Speaker A and Worldwide Ty break down Drake's surprise triple-album drop and what independence means in music now. They compare it to Frank Ocean and Usher leaving major labels, debate whether Beyoncé or Rihanna could do the same, and worry that streaming removes the constraints that used to make albums matter.
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And we are back with another episode of the FYM Show. Got me Ty right there.
I am Yo.
This is the FYM Show. You know, you know FYM, you know FYM is an ignorant conversation about wellness. And you know, there's a lot of conversations online over the last couple weeks about the Iceman, about Drake, 3 albums. And it seems to be very interesting in terms of somebody of his stature, right? Probably one of the biggest artists in the world, probably one of the biggest artists of all time, has released 3 albums on the same day. Now, Ty, where were you the day Iceman dropped?
Friday, I was in Atlanta.
It was in A, okay.
I was in LA.
I had—
and then in A, I had came— I was at, uh, this membership club. They got like golf simulators in Atlanta called, I think, In-Town Suites. In-Suites, I think it's called In-Suites. I keep saying In-Town like a like it's a Motel 6 or something, but in suites. So celebrating the birthday for the homie J. Irvin. And then I went to the crib. Obviously we have records that come out pretty much every Friday. So I'm checking our placements on Spotify and Apple Music and Amazon. Then, you know, I came across Iceman and I'm like, whoa, got, it's 2 more albums. You know what I'm saying? I had just did Ray Daniels podcast on Thursday. And we talked about Drake. Then I hit, I hit Ray on the text like, yo, he just dropped 3. So you know me, man, I'm like, man, Iceman, you know the I in Ice stand for independent.
Ooh.
You know what I'm saying?
I didn't, I didn't know that. I did, I did not know that. Yeah. That is news to me.
Yeah, that's what it stand for. That's what they don't know.
That is interesting. I mean, he talks about how he wants to be free from his label on a couple of the records. On the tape. And I thought that was pretty interesting to see an artist of Drake's stature mention that he wants to be released from his situation at a major. How did that make you feel? Like, all the conversations around the I of being independent, Iceman, knowing that the album's attached to Drake, of all people.
Man, I just think it's, I think it'll be healthy for the business. Honestly, it won't be healthy. It won't be healthy for the major label business necessarily. Or maybe it is, who knows? But everybody not Drake. So I think Drake going independent shows something, but it also identifies that everybody's not Drake. You know what I'm saying? But him being an independent artist and really saying, you know what, I'm gonna build this thing myself for the next 4, 5 albums and I'm gonna decide what I wanna do. I think that that'll be, you know, it'll be just as exciting You know, as the Kendrick, him and Kendrick beef, you know what I'm saying? In my personal opinion, I think that, you know, the last time an artist that was in a record label that was just historically has a classic catalog that came out and they was independent and they started moving like that was Usher. And then we seen Usher play the Super Bowl as an independent artist. You know what I mean? That's a great point. I think that was obviously Drake business and streaming, you know, is like outpacing Usher, you know, for multiple reasons. But the logic is still the same. I think it took a lot of thinking and a lot of pushing and a lot of conversations to get Usher away from his label that he had been at for like, I think 22 years or something wild like that. You know what I'm saying? Worldwide Tyre career. But a lot of people fail to realize Drake started independent. He did. You know, before he did the deal with Cash Money. Yeah, he had some really powerful management at the time, but that thing was independent before it ended up going to Cash Money and having to, you know, go what it needed to do. You know what I mean?
I mean, I remember the bidding war. I mean, obviously Drake had Comeback Season, he had Room for Improvement. These were all independent mixtapes. Uh, so by the time So Far Con came out, there was a big conversation about where would Drake gonna sign to. I remember that conversation being a major— he could have went a couple different ways, a couple different places. He ended up staying with Wayne and, uh, signing—
I even think he did the Glow in the Dark Tour. Mhm, he did. I think he was on the Glow in the Dark Tour around that time. He was hot, like, you know what I'm saying?
Oh, he was super hot. And obviously, you know, the blogs were becoming a brand new thing, so the conversations around his name —had also amplified the fact that like, okay, artists who were on the blogs is being talked about by major labels seemed to be incredibly different than at the time. If you were independent, you were really, really independent. You like currency independent where you doing mixtapes, you doing tours, or you doing all by yourself. Um, but dang Ty, I think to your point though, seeing his business go independent, being as big as the beef with Kendrick, do you think Do you think people's response to it will be as reactionary as the beef?
