouldn't have done that. There's a creep for that. He also did, you know, like that that girl conversation in that situation has context. She's came out and said stuff. So like she was like, yo. So that what did she say? He said, one, I was 17. Two, his team picked me. He himself did not pick me. She was there with her dad. Two, it never was more than what it was on stage. And three, she was just like, you know, trying to get back to her life. She's 31. So, like, yeah, like and that was a minute ago. With that out there with that situation, I've been to parties when I was like 19. There's people that are like 16, 17, 18, they're like, what the fuck? But it's a party. So like and once, and like I'll say, once he found how old she was, my personal opinion, he should have shorty get back off the stage and pick somebody else. But that being said, if that is the standard for where we should be locking people up, these people are beating, raping, and pimping out women. They've been doing it since the 90s, send them all to jail. And if that's the standard, but the goalpost moves, bro. And that's the thing about the I've seen people make these think pieces and narratives and all these things, right? Or even purviews. Like they have this. I heard one person, they were like, oh, you gotta read to understand. You gotta, he said, Rick doesn't make music for people who read. And I was like, they just want to be elitists in every facet of life. Half of y'all need the lyrics to come out for y'all to understand what Drake's talking about.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Bro, they'll say you don't got bars and they're listening to Shabbat. I'm like, of course it's not a bar-heavy track.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

And not only that, this is what I was trying to explain. I was trying to tell this to some people too. And I was like, yo, this album, you're like, besides some albums, some songs you can listen to as a casual hip-hop person. This album was food for those who have been paying attention to for the last two years, as well as other things, Shabang. Y'all know who's on the ad libs? Like, y'all don't understand the importance of some things. Some people don't like the song with future.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

That's okay. That's not the point. He got a song with future.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

We needed a song with future. Like, y'all don't understand some of the importance of some of these songs. Bro, that song with future is a flip. It changes the entire landscape. I mean, listen, man. Future's a shaky warrior. He's a sneaky I don't know how. If I'm Drake, I don't know how. But then again, we don't think it was that deep between them. I think it was never that deep between them. I don't think it was you know what happened with like J. Cole and Cam with the whole feature thing, and then him not preferring a favor. I think it was low key something that casual that they just couldn't talk about. Like, I look at Jake Cole and Cam as mature people, and I feel like Future was like, bro, you supposed to hopping one of my songs, and now you're saying you're busy and you missed. Like, I feel like it was something that bad. You know what? It's probably Metro drinks beef that really features though the big bro tip. It's like, yo, you got problems with him, you got problem with me type situation. He didn't let Metro stand on his own. And Metro do act like a little brother. Like Metro acts like a little bit. And that takes like, but that's why he's being treated certain ways. Like, and you know, if you want to have a certain dynamic with a man, you gotta establish that shit by yourself. Like, like, I hope he doesn't think like that now that

Subpoenas, Strikes, And Label Pressure

SPEAKER_01 22:30

future and Drake are cool with y'all in the studio, Drake might like choke on you a little bit. Like he said, uh beat the producer. What's the BP? Yeah, I heard that. He also made Aubrey like Aubrey's ready, bro. He got his license to carry, he's ready. Fuck it. Fuck this. Fuck these Americans, bro. And it's so funny. Like, we're obviously gonna see the RR charts locally, but people forget to Drake's international appeal at any point, and he's already proven it. He's gonna win here, and then he can whenever he wants. He gone. Bro, he don't have to be here. He could just tour European countries, bro. He don't he only and we most rappers here don't have that appeal. Y'all are regional. Most of y'all are regional acts who do not sell outside of where you blew up. Obviously, we can ignore Cole and Kendrick and all these, but most of these guys are big in the five states that surround where they blew up. Bro, if Drake did an international tour, that'd probably be one of the smartest things he could do. Completely ignore the he could do two things, right? He can lead in or he can lead out. I think he got some more bars, though. I think he wants somebody to respond. I think he's ready. You think he's still Oh, yeah. He wants a fair one. He doesn't feel like he got a fair one. I don't want I don't think Kendrick's gonna respond to anything. If he does anything, it would be against ASAP. ASAP could rap with Drake, bro. I'm sorry. It would be against ASAP. I think he would do something against Rick Ross. Rick Ross is not gonna say anything. I think it's just ASAP and Ross. It's the only people who would say something back. Ross embarrassed himself, bro. I don't want to hear a track for, bro. Like the flip-flopping within days, it's too crazy. It's all documented on the internet, too. Like, that's crazy. You can't tell me this video footage of me saying, Nobody wants you to lose. Nobody. Nobody, bro.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

