Drake ICEMAN’s Biggest Opp? Will They Ruin the Album?

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]Who is Drake's top op? Many of you have believed it's been Kendrick Lamar for the past 2 years, but the truth is it's not. In this video, I will explain to you who Drake is really beefing with, what the potential consequences are, and how he can come out triumphant. You see, this weekend all the full images from Drake's zine have leaked, but there is one image that I want to focus on in particular. Before I give you any of the key details or spill any information, I go by the name Jay Roebuck, and on this channel we don't just talk about music, we talk about the business of music.

[00:00:33]Please hit the like button, subscribe, and definitely share the video with a friend. And if you're watching on mobile, hit the hype button. I won't hold you any longer. Let's get right into the facts. If you haven't seen this website yet, you're going to want to go to icemancountdown.com.

[00:00:47]You're going to slide over to the part where it says Iceman zine crack the code.

[00:00:51]You'll click that, and you'll type in the code May 15. That will take you to all the images from the zine. Now, I told you there's one particular image that is going to crack the code to this entire video, and you will see it here. As I told you, the key to this whole video is this image right here. Now, you should recognize this image because it is from the Grammys, and this is when Not Like Us was announced, and you see Lucian Grainge, the CEO of Universal Music Group, which Drake is signed to, and Dr. Dre high-fiving. And Drake made an an edit to this image, and he put a sign that says, "Remember, you are dust." So, if you haven't figured out already, Drake's top op is Lucian Grainge. Not Kendrick Lamar, it is Lucian Grainge, and it's been Lucian all along. Drake has been taking shots at Lucian not only in the music, but also by posting his daughter-in-law, Sophia Richie Grainge, who's married to Lucian's son. And this is just very clear that everything on Iceman will be about Lucian. There will be some bars about Kendrick, we know that, but the main target is Lucian.

[00:01:54]I've said this all along. Let's take a look at a clip I posted over 1 year ago.

[00:01:58]Drake's endgame is to have Lucian removed as the CEO of Universal.

[00:02:03]And why would that happen?

[00:02:06]Universal is a publicly traded company, which means people like Lucian, who are employees, have a board that they answer to. So, if it's uncovered that Lucian, as the head of UMG, is engaging in nefarious activities to defame its biggest artists, that's the reason why he would be removed as the CEO. If you haven't heard the news, there has been an offer put forth to buy UMG, and that was by Bill Ackman. Now, in the proposal, I've read the whole thing, there is no mention of Lucian being removed if the sale goes through. I believe that they're happy with the work that Lucian is doing, they're just not happy with the company strategy, and they want to improve that to raise the share price for the shareholders. But, there's also no guarantee. When you have new ownership, when you have new people added to the board, they could remove some executives or the CEO. That is always a possibility. Now that we've established that Lucian is Drake's true op, what does it mean for Iceman the album? What does it mean for Drake's future with UMG? What does it mean for this entire rollout and how things will go in the next few weeks? In order for me to answer that question, we have to look to the past, because sometimes it's the past that will determine the future.

[00:03:17]Let's take a look back. If you remember during the beef, Drake was around 50 Cent a lot. They were talking and communicating, they were linked up together, and even in the Family Matters video, you should remember that that opening image is Drake with the G-Unit chain. Now, 50 loves to have problems with everybody. We know that 50 doesn't mind beefing with the label, doesn't mind beefing with other rappers, doesn't mind beefing with anybody. But, this was not a coincidence, because 50 has been through a very, very similar situation, because he once had beef with the head of Interscope, Jimmy Iovine. Now, Interscope should sound familiar to you, because Interscope is the same label that Kendrick Lamar is in a partnership with. So, I'm going to play a few clips here, and you have to learn to connect some dots. So, if you struggle with critical thinking, this might not be the video for you. But, if you can connect the dot, if you can see things through, you're in the right spot.

[00:04:10]>> You look at the game, right? Think about how much money was [ __ ] up with the G-Unit not You got to look at how 50 looked at it, like, "Y'all just sold 11 million, so I made y'all [ __ ] like 100 and something million, and Jimmy Iovine is funding the G-Unit not campaign?"

[00:04:22]Jimmy's regimen of [music] supporting things when they're actually profitable said that was okay to me.

