While the celebration of America’s birthday was underway in the sizzling summer heat on Friday evening (July 4), Drake came through with a new song that finds him addressing fake friends who switched up on him. “What Did I Miss?” produced by London Cyr, O Lil Angel, DJ Lewis, Tay Keith, OZ, FNZ, Elyas, Gyz and Patron, arrived as part of a livestream, an avenue the Toronto MC prefers these days. The song will likely be the first single for his upcoming album, potentially titled Iceman.
In a video titled Iceman Episode 1, put out on YouTube, Drake showed up at the Iceman warehouse—an actual ice supplier in his city of Toronto—playing the role (no Wheelchair Jimmy) of an employee who checks the ice and takes a lunch break in a break room. He ends up watching his own video for “What Did Miss?” on TV and starts rhyming along while serving rap hands.
Part of the music video shows him standing outside a home surrounded by guns seemingly in a reference to “The Ameriguns” 2020 photo series by National Geographic photographer Gabriele Galimberti.
Drake lets the bars fly on “What Did I Miss?” a sign that the next album he drops will have more hard-hitting raps and less of the singing heard on $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, the joint project he released with PartyNextDoor this past February.
People may have expected Drake to come out firing with shots at Kendrick Lamar or other foes, but there are only subliminals to decode. Drake makes a clear statement with the title “What Did I Miss?”: unexpected changes were happening behind is back and he apparently was none the wiser until certain information came out publicly. If his lyrics are to be taken as hard truths, he was blindsided. Some of the standout lines on the new track include Drizzy confronting loyalty issues and broken bonds:
“I don’t give a f**k if you love me, I don’t give a f**k if you like me/Askin’ me, ‘How did it feel?’/Can’t say it didn’t surprise me/Last time I looked to my right, you ni**as was standing beside me/How can some people I love hang around p**sies who try me? Let’s go/What did I miss?”
“You switched on the guys and supported a hater, let’s go/What’s the get-back for ni**as? It’s TBD/I look at this sh*t like a BTC/Could be down this week, then I’m up next week.” Could this be Drake taking a jab at Future supporting Kendrick Lamar by letting him on “Like That” last year?
“Yeah, ni**as get punched in the face on some TLC sh*t, on the dead guys/Some TLC sh*t ’cause, my ni**a, you gon’ need a chilly ice pack for your left eye.” If you let social media tell it, some people think Drake is referring to Rick Ross getting punched in the face at a show in Canada last July. The video footage showed a brawl going on, but Ross denied he was ever touched.
“I saw bro went to Pop Out with them, but been d**k riding gang since ‘Headlines.'” While Drake doesn’t mention who “bro” refers to, he may be calling out NBA stars LeBron James or DeMar DeRozan. They both attended Kendrick Lamar’s Pop Out show last year. LeBron and Drake were longtime friends and DeRozan once played for Drake’s Toronto Raptors.
“What did I miss?/When I was looking at y’all and cooking with y’all/And giving out verses and bookings to y’all?/Making sure wires were hit, man, what did I miss?/When you was all in my crib lookin’ at h*es/Word for word at all of the shows/You always felt like this, man, what did I miss?”
He ends the livestream driving around Toronto in the company van and played some music, which could be on his upcoming album, and connected with fans (and had a rude run-in with someone along the way). The video closes out with the words “Iceman Coming Soon.”