Everybody wants you to win, man. Next day. Nah, the shit. Ass, bro. Look at the comment section.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

They might be on drugs and they be talking. Yeah, they have to be. Can't be a sound thought when they come up with this. You can't be sober when you're like, yo, I'm gonna support them on Tuesday, but Wednesday, duh, I'm going up on them. But it's but it's not about the money, duh. It's not about that shit. Because this is the angle Rick Ross is using. He's like, drinking up from the streets, man, the real streets, man. I'm like, Okay, Mr. Barole Officer. I'm so tired, man. I'm so tired of street culture narrative and black culture. Yeah. It's bigger than that, brother. It's gotta stop. No, but I I do think hip-hop is hip-hop will never evolve if we do not take street culture out. I don't think it's about taking street culture out. I think it's about acknowledging that it's not the only thing that exists and that it's the only form of validity to make creation. Okay, I think street culture should not be the only form of validity. I think you should just be able, and I mean, honestly, it's a regression to the door. Tupac was the biggest guy. He was an actor, turned rapper. Drake is the biggest guy, actor, turned rapper. I'm sorry. If Tupac was still alive, people would Drake have an album, I swear. It'd be fire. And you know what's the crazy thing about that is clowning, right? So they're clowning. Yeah, they clown Drake. Oh, you're an actor, you're a song, you're not from this, this, and that. Tupac is an actor. Tupac used to have a nose ring in people would be calling Drake all types of stuff for his earrings and this stuff like that. Your favorite rapper, nose ring. All dude, nose ring. Like, what do we? He was cosplaying a death row. Everybody knows he wasn't like that. That's why all those situations that happened, that's why he died because he didn't know how to move and maneuver. And that's the other thing people say, like, oh, Drake is like you said, even to this day, even if in the beginning Drake wasn't that horror, being surrounded by Wayne and them, the people he's incorporated in the spaces he may be in, you can change. This was 17 years ago. Drake's life looks very different than 17 years ago. Y'all accept Tupac as y'all's greatest gangster rapper. And y'all accepted his pivot from actor to hard in two years. Listen, man, it's a world, it's a crazy place. There's a new narrative going on with Drake. Fantano says something about this. Torrey says something about this. There's a couple other people. I don't know what their names are, like these other two dudes, but I always get it's always wild when I see like a white creator telling me this black person is now right ring or right leaning because of this or that. But that is what's going on. So the Drake album came out, it's called Iceman. The White House posted something using white the Iceman music. Now everybody was like, oh, why why didn't he disavow it? Kendrick's music has been used. I believe Beyonce's music has been used. They've all been used by DHS and by Ice to run into people's houses. Yeah, so they've all been used. So I don't understand if we were going to have backlash and outrage, why aren't we upset with Kendrick? I feel like that should be like the biggest flag right there. If Kendrick, obviously, they're just gonna bully it. You can't tell this administration what to do. I gotta say, first off, you try putting the cease and desist out against the United States government. Let's be for real. Also, if we want to talk about the music and who your music's owned by and stuff like that, he only has so much power in spay to go and say, y'all can't use my music. Now, there is things between, you know, your master's in, I think it's called production. So like there's a split in rights where you kind of have to get both. But who's about to tell the United States government and DHS they're not going to be able to use their music? They've been doing it for the past eight months. Bunch of artists was like, yo, don't do that. They do not care. Yeah, it doesn't matter. I think people don't understand that. It's just a narrative. Like, I can't take anything from Fantasyl serious, bro. Like, nobody checked him or said anything too much about him having that old Rachel slippage. I don't care. If you can talk like that too calmly, then you probably had some other things you said in a not so positive like that's not. All of that can be forgotten if you hate on Drake. All of it. Surpass. Because the dude Tory, you gotta wear a case. It's crazy. A lot of these guys be having some strange cases. Case telling me how bad somebody else is. Not an actor, but like a real case. A real case, yeah. That's notable. Like the chick's like, yo, stop. He's like, I just wanna that type of tip, bro. Workplace situation. Oh crazy.