[00:04:29]Like it's okay for Game to say, [music] "F 50," as long as it can turn a profit.

[00:04:34]Game is a great rapper, but at the end of the day, you can't say Dr. Dre didn't do that for you.

[00:04:39]>> It's crazy that Ye did more for me in the last 2 weeks than Drake did for me my whole career. And it's not It's It's just [music] It's what it is.

[00:04:48]>> So, what 50 and Ye just explained is very clear. They were beefing with the label, and they were beefing with Jimmy specifically, because they felt that he was funding the G-Unit not campaign.

[00:04:58]Game and 50 are signed to the same label, and they felt the head of the label was working against them, even though 50 had made millions and millions of dollars for them.

[00:05:08]Does that sound familiar? Drake is signed to Republic, Kendrick is signed to Interscope. They're both fall under the umbrella of UMG, but Drake felt that the label was working against working against him, even though he's the cash cow to support another artist. That's not the only parallel, there's a lot more. We're going to watch a clip here, and 50 Cent will discuss how he and Interscope kind of worked through some of their issues, and eventually how he made it off the label. Let's listen closely.

[00:05:38]So, you're in Canada to promote your fifth studio album, Animal Ambition.

[00:05:41]What can we expect from this album? I'm excited about it. You can expect it to be exciting. And for me, it's it's my reintroduction. Cuz I spent so much time like a long time period on hiatus. I um was in the the back portion in the music business. I was in the business portion of music for 4 years. Because it was my fifth and final album requirement for Interscope, we was in a position where we would have to do audits.

[00:06:00]And So, let's listen here. He was on his last studio album with the label, and they got to the time where they could start doing some audits on the books.

[00:06:09]Again, might sound familiar, because Drake is on his last album with his contract with Republic and UMG. with the books and everything, and then there was conflicts in different areas, like my my album, which is the highest selling debut hip-hop album, and the way we sold ringtones at that point is exactly how we sell the single.

[00:06:26]So, the language in the contracts spoke to the same light in the way I would be paid for the ringtone. If I argued that that was the way I was to be paid off the singles, with me and the deal only like another 23 million dollars, maybe.

[00:06:36]>> No. You see what I'm saying? So, we went through that process, and it took for 4 years, actually. It took a while for us to get through it, and then I mean, like, I was paid.

[00:06:43]And then everything was comfortably Right. So, we can stop right there, and there's some things that we got to talk about. As 50 said, they went to audit, because 50 said, "I sold a lot of records. I want to make sure I was compensated fairly." And he found out that the label owed him about 23 million dollars. And that was the last album that 50 put out under them. And I believe they settled it, and he got paid handsomely, and he deserved every dollar that he got. And that was eventually his out from the label. So, now stick with me. 50 believed that the label was working against him, they weren't pushing his product. He felt that they weren't investing in him, even though he had made them all of this money. And eventually, he found out is that they owed him money in the end. Now, what we can do here is talk about maybe another reason why Drake could have potentially sued. You see, he didn't sue Kendrick Lamar directly, he sued the label. But, what if the reason why he sued was to see two things? Number one, if he sued, would the label eventually just let him out of his contract and let him walk? Or number two, if he got a look at the books and everyone else's contract, and could see how the industry really worked through the paperwork, he could potentially audit them, and maybe this is his way out, just like it was for 50.

[00:07:56]Let's watch two clips, and we're going to watch one from Ray Gantt Ray Daniels, and he's with Gongo Roach, who is one of the financial auditors who works with who works basically against the labels to find money for the people that he represents. And they're going to say some very important things. Let's watch.

[00:08:11]>> So, now, remember Drake dropped an album every 2 years?

[00:08:12]>> Mhm. He started dropping an album every 9 months.

[00:08:14]>> Mhm. So, that's how he burned himself out. So, remember he dropped He dropped the record with 21 Savage. He dropped it If you're hearing If you're reading this, it's too late. Got all these albums, and then he announced, "I'm burnt out." But, that was because they gave him half a billy and said, "We'll give you half a billy, but we need more records." And he's like, "Cool." Not realizing they're giving you a loan of money that they're going to make from you any [ __ ] way. Mhm.