Um, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if the beef— man, that beef, all the stars aligned. You know what I'm saying? Like, all the stars aligned. And I think that it was beneficial for both parties. From a visibility perspective, from a business perspective. But I don't think that this project is going to have the stars aligned the same way like how the beef is. Even if Kendrick feels like it was something that was said that, you know, he wanna respond to, or that J. Cole wanna respond, I just don't think that it's gonna have the same moment that they had last year, right? And for me, I'm more so interested in seeing the business unfold around this. You know, when it comes down, when you like, Frank Ocean did this, Frank Ocean dropped the album and he dropped the second album and then next thing you know he was out his deal. You know what I mean? And so I think that, you know, when it's all said and done, the highlight, the interesting part, the conversation around this is like, is Drake gonna be independent? Is Drake gonna be independent? And I think Drake and his team, they pretty good with the posts of conversations. I think that is what this project is gonna actually be marketed as. Like this curiosity of, is this mega superstar going to go and take it, the rings on his own and go independent? The I in Ice stand for independent. Iceman.
I'm glad you mentioned Frank, 'cause I always felt like Endless, right? The album that came out before Blonde was kind of seen as a bargaining chip, right? I don't think people listen to it as music as much as they listen to it as a chess move. Like he used this album to get out of his deal to give us the real album. I always found that to be interesting 'cause I thought the music was good on Endless. I don't know if it's as good as Blonde, but I'd never considered it like some type of, cheap, here's some cheap album, I'm gonna just get out my deal. And I kind of feel that way about the trilogy of projects that Drake just put out. I don't think they're of a low quality because I'm trying to get out my deal. I feel like they were music he wanted to make, you know, these are songs that he wanted to release. These were, uh, points of views he wanted to share. I just wonder, is it going to be received as such, right? Are people going to hear this music and think about it as, oh, this is good music, or are they listening to this music and being like, This is a business move. These songs are a part of a business transaction.
Fans, fans love, like, like his core audience, that's like Drake fanatics. They gonna be at the shows. They like Elf Kendrick. They like, oh my God, my favorite artist just gave me 3 albums that I did not see coming. And I think that that's the conversation. I think that, you know, You think about fans and you think about the experience when they drop a project. Oh my God, I love this project, drop another one. You know what I'm saying? And bro came with like 30 hot, 30 plus. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Pow, pow, pow, all at the same time. Couple arts, you know.
And different sounds, different vibes.
Clubs, clubs.
Even the glove is viral. You've seen brands pick up the glove and use it in their social media campaigns and things of that nature. But Ty, is it repeatable? Can you see this being a trend that artists are gonna drop multiple projects on the same day as a surprise?
I mean, I could see Beyoncé being able to pull that off. I definitely see Rihanna pulling it off. It'll go crazy if Rihanna does it. Rihanna does it, it go crazy. I don't think nobody else besides Madonna, not Madonna, but Rihanna and Sade. If Sade does it, go crazy.
A triple disc Sade album. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's absolutely nuts. But I think if Hov did it, it'd go crazy. I think there's limited, limited amount of select artists that if they drop 3 projects on one day, it'll go crazy. Andre 3 Stacks. If Andre 3 Stacks dropped 2 solo albums and an OutKast album all in one day, bro, it'd go crazy.
It would break the world.
It'd go crazy, bro.
But to your point, it does feel like receiving a surprise gift, right? Like one album is standard, right? More than one. I don't know if you remember, but when Kendrick dropped DAMN, the big conversation was that he was going to drop another album, right? Because of how the themes of the project was. And he ended up putting out the DAMN where the tracklist was in reverse, which was cool. But imagine if he would have came back with another set of 10 songs, right? I think people would have lost their minds.
I think he did that with Unreleased, didn't he? Didn't he drop like Untitled Unmastered?
Yeah, yeah, but that actually came before Damn. Okay, okay, okay. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he was doing, which was also interesting, how he was doing the live shows performing that music, and then he shared a lot of those songs that you heard doing the late night shows as a tape. So he did do something really interesting in terms of getting that music to people, doing live performances, and then releasing it as like your CDQ MP3s. But the more we talk about it, the more I'm kind of impressed that Drake was able to collect 3 albums worth of music, have no leaks, have no one know this was gonna happen until the day of, and successfully put out 3 projects of 2 hours worth of music. Not a very easy thing to pull off.