unknown 29:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

Crazy, bro. Can you work with this dude? Lock him up. Can you work with this dude, man? Crazy, bro. Tell it that you can't work with him. We tell a Drake to work on himself. Crazy, bro. But uh, how do you think, bro? You think Drake's MAGA, bro? No. I don't think Drake's MAGA. I don't think Drake's some like champion of democracy and rights for the people, but I don't think it's MAGA. I think Drake is in their balls. Their policies are different. Like obviously left and right is like a global thing, quote unquote. But like they're he's not Democrat or Republican, bro, does not live here. Like said, not like us. You mean not like US, right? Like, what's the American education system thing, bro? That's the problem. Because like people view white and shit from him, but then exclude him from shit. He's like, nah, you're not like one of us. Hey, you gotta talk

Media Bias And Selective Outrage

SPEAKER_01 30:20

about our stuff over here. You know, you gotta do that. Well, they'll say they'll they'll be like, that's why you're not like us, because you're not fighting for our stuff. And I'm like, all right, but like I was just having a conversation with somebody else. Okay, we it's easy to point at this person, like, you don't do anything for us, so you're not like us. Okay, what about the people on your side? What are well, but what about the people on your side? What is Kendrick doing besides making music for the black conscious? What in actual work is Kendrick doing? I think a lot of these dudes are just Tyler Perry, bro, jazz music. Yo, all right, yeah. So, like, let's think about Kendrick outside the black experience, right? Like, it me and you have lived his lyrics in some capacity coming up, right? For sure. Right? We could immediately relate, but that's also why I'm not re-listening to the shit. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's the Tyler Perry shit. It's just profit off the trauma with no way and path forward. There's no path. Okay, I listened to Pimp a Butterfly. It's real bad for you. I get it. No path for it. Damn, no path for it. And that and that that's the loot conscious rappers always kill themselves with. It's because they're telling me, hey, don't buy nothing, don't buy nothing. Hey, my album, come on, buy something. Like that's like that's what they do all the time. Yeah. When I get into the Kendrick Omar thing and I get into like just black conscious rappers, and this is why they don't aren't as popular as everybody else, especially in the black community, it's because we've lived to bit to pin Pabellify. We have lived swimming pools. I'm with like we've lived these things, right? Like, so we don't have to revisit that album again, but I can go revisit more life. I haven't been in the UK. Like it's just more like you know what, it's so funny because most people will understand the Tyler Perry reference. And if you try to portray that to Kendrick, that's where they'll stop. And they'll be like, nope, don't see it. But they'll go and listen to something like more life. I'm like, look, this guy's out of touch. And it's like, okay, so am I supposed to perpetually be in despair? I'm not listening to swimming pools 10 times a day, bro. I'm gonna need some passion fruit, bro. You know, like I've already lived this, bro. And that's a lot of things I can't really listen to. A lot of drill shit or this or that. Because this shit was like, oh, that I was thinking about the times this was applicable to my life. It was tough times.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

And you know what's funny?

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Because hip hop has this magical way of immersion in parasocialism. That's why it doesn't matter who you are as an artist, most of your listeners are white. Doesn't matter what kind of rapper you are, hip-hop, most of your listeners are white. Because hip-hop has a good way of parasocialism. That's why I connect so much streaming. People can live your experience through your music, and hip-hop is so powerful. But America is also conditioned off of experiencing black trauma through media, anyways, right? That's just a thing. But yeah, I can't sit here and listen to drill all day in the beginning because my life was never bad enough to relate to drill music.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

