The prolific Iceman

Drake’s decision to release two albums in addition to his long awaited Iceman—that’s three albums total—resonates with me. He’s one of the more prolific artists who actually follows through, delivering an album almost every year since his debut. I’m sure dropping more songs at once helps him earn more revenue from streaming, and it helps feed his core fanbase. Each song will be someone’s favorite. The tradeoff is this: every song that sounds average waters down the hits. The two non-Iceman albums divert attention away from the main. For Drake, who’s one of the most popular artists in the world, I wonder if the more useful creative decision would have been to be choosier with the songs on his main album—Iceman—and to publish the other two as playlists or mixtapes. Publish everything, but promote selectively. It would’ve also been interesting to see more collaborations looking like his joint albums with PartyNextDoor, Future, as well as 21 Savage. The tradeoff would’ve been complexity,…