No, not at all. Not at all. 2 diff— 3 different design strategies. Yeah. Use Iceman to really distract everybody, although it's still the leading thing. Um, didn't do it on Corny Deluxe, dropped the fans with the thing that they love, new content, man. I, I, I think it's, I think it's great, you know. I think that, you know, I'm still getting through the music because, you know, it takes a while. Even, you know, we two weeks from the release, you know, it'd be a lot of life happening. But I've chimed in on a few joints, I've heard a few bars. I'm like, okay, okay.
Yeah, there is It's not my favorite song, but Ran to Atlanta with Future is a huge record that came off the project. And there's something that Drake says on that album, on that album cut in particular, about how outside is back again, right?
Yeah, he did say that.
He did say outside was back again. And it came to me, like it kind of hit my mind as Drake is also saying that we are back to pre-pandemic times. Right? Like, we are back in the era of when he was running shit. Yeah. And how the world looked when he was running things. I always felt like that was such an interesting way of saying that it's a return to form in terms of not just musically, but how the world is going to perceive this music is we back, right? Right. Do you feel that way? Do you feel like, man, we really back outside in terms of how music is feeling right now and how we're kind of responding to the pending summer that's coming?
Life. I feel like life is bringing it outside. Like AI is bringing people back outside. Like we are, you know, this 2026 summer. So we really 4 or 5 years removed from pandemic. You know, I think people, you know, the economy a little shifty, but I think people just wanna be out and walk and not think about the internet, not think about AI. I think about, you know, all of these technical things. I think that people gonna be outside. They gonna be outside doing different things. They ain't gonna be outside in the club drunk, you know? They gonna be outside walking, running, doing yoga, Pilates, you know, doing sauna, steam room, powwows, Bible study. Like, they gonna be out picnics, watching the movies, do games. Concerts. They're gonna be outside doing a various, various of things, you know what I'm saying? So I completely agree.
But to your point though, Ty, with all those activities, right, it does seem like you want to service all those forms of fun, right? And 42, 42 songs, I think it's like somewhere between like 42 songs. You gonna find something for your Pilates class in this Drake mix. You're gonna find some for your walks in this Drake mix. You're gonna find something You know what I'm saying? There's an experience that you gonna have with this music. I'm already hearing it in cars playing, you know what I'm saying? People have they different, you know what I'm saying? Everybody, it's almost like you can pick your own cut. You can find your master mix with the Drake songs. And that's just, I think it's something really interesting, Ty, about like giving people the maximal experience. Like I think if he would've just did Iceman, I think we would've been talking about the bars, but I don't think we would've been talking about everything else that came with 3 albums.
Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah, man, listen, I'm excited, man. I'm excited to see how the business model of this pan out. I'm excited to see what next new artists that Drake feels like he wanna work with, you know, that we get exposed to. Rather it's rap, rather it's R&B, That's always a unique thing as well to see who he picks and finds that he thinks is dope as well. You know, a lot of artists do it, but I think he's probably one of the best at like highlighting those new discoveries of talent and producers and using his platform to really help them get more exposure. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, man.
I think Molly Santana is on the Future record. Her streams jumped, I think, almost like 5x after Iceman dropped in terms of just like people being able to be aware of her and kind of stream her music. I know Lil Shimi is featured on the song. Sexyy Red's obviously featured on the song. So it's like he's already highlighting artists that just got a huge jump. Even some of the producers, like the Overcast, the Pilos. Right. I've seen people have conversations Like, okay, now I do wanna ask you, Ty, that was a big part of the Iceman conversation is, um, Too Hard for the Radio. Yeah. The Mac Dre sample that came out the Bay, produced by P-Lo. Yeah. And not everybody was very fond of that record. Mm-hmm. Because one, I don't think it's just about the music, but just about using a sound or a style or an artist in the midst of beefing with the biggest artist out of LA. And going to the Bay Area and getting a staple, a part of their culture, and being able to like reinterpret it in a brand new way. Do you think that the producer behind that record was wrong for working with Drake at this time?