So this is a different kind of life that I'm listening to, but at the same time, I'm like, I don't want to hear about how 20 of your homies just died last week and so you had to make this song every day.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Yeah. That's not healthy to listen to every day. Like, we need different perspectives, bro. We need people who aren't from the streets making music, like a Drake. I'm sorry, but like at a certain point, like that story gets a little tired. And also it gets a little controllable, right? Like that, I mean, those rappers are I mean, the most prolific drug dealer rapper, Jay-Z, is the most controllable guy we see. Yeah. I think there's a real I talked about this before. I think there's a pipeline in a form of mental breakdown when you can make a person, I'm talking about people that sell like crack, jokes. Like, once they make that decision, yeah. Once you decide to break your community down from the inside, it's very hard. Yeah, I'm not sure. I know the 70s, 80s was a hard time for black people. You will work with the options you have. But most people was like, I didn't want to do this, and as soon as I didn't have to, I stopped glorifying it and continuing to profit off of it perpetually. That's a different kind. It's a different, and it and that's where you get this subculture of endless trauma. Like, this is subculture of black culture that's never gonna get the young bulls that live on certain blocks in certain neighborhoods in certain areas in LA or Chicago or even Philly, because now they're starting to do that too. These young bulls are gonna be bored, talk. Yeah, because they can't escape and they're surrounded by people who be like, this is cool, this is the way. We need to be horrible, we need to be suspicious of each other. I need to kill you if you're on my corner because you're my competition. That's gotta be done. They gotta go. And that's the thing, and you know how it goes with there's more kids where the only the sensibility can't be from just street culture. Pendrick himself did not find himself in street culture, he found himself through art. So, like it's just it gets tedious. At a certain point, it's useful. Get it. Like, if I'm on the street, the things I learned growing up is useful. Or useful, yes, to navigate life and to see how to operate in places where maybe you're not welcome to learn how to tell when someone's looking at you kind of weighed up. Like, this is not your friend, this is not your ally. Yes, but there's a way to teach lessons on survival without perpetuating the idea that people who look like me are my enemies. We got real comfortable through music, looking at each other in fair through someone else's experience. Speaking of experiences, bro, we've given Iceman a week. How do you feel about the other albums? Made of Honor, Habiti, and then we can get down to Iceman, but I feel the same about Iceman. I feel like it's the most complete body of work. And I, if I'm being harsh, 15 out of 18. If I'm being nice, it's easily 18 out of 18. There's some songs I don't like. They're not bad. You know what I'm saying? Like, they're not bad songs. I just don't prefer them. Like, some people don't like don't worry. I don't like Don't Worry on Iceman. Some people love that shit. I was like, oh shit. I didn't see Earl Sweatshirt like it. So, like, okay, if Earl Sweatshirt likes it and I don't, maybe I should go listen to that till they get it. I would say, well, let me say this. First off, on the other two albums, they're like sevens. They're not my preferred type of Drake. And I'll say that. That doesn't mean everything on there is bad. So I'm gonna give them sevens. I also understand their place and why they got dropped the way they did. So they're seven for me. I just won't have 10. Out of 18 songs, if I'm being harsh, I'm keeping 17. And you know what's crazy? The one I'm not keeping is the one that's on the table. Huh? What did I miss? Yeah. Or what did I miss? Yeah, I could go without that because we already heard it.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

That's the only reason.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

If what did I miss did not drop until at least three days before the album came out, what I missed would be the number one song in America. Right now, it'd be the best song on the album. But because I spent months listening to it, when I play the album now, I skip it. I don't even want to hear it because it doesn't sit well with the way I'm taking the album in as a whole as new content. That's it. Outside of that, everything on this album has a place, has a purpose, and with context, it's only better. Like without context, I'm keeping 17 of the songs. With context, this is an 18 for 18. This is his ultimate work. This is his best album. There's no holes in the album. I can't say, like, lyrically,

