The entire music-listening and social-media-habitating world was stormed this past weekend by the man who calls himself Tsunami Papi. After years of waiting and seemingly countless delays for his much-anticipated Iceman album, Drake not only released that full album on Friday (May 15), he dropped another two brand-new LPs to go with it: the upbeat Maid of Honour and the more downcast Habibti. Together, the three albums and 43 combined songs made for a mountain of online discourse — and as of next week, should also result in one of the biggest chart avalanches in Billboard Hot 100 (and Billboard 200) history.
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On this week’s Pop Star Performance Review episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, we dive deep into the year’s biggest release(s) in terms of scope, anticipation and sheer volume. Host Andrew Unterberger is enjoyed by Billboard Hip-Hop‘s own Big Three — Carl Lamarre, Michael Saponara and Angel Diaz — to analyze what the triple-release means, how it’s been received thusfar by the online masses, and what if anything it might do to finally take Drake out of the precarious position he’s been in for the past two years.
Along the way, we answer all the most pressing questions about the Iceman extended universe: Does the three-album strategy basically make sense? Was the size of the drop so massive that any talk about its overall quality almost gets buried in the discussion? Do the disses feel timely or past expiration? Are the punchline-y bars clever or corny? Did we really need Sexyy Red doing the “Cha Cha Slide” on Maid of Honour? Does the early triumph of the sets — with a couple necessary asterisks about its timing and overall context — deem this era as Drake’s “bubble championship”? And perhaps most importantly: Is the fact that it’s once again Drake with the big event release of the hip-hop calendar ultimately a good thing or a bad thing for the genre’s health?
Check it out above, and please subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom.
And as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
Human Rights Campaign – In Your Area
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