[00:08:27]So, yes, partially true. They a a loan or your advance is something you have to pay back, but we know there's industry executives that have already confirmed and industry insiders that said Drake recouped the 400 million from that deal within a year or two, because he put out enough projects, and because he went on tour. So, he made that money back. Let's keep listening. So, in a lot of ways with him suing them, I'm like, "You're suing them for the wrong reasons." It'll be I ain't suing about Kendrick. You don't even know Artists Now, this is where Ray made a mistake, and I don't know how he doesn't see this. Now, again, this isn't my personal feelings about the lawsuit, I'm just telling you what a possibility could be.

[00:08:58]Ray says he's suing for the wrong reasons, but what if the whole reason why he's suing is to get out the deal, and to potentially audit the label? do not know how Any artist listen to this, they do not know how much their catalog is worth, because they keep getting advances for more catalog.

[00:09:11]>> I got a client, she [snorts] makes probably about 250, 200,000 dollars a year. Um like 150,000 on average per by annual.

[00:09:20]The audit showed that she really makes like 900,000 dollars a year.

[00:09:23]You see what I'm saying? So, that's the true number. You see what I'm saying?

[00:09:25]She [laughter] two-thirds more than what you're getting.

[00:09:28]Man.

[00:09:29]>> Right? So, I mean, as That's why he hit the most times. As a as a valuation on the sale, I should be able to put that two-thirds.

[00:09:32]>> Yeah. And then it takes it it'll take my money three times. Yeah. Because the funny thing is that you do audits. You you know, just cuz you find 5 million dollars, they try to argue with you and stuff like that, and then you settle for a number and stuff like that. But, that number that you found is the true number. So, again, if this is what he's saying his clients are worth, what do you think Drake's catalog is truly worth? You know, did you I heard a rumor, maybe you can confirm it. I've heard this from day one. 50 Cent was owed 50 Cent was You know, it kind of went sour with him and Drake's relationship and Jimmy's relationship, and he kind of went to get off Interscope, and they didn't want to let him off. So, he audited them. That's 13, 14 million. 18 million that they owed him. And from what I heard was he said, "Just let me off the label."

[00:10:05]And that's how he was able to get off the label to go be 50. Cuz they [clears throat] owed him like 13, he's like, "Just let me off the label."

[00:10:09]Right? Cuz it was like By the way, this is like 50 and they relation went down after the third Okay. Now, very key.

[00:10:14]This is exactly what I just connected you to. And then listen to what he says about 50's third album. Listen here.

[00:10:20]And they relation went down after the third album. It's three albums. They owed him 18 mil. And it was like, "J- Just Just go. Just go." And they're like, "No, I'm suing you." Every artist audited label. Matter of fact, can I just say one thing that is very important to say? You one of the most You one of All right, we can stop right there. So, we have to keep in mind what he said about 50 and the label, and we also have to keep in mind what he said about auditing the labels and what it's worth. You got to connect the dots here.

[00:10:40]Drake needs to be very careful here, because we know that these things can affect Iceman, and this is a very important album. Not only when we talk about the quality of music, but also about the numbers, because numbers matter. Numbers are public perception.

[00:10:54]Numbers are an indicator of how people feel about the music. Do they want to listen to it? Will they continue to listen to it? Will radio play it? Will individuals play it? All of those things are things he needs to take into account. And we know the label can play very, very dangerous games. Let's listen again.

[00:11:11]>> And they didn't do so well.

[00:11:13]And he thinks that Universal was behind all of that. You know what I'm saying?

[00:11:17]And that's And that's why he sued Universal. But do you believe it?

[00:11:20]Um I've I I've seen corporate retaliation before.

[00:11:25]And it looks like that? I've seen them do it to one of my clients, where So, we know that corporate retaliation is real.

[00:11:34]It just may look a bit differently. Now, we're going to go look at 50 Cent's first three albums, and remember when he started to have issues with the label.

[00:11:41]Ray Daniels mentioned that third album.

[00:11:44]Let's look at the graphic here. Now, 50 Cent Get Rich or Die Tryin' debuted at number one with 872,000 sold first week. He follows that up with The Massacre, which sells over a million first week. But then in 2007, the album Curtis comes out, and he's going head-to-head with Kanye West in his a battle for sales. And then he debuts at number two and only sells 691,000.