Street Culture Fatigue And Trauma Rap

SPEAKER_01 38:10

if someone tells me that Drake can't rap, I'm over it. And then what did they listen to with Shebang? Lil'D. They had to.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Like, and even Burning Bridges, right? They're like, wow, listen to this. It's like corny. Once again, this is one of those with context. I laugh when I listen to this song. Like, yo, I like these especially humor and joy from bro. Like, bro, this is a comedic. Contextually, this song is fire if you understand. Or the other one where he's talking about one and he's like, like, how petty, bro, is he talking about wanting bro to miss the light bill and the phone bill. Like, yeah, don't worry to that. Don't worry. They're gonna listen to that and be like, this is corny. Yeah, but Drake's a petty dude. Like, I listen to that and I laugh.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

It's not a bad song. Yo, too hard for the radio when I first heard it. I left three seconds. I said, this is a West Coast beat. That's what I've been.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

Then I kept listening and I was like, yo, this is good. Like, it's not like it would have just been funny as just putting a West Coast beat on your album. But then for it to be a good song.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

Hey, that song Jadon shut the fuck up. It's gonna be number one next week. You know, it's projected to be so. That is a Jay-Z and Kendra Kamar disc. It is crazy. He has made another hit record disc. This is gonna be played at clubs. And like, bro, the subtle line of the jig is up is crazy. And I also think because of the subtlety in so my whole thing was I've said before the dominant, I was like, I hope he doesn't reference the beef at all in the album because it will put a timestamp on the album, it'll make the album relative to that specific thing. But the way he was subtle about a lot of his stuff, which is why I'm also saying you're a casual listener, it may be hard for you to get into the album because you won't understand. But those who understand, the way he did this, his album's gonna be alive for a while. This album's already gold, bro. It's already gold. And this is work that he put out for somebody else's business. As an independent, as the new form of independent, because independent and indie, we're outside separating those because the way they operate at Drake's level of independence is very different. But as an independent artist at his level, the work he's gonna put out for himself is gonna be better than this. Yeah. I mean, Lake Kobold's not old now. Late Kobo's hard. There's a lot of tracks that aren't on ice music. And that's what you were saying. Like, well, he got more music.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

He got I would hold that for my pocket. Right now, UMG is getting a nice chunk of this through that deal. He had to get these albums out. Now that that's done, the album that Drake puts out for himself under his new distribution partnership that he got with Sony or whatever, that he already has the rest of OBO sound on.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

