Did Drake Release 3 Albums to Get Out of His Contact?

– People immediately made the Frank Ocean comparison. – Sure. They were like, Oh, is “Iceman” to fulfill the contract? And then the other two are going to be independent? Nope, they drop. They are OVO, licensed to Republic, a subsidiary of Universal Music. – Just like all of them. – Just like the last many Drake albums. – Yep. – Drake, of course, still in active litigation against his own major label. – Right. – I think there’s a few lines throughout this album where he tries to make clear, I’m not suing a rapper over losing a beef. He’s not suing Kendrick Lamar. ‘I’m suing the man. I’m suing Universal Music.’ It was thrown out by a judge. Drake is currently in the midst of appealing that. Then the theory becomes, Oh, maybe Drake had three more albums on his Universal deal, and this fulfills that. – You chased this down a little bit? – I made some calls this weekend. I talked to people on both sides. The answers that I’m getting are: it’s complicated. The lawsuit is ongoing. Nothing definitive. It’s not — Drake is 100 percent free. And on Monday he’s going to put out something under Drake Inc., as funded by some private equity firm. It leads me to the question: Do you think of releasing three albums primarily as a business move or primarily as a creative move, or are they not mutually exclusive? – I mean, they’re definitely not mutually exclusive, but it does feel like a strategic move in terms of the macro narrative, followed by a business move, but can only be executed in a creative framework by this person.