Drake Hypes 'Iceman' Rollout By Burying Release Date In Ice

Update: 4 PM

Streamer Kishka couldn’t wait for the mountain of ice blocks to melt, and after hammering his way through it, he pulled out a blue bag that read “Freeze The World.”

He then drove to Drake’s Toronto mansion, where the rapper poked his head out of the window, briefly greeting him. In the bag, Kishka discovered stacks of cash and a zine, which revealed Iceman will be released on May 15.

Drake fans have been pontificating about an Iceman release date for a year since he announced the album title, and now it appears we’re one step closer.

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To get OVO-faithfuls hype, he’s going offline with the promo and taking it to his hometown of Toronto, and continuing to play up the Iceman theme with his latest stunt.

Early Monday, Drake posted an inexplicable photo of a block of ice to his Instagram Stories, followed by the words, “it’s in.”

Soon after, eagle-eyed Torontonians began to see a crew stacking up dozens of giant blocks of ice in a hotel parking lot. But at that point, it was still unconfirmed to be Drake-related, though many assumed so because of an explosion stunt he pulled a few days ago.

Then, Drake took to Instagram to confirm it’s part of the Iceman rollout with a Google Maps pin at the intersection of Bond Street and Dundas, alerting fans that the release date was inside.

He followed it up with a grid post of the towering collection of ice blocks, and himself posing in front of them.

Again, he told fans the exact location and that the release date was somewhere buried inside the cubes. In the age of social media and livestreaming, people can’t sit and wait for the ice to melt, and streamers have descended on Toronto to literally get to the bottom of it.

They arrived with pickaxes, blow torches, and stood atop the mountain of ice, causing enough chaos for the police to be called for crowd control despite several “Danger Do Not Touch” signs.

CTV News reports that at least 800 people mobbed the parking lot, and according to Rolling Stone, there have been precautions taken, with security guards checking IDs out of fear that “those under 18 are irresponsible and might climb on the structure.” 

Drake bringing the music back to the streets is intentional and a gesture he spoke about with Complex last year, when he was trying to refresh the tired old rollout strategy. 

“I have been dying to act and have been dying for a challenge,” Drake said. “The game is extremely calm seas right now. Nobody is rocking any boat on the water, and so once we discussed a livestream rollout, it just sounded like the perfect mix of risk and reward for me.”

He continued: “I love the opportunity for a clean slate of thoughts and excitement and messaging when it comes to the music. What I hate is the redundancy of this formulaic approach that’s ingrained in our brains from early label days. Single, video, single, video, album cover post, etc.”

See social media’s reaction to Drake’s stunt below.