He, as an artist alone, was under UMG. The money he's gonna make off of that and those songs, yeah, that next album's gonna go great. If I'm Drake, I go all the way OBO, I do an OBO album, first album, all by OBO artists. And after we've been talking about that, we've been saying that I was like, OVO has the talent. You know what? The business starts to make sense. So I've made complaints. I was like, why doesn't TD do a collab? Well, like Dreamville is the only one doing stuff that Young Money used to do. Why didn't Drake do anything with OVO? People who don't know, Drake as an artist by himself was signed where he was doing his deal with UMG, but all the other artists under OBO's music are through a distribution through Sony. If Drake would have hopped on any of their music, UMG would have taken percentages of that money. Now that Drake is no longer under UMG, he can wrap himself back under the deal he has with Sony alone under OBO Music, and that they're only paying for a distribution. The rest of that, the Masters, everything else, is owned under OBO Sound. That album would go crazy. Drake Division Party. He left. He went to Ray Dupree. That's fine. Roy Woods, like just all of these guys on. And then that new girl they signed. I need to actually tap more into the music. Veget Jury just dropped too. They just dropped. Yo, Vegit Jury's hard. I listen to them. They're good. They're really good. So I like that would be fine. Production is crazy on their music. Maybe you do a little production around the ways. Alright, we got our opinions about Iceman, but like officially GNX or Iceman. Iceman. Yeah. Iceman. The top three songs I like on GNX don't beat the top three songs I like on Iceman. There's not a high level, you know, there has to be bars. I think the only bar heavy track on GNX is the hard part six. And that's not even one of my favorites. That's not one of my favorites. Hard part five is, you know, that's the crazy thing with your lyrical, you have a great performance. Like the hard part five is so good that I want all the hard parts to be like. If it doesn't, I'm cool. And I'm not gonna lie, Drake stepped on the hard part six. So like it did hit it. And I think people should re-listen to that song by Drake. It's fucking dancing, bro. It's very scathing. I didn't like the energy he had on that track, bro. He was saying some shit. So, bro, this is like a big thing. Yeah, no, the the beef, the beef was messy, but all in all, I'm glad we're back to music. I'm glad that they're back to making music. Music's the only thing that lasts. I got GNX high up. Like, it's a good album. I say for me, seven, eight range, but like the eight is a light eight. You know what I'm saying? Like, you gotta give them context and credence. He Is covered off of a crazy win streak. But I just don't think Kendrick was ready for this moment. But even if we add that, the the role, let's take Jenx's rollout, okay? Was the beef. Okay. The beef. Drumps Gin next. Like if I brought that in, Super Bowl. Like, I don't say this is all Kendrick's rollout. I'm still giving it an eight for a rollout. Like it didn't, like, this wasn't. Yeah, I mean, it's too many. He muddied his own waters with the fake daughter, the PDF angle. Yeah. Lead it on Jay-Z. Even Disson on the future track. And that was a cool. It was a good song. It was a good song, yeah. If you had a problem with him, you should have came out by yourself. Like, I don't like the need of others so much in Kendrick's beginning and ending of this beef. Yeah, you got to be a good one. Like he had support with Dr. Dre. He was attached to Lucia Green. She was attached to ASAP. He was attached to Kanye. Kanye dropped the track. Talk about the elimination of Drake. Rick Ross dropped the track. Dicky, you know, the weekend was over to Dickie and like shit's crazy. Like, as a grown man, that is fucking nuts, bro. To be from your city to do what you were doing. And now once again, we talked about it earlier. Out of everyone beefing with Drake, the weekend is the only one who has to meet any legitimacy to say anything. And that was dealt with 15 years ago. So if you still feel like you didn't address something, come out on your own two feet and stand on that and say something. But outside of that, it's like hey, bro, should we be done? The weekend's quality is dropped, bro. Oh, and now it's trash. He may be one of the highest streamers. And I think this is the biggest difference between him and Drake. Drake has higher quality music, bro. I'm sorry. The weekend is one of the highest streamers. I think he's always going to be in the top 10, and