No. Man, at the end of the day, man, gotta get paid, man. Gotta get your credits up. You gotta go to work. It's work, man. You know, that man got a family to feed. Mac Dre family gonna benefit from that sample clearance, you know what I'm saying? Like, the whole I'm mad at somebody for trying to take care of their family is whack to me. So, you know, it is what it is. Ain't nobody, you know, ain't nobody— this ain't no, this ain't no— these are not real issues, right? We're talking about people that just not really, you know, happy about certain music lyrics and things of that nature. But when it comes to the producers, the songwriters, the sample clearance owners, you know, the feature artists, like, man, they just trying to get opportunity to grow their businesses so that they can actually, you know, continue to build. You know what I'm saying? Mm-hmm.
Nah, I feel you. I mean, that Drake call is always going to come at a time where you know it's gonna help your business.
In some form or fashion. Absolutely. Hands down.
Yeah, yeah, obviously. I mean, outside of just the music, how do you think business is gonna change over the next, 'cause I guess it's so interesting thinking about streaming, Ty, and I think we've kind of had this conversation before about there's no limit to how much music you can put on an album or how much music you can release versus when it came to a CD, you had what, 80 minutes? They have— you had a max, right? There was a certain point where you cannot go past this max, no matter how good a song is. Um, same thing when we had tape recorders. You had like a tape, uh, you had an A-side and a B-side on tape. There's, there's a, there's a limit. There's no limits to streaming. But is there a point where, man, you think we're gonna have too much music? Like, people aren't gonna be like, man, we are, we are overwhelmed by the amount of music. Coming out right now. Oh, I think that's already happened.
I think that happened like 5 years ago. Yeah, yeah, it's too much music. It's too much music. That's why it takes people that are real fans of artists so long to get to the music. It's too much music. When you have something that has— the systems have been set up so that everybody can release. Now you got AI music being released. It makes it so it's harder to get in front of real audiences. Um, you know, the gate— gatekeeping did curate, whether you like it or not, it curated a certain way. And that's not really the case. Gatekeeping has, has kind of like more so formed by what the technology aspect of things are and where some opportunities might be across a TikTok or across a YouTube that they can gatekeep. But uploading music and pushing it out, ain't no gatekeeping going on right at that, baby. That thing is gate wide open. The gate is open.
It's too, sometimes I feel a little too open, but then you see Drake do something interesting where it's like, well, there are benefits to there being a bit of an open gate, right? That you can do inventive things still, right? Especially when you have an audience that's hungry for it. If you have an audience that's hungry for 3 albums, you can service that now.
Yeah, 1000%. Hey man, listen, man, I'm gonna be down in Puerto— I'm gonna be down in, um, Puerto Rico, and then I'm gonna be playing some golf, you know what I'm saying? And you know, we— I'm pretty sure my cousin gonna be bumping that Iceman on his lip, on his little speaker on the golf. I'm gonna play music when I'm golfing, man. When I golf with other people, they seem to be playing music, so you know. I just go with the vibes and see what it is, you know what I mean?
Is it a locked-in thing for you where you feel like you can't really have anything distracting you when it's time to go?
Nah, I just don't think I think about it. I'd be so locked in trying to get the shots right that I don't think about turning on music on my cart. Speaking of music, you know, speaking of music, I travel to Philadelphia tomorrow. I'm playing golf the 29th. No Hov is performing on the 30th. He is performing. Roots Picnic. Jay-Z and the Roots.
Live. Are you gonna be out there?
Nah, I'm gonna leave on the 30th.
You gonna leave on the 30th?
I'm going to play golf on the 29th, but I just wouldn't, I wasn't led to go to the Jay-Z concert, you know. It'd be so many humans. Be so many humans, man, you know, that type of, that type of experience, you know what I mean? So, so I think that I'm gonna be in New York dealing with, uh, this Sail Grand Prix.
Sail Grand Prix? What's Sail Grand Prix?
It's a Formula One for sailboats.
For sailboats? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think I'm gonna go down there and rock with them depending on how the weather is. And obviously I might play some golf. I'm gonna take my clubs with me since I'm gonna have them.
What's, what's calling you to New York for that though? Why, why do you feel like you're being called that way?