[00:12:07]And this is right around the time when he's having issues with the label, and he felt that they weren't working the records the same, that they weren't investing in him. Not just money, but the time and the manpower push to sell the records. No one sells 500,000 without the labels doing their work. No one sells 200,000 without the labels doing their work. So, it is very possible that the labels don't want to work Drake's record. He's released it the the Iceman, right? He released that it's coming out May 15th. We've gotten one tweet from Republic, and nothing else.

[00:12:39]Nothing else that we've heard from them.

[00:12:41]This should be their biggest push. He's their biggest selling hip-hop artist, but we really haven't felt that label machine yet. And that is why radio still matters. That's because the label has those relationships. You're not going to get major spins on radio without the label push. Think about any song that's been number one in the past three or four years. It's been because of radio, not because of streams, not because of physical sales. It's all radio. So, you can do as much as you want and be as big as as an artist as Drake is, but it's hard to really dominate without radio.

[00:13:10]They have made adjustments to the Billboard, and I've done videos on this as well, where they're valuing streaming more, but radio is still a big part of the equation. So, now, what can Drake do to combat the label not being involved?

[00:13:24]There's a few things. The first is he can look at what J. Cole did. J. Cole's first week, he did 115,000 in just pure sales. And when we say pure sales, we're talking about direct-to-consumer, physicals, vinyls, direct downloads, which he had with his partnership with Even. Drake should follow the same format. When you do that, you then report the numbers to Luminate, and they then report it to Billboard. You don't really have to worry about the label reporting and doing the back-end work.

[00:13:52]You should control it. We have seen him do the things with Amazon with Drake's Warehouse. I hope that he puts the physicals out through there, and puts them in stores like Target, so that he can get those first week direct-to-consumer sales. I do understand that Drake's music leaks a lot, so that's why he doesn't like to submit things early, or really do physicals, because that can lead to music getting out early. But he has to rely on himself and his team, and I think he's been doing that over the past two years, and he has to impress and do major numbers week one without having to deal with the label doing a lot of the pushing. He needs to rely on his team to do that. And the best way to do that is to go direct-to-consumer. And this can go two ways, right? I'm not saying that the label would sabotage him. I mean, the last project with PartyNextDoor, that was a joint project. Sony was also involved in the marketing. But we didn't see a lot of label involvement. But you have to think of it in two different ways. The label can operate in good faith and say we want to keep Drake and continue to invest in him, which is what they've said in some statements that they put out. Or the label can say, "If this is your last album, and you're going to walk away, why would we want to push you and have great sales, and then you get to sign a bigger deal with the next company, like Sony?"

[00:15:01]They may say, "Hey, just walk away. We won't invest in you. You're suing us anyway." So, the label would try to sabotage to further devalue him. So, we have to see, how will this go? Will UMG want to retain Drake, and will Drake want to still work with UMG? Or, based on the images in the zine, based on plot twists, based on the things I've outlined, does Drake just want to wash his hands and say, "Hey, I'm going to make sure this album is great by myself and with my team, and I'm going to walk away and go independent and break the whole system, or will I sign with another major?"

[00:15:31]This year in music is going to be very, very interesting. You've seen J. Cole and Kendrick sign licensing deals. Will Drake do the same with UMG or with someone else and re-up? Or, does he just say, "Let me do it myself and rely on my team?" It's going to get crazy. This is going to be potentially a bidding war, potentially the biggest artist going independent, which we haven't seen.

[00:15:53]I don't know what will happen. I'm interested to hear what you think. What will Drake do? Will Iceman be affected by this relationship and battle with the label? Do you see similarities with 50 Cent? How do you think these things will play out? At any point in this video, I want to hear your comments, your thoughts. Let me know what you think. I have a lot more videos on the way.

[00:16:12]Here's my ask before I wrap up. Please make sure you like, you comment, and you subscribe, and send a video to a friend.

[00:16:18]We are almost at 10K subs. I think we're going to hit it with this video. I just need your support, because listen, we are about two and a half weeks away from the biggest album of the year, and it may be the most anticipated album that we've had in over a decade. I'm hyped. I know you are. So, make sure you hit the hype button if you're watching on mobile. Until next time, I go by the name J. Robuck, and I want to thank you for sticking around to the end of the video. Let me know what you think in the comments. I'm interested in your thoughts. Until next time again. Salute.