GNX Versus Iceman Track By Track

SPEAKER_01 46:05

it's solely off of nostalgia for his old music. Drake has to keep coming out with new music. And I think that's the difference between pop as well and like hip-hop. Like you have to stay relevant and keep coming out with stuff where you will be forgotten. Drake understands this in his position. If Drake disappeared for four years, he could be left without changes. People don't understand. Like hip hop is a very competitive landscape. Like we had singers, right? Beyonce Adouties, I think people like they could go disappear for years, come back, and they're like, oh, they're number one in hip-hop. You have to stay relevant. And we talk about all the time. That's one of the things that Kendrick lags behind on. One of the things Cole lags behind on. But the weekend was, as far as pop goes, could have been one of the, should have been one of the greatest pop male artists. And his quality, when he's since he started wanting to be a director actor, I pinpointed directly to that. I point over the last five years when the weekend diverted his attention into film, which also isn't good, by the way. His work and film, so it's not even like he left it to do something better. He left it, it's trash, and now his music is trash too. And that's what we gotta deal with, bro. We also gotta deal with Nicki Minaj. She's at fucking SpaceX, she's fucking with the Republicans. Like, I I don't think so. We got people doing these state pieces on Drake. Like, this was clearly MAGA. We should be talking about that. It's in opposition to black people. But Nicki Minaj's baby daddy is an assaulter, and she's in with Trump. But there's not as much outrage outside of her own direct fan base, which she still has some of. But her fans are disappointed. Outside fan base, silence. Silence. But the whole world is turning on Drake. Nicki Minaj married a convicted felon who went in, I'm pretty sure, for his case married him. Nobody has issues with that. People pick and choose, but that's politics and rap, bro. Politics and rap have a long, messy history, full of bullshit, full of ups and turns. We have seen Vegan Stallion twerk for votes. That's all the tabla. I'll never, I can't believe like no wonder she didn't do it, bro. Like, what the fuck? Yeah, I got some new person at work, and we were talking about hip-hop. We were talking about female rappers, and they're like, who's your favorite female rapper right now? I was like, Doji. They're like, it's Meg or uh freaking Nicki Minaj. And I'm like, Nikki don't rap no more. And Megan Stallion, that's not, I don't even consider her a rapper half the time. I feel like it's another Tyler Perry thing. It's a certain bread. You know what I'm saying? Even with sexy red, like it's just a certain bread it makes it makes black women feel good. Why? Like, like that's the I put Glorilla as a rapper over Meg the Stallion. I got Glorilla over a lot of the. And then one of them says one of them said Cardi B too. And I'm just like, nah. It makes women feel good. And that's it. That's crazy. I mean, hey, fuck it. All right. Any last thoughts, bro? State it. I think Drake is going to drop another album this year. I think if anybody dis Drake, he's dropping the same day. He's right there. I think he got like midnight. He got like 50 fucking tracks for these dudes, bro. I think he's just been in there because he got 40 outside. Like 40's there. Why 40 right here? Why Noelle here? Like, he hasn't been leaving Toronto. When he goes to Houston, he just go into his gun collection. He's like, I need some more guns, bro. I think Drake, I think October, very on. Drake drops an album for the first time as his independent. I think it may be, as you pointed out, I would be super excited if it was an OVO sound. Their first label album, especially under the new distribution, especially now that Drake's an independent artist. I think October would be a perfect time to cement. 2026 is going to be Drake's year. We're going to see numbers keep popping up over the next 30 days about different stuff he's getting. Let's see how many awards he gets for come 2027 when it's time for the awards for this year. The Grammys was like talking about the album. Yeah. Kind of crazy. He's very positive. Look, let's see what Drake gets snakes for. Right? Oh, and let's before we move on to this. Are you going to talk about look, Drake using the machine? Spotify lied for him. They didn't lie for him. First off, an individual did a manual thing, not Spotify as a company. They're not, look, Drake had to lie to beat Kendrick. First of all, he still meet him. Still beat him. And it's just the amount that he beat him by. And for us to talk about this, because no one even knew this worked this way. For all artists, this is why I keep trying to say the stuff that comes out around these situations is good for all artists. Why are your numbers separated based off of whether your version is the explicit or the normal? That's dumb. If your song is listened to, your cell should not be separated whether the version is explicit or not. So we're not even reporting full numbers on these albums because Spotify separates whether your song, the numbers on your explicit, are not the same numbers you get for your non-explicit, and they're not joined together. Y'all's numbers could be higher. Y'all could be getting more better deals. People looking at your deals and oh, you only did this much on this album. If we're not combining your stuff from your non-explicit and your explicit, your numbers are being deflated. That works to the benefit of the label who signs your deal. Because they're saying you're only putting out this much this, oh, your best song only did this much numbers. No, your best song did these. But because Spotify's not putting them together, you're only being shown this number, or this is the number that's being presented. These are the stuff I'm talking about. When these information comes out, this is to the benefit of all artists. Should we revisit this? Should we be joining the numbers for the same song? Should we be joining the numbers if someone only watches the music video on Spotify and doesn't listen to the audio file or doesn't listen to the explicit version? Y'all should be looking into this shit instead of worrying about Spotify will help the Drake. Hey, here's another situation that people aren't talking about, people don't even fucking know about that just came out. Um G

Masters, Spotify Accounting, And UMG Moves

SPEAKER_01 52:40

and Spotify, you know, U of G has stake in Spotify. They took 50% out, I believe. They become cash rich for like a bill. Now, in between that, UMG now has this new Spotify deal where they can you can have UMG artists on Spotify and use AI and do whatever you want with their voice if they're a licensed artist. And this is on the heels of Drake's Iceman album, and this is on the hills of them almost being bought. People need to pay attention to the business behind UMG right now because they are in a shaky spot. They're trying to get bought out, they're trying to be cash-rich. They got their biggest act trying to leave, and then their follow-up act. And this is commercially, guys. I'm not talking about prizes and pulsers and all that shit. Commercially, the guy they have in exchange for the guy that they're losing is Kendra Claver. Business-wise, they kind of getting worth 400 million. Stop it. And if he ever signed for that, he will never get out of it.

