Drake’s new song “1 AM In Albany” leaked online earlier this evening, giving fans an early look at material from ICEMAN just as the album is set to drop on May 15. The five-minute timestamp track surfaced with about 27 hours left before the project is officially released.
The leak matters because ICEMAN is Drake’s first solo project since the Kendrick Lamar beef, and there was no lead single to soften the wait before this track appeared. Instead, listeners got a direct shot of where Drake seems to be headed: sharp, personal and still locked into the feud that has shaped much of the conversation around him this year.
On the song, Drake calls out Kendrick Lamar and even takes aim at his height, rapping, “Muggsy Bogues dunked for once, even I'm a bit amazed, someone give the kid a raise.” He also levels bars at LeBron James, saying, “I shouldn't even be shocked to see you in that arena, because you always made your career off of switching teams up,” before turning to a line that riffs on ancestry testing: “Please stop asking what’s going on with 23 & me, I’m a real n****, and he’s not, it’s in my DNA.” Later in the track, Drake goes after J. Cole, calling him the “married rapper” who backed away.
The leak arrives in the middle of a period when fans have been waiting to see whether Drake would use ICEMAN to answer the last stretch of public sparring or move past it. For now, the song suggests he is not stepping away from the fight. The first solo project since the Kendrick Lamar beef appears built to make a statement before the full album even lands.
What happens next is straightforward. ICEMAN is due on May 15, and the leaked track has raised the bar for what Drake needs to deliver when the album finally arrives.