SPEAKER_00 53:39

He will never recoup that money. They will stop him from releasing albums and keep him locked in his deal. They never like that.

SPEAKER_01 53:46

Never, never get out of that shit. He don't release as much. Drake had to drop for that 400 mil. Drake had to drop from what was it? From 2019. Was it from 2019 or 2022? Hold on. He recouped that. He just owed albums. But that's what I'm saying. He recouped that in his first year.

SPEAKER_00 54:03

But in that four to six year span, Kendrick's not dropping six albums. Not at all. Kendrick's gonna be a nice. They thought it would take Drake 10, 11 years to get out of that deal. He did it early.

SPEAKER_01 54:18

Kendrick, even his Young Money deal he got out of. Crazy, bro. Which shit is gonna revert to him soon. If he gets cash, say he gets cash rich off of a deal, off of anything. I'm buying that shit back from cash money.

SPEAKER_00 54:32

Well, he doesn't know he doesn't own it. You know why?

SPEAKER_01 54:34

Because remember when Wayne owed all his shit. And this is I I'm having Wayne sold Young Money's Masters to Um G. Drake's never getting those songs back. His back catalog. Yeah, he's never getting his back catalog. Wayne sold that because he needed money. Wayne sold Young Money's Masters to Umg. If I'm Drake, you doing that instead of letting me buy out my own stuff and you can sell the rights.

SPEAKER_00 55:02

You want to sell Tiger and Nicki Minadas and all theirs and sell your own? When you go do that, you need money. Did you even come to me first and let me buy mine?

SPEAKER_01 55:10

Drake's never getting take care, all of that. Drake's never getting that. Never getting that. That's crazy. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 55:20

So UMG owns Drake from 2009 to like 2022. Or I guess 2026 now.

SPEAKER_01 55:27

Yeah, well, I think his his second deal they rehashed from I believe from Scorpion on. Yeah. He gets it. He retains the masters. But that was his. So this deal that he just got out of, like you said, from Scorpion up to now, he gets the masters, but there's a portion of those albums that they're always gonna get royalties for. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. They're always gonna get royalties for. Hey, fuck it, man. If you get your masters back and they get a percentage on royalties, no artist got it all back. They're gonna get like 20 cents off the dollar for those. And it's like, that's fine for those albums. Drake not getting take care though. That's gonna be that's a like that's just as an individual, I'd want my shit back. Well, I think uh at a certain point, he'll have the capital just buy that shit back. Because you can buy that shit back. But you think Lucian ain't a petty too? I mean, they're petty as shit, bro. It's gonna be a messy breakup. If they break up all the way, it's gonna be messy. You know what I wonder if because like you said, they're not, they don't want none of this stuff public, right? It's going to overstate. They don't want none of this shit going on. If I was Drake, I would put through the right to buy my Young Money albums from UMG. Oh, I'm sure he wants something that they don't want to give him. And that's of course essential of the whole argument. Drake is overvalued his contract, he was worth more than the contract they're offering him. Yeah. And they try to devalue him, and he still is worth more, even now. Without the radio plays, without positive pushes from media and articles, with all negative attention, he's number one selling right now. So if I'm him and they don't want public information coming out and they don't want records about their contracts and all this other stuff and the way they're doing business with Spotify, I want the right within five years, you have to let me buy my shit. Yeah. Ask me something in the contract for that because I think that's why he's talking so big on these albums on the album. Because he knows he's getting it. He's gonna get something that they don't want to.

SPEAKER_00 57:30

Well, he said, if I'm showing my emotion, that means I'm already a few steps ahead. Like, he's bragging. He's won. We don't know what he won, but he won something.

SPEAKER_01 57:39

Hey,

Predictions, Next Album Talk, And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_01 57:40

if he got into the contract with U of G, because he still U of G still owns all that shit with Kendrick. Like, he get that shit taken down. He could get a public apology. Like, if he gets one of those, like that'd be crazy. But all right, another episode of Israel, me and Dre giving our two cents for everybody who got all the dough. I see y'all out there. Tap it, it's Lane L.