Uh, I'm an investor into the, into the Team USA and I still ain't went to a race yet. Oh, fire. Yeah, so maybe I should go. I gotta like start planning that type of stuff out. So I'm gonna go to New York on the 30th, 31st, leave Philly on the 30th, probably golf in New York. I need to go on and button that up and confirm that out. And then I'll be back in Miami on that Monday. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, so back, you know, like I was just saying, Hov is going. I'm gonna do myself. I'm gonna go golf and then I'm gonna leave. But Philadelphia, May 30th, all of the old OGs, they going to see Hov play. You know what I'm saying? It's like how they did the Diddy, how the Diddy, Bad Boy reunion when they had that. Yeah. Yo. 40 plus, they was out that thing deep, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yes. Doing all of that. And they had their grandchildren that was a fan. They the 20s, the 30s, and the 40s. So that's how this show gonna be in Philly. It's gonna be all of that different generation, you know what I'm saying?
It's interesting you say that 'cause we got a Jay-Z interview this year on GQ. He did something with the New York Times, right? But it's almost impressive how big Hov is that it's almost like, dang, he's rapping again, right? He's performing again. It's been such a long time since we've seen him on stage that I wonder how many young adults are gonna be, this gonna be their first time interacting with Jay-Z's music on stage and as a performance. 'Cause I saw Wu-Tang last year and the OGs had their kids with them, and it felt like a huge intergenerational connection being able to take your kids to see a group you saw in the '90s. Jay, one of the biggest human beings on the planet in terms of just like stature, in terms of wealth, in terms of influence, in terms of popularity. The fact that he's doing music from the '90s is crazy.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, that's crazy. I think it's gonna be a very great night. I think it's going to be a very great performance. A lot of historical records are going to be wrapped, you know. Don't know how many features or if they bringing out any special guests, um, but you know, it, it, it should be a good time, you know what I'm saying.
It's definitely gonna launch this summer of 2026, and you know, Drake music out, Jay-Z's back outside. I don't know who's coming back next. We got, you know, just, it just feels like the excitement is in the air right now. And, uh, it's gonna be a time for sure.
Yeah. Only show that I know for a fact that I, it'll be hard for me to miss just because of my girl is Sade. Whenever Sade decides she wanna go out and start, you know, singing and dancing, I'm gonna be—
That's true. I'm stopping everything. I'm going to see Sade.
I gotta get them tickets or I'm being a dog house. You gonna be a dog house? Yeah, I gotta get them tickets.
But is it— do you feel like because you've seen a whole before that it's not necessary this year? Um, I don't know, man.
Yeah, like, like where I'm at today in life, just, I just go with my spirit be taking me, man. Like if, if I don't feel spiritually led to, to go somewhere or to talk to somebody or to entertain certain business aspect of things, I just be like, even if I want to, I'd be like, dang, man, I want to, but I don't feel like that's where I'm supposed to be at, you know what I'm saying? So, so, so that's just that, that's just the thought process of it pertaining to the whole, whole, um, concert. And yeah, I mean, even the Chris Brown and Usher concert, I'm not led to go see that, you know what I'm saying? I was more so excited about seeing Usher, you know what I'm saying? But I know this concert gonna be nuts though. Just the performance, like the theatrics of it, like what it's gonna be. I'm gonna have family members like, hey, can you help me with the usher, Chris Brown tickets? And I'll help them. But you know, I'm just going into this different chapter of life where I'm just focusing on building, focusing on this platform that we're building with F.U., F.U., F.I.M. And just really trying to be quiet so I can hear what the future is going to be. Like, pay attention to what the market is saying from an investment perspective, from a building perspective. So I'm just like locked in, and then at some point I gotta start really putting pen to paper when it comes to, uh, Playbook Distribu— I mean, not Playbook Distribution, but the Culture Playbook Volume 3. So my brain just got so many different things and ideas and and I gotta organize these things, so I can't be around that many people when I can just— yeah, locked in. Because even with the, uh, Sail Grand Prix, like, we're probably gonna be on a yacht watching them, watching people race. It's not going to be like, uh, it's gonna be a lot of people there, but it's gonna be just segmented, you know what I mean?
It ain't gonna be like no big party.
Yeah, no, no, it ain't gonna be a big outside party. You gotta walk somewhere for certain, you know what I'm saying?
I did— I'm not gonna hold you too much longer, but I did want to ask you, because you talked about like trying to get things quiet enough to hear, right? But how do you know what you're hearing? Like, how do you know where you're being led? Like, what is it that defines that for you right now?
Um, really, man, for me, it's just that daily time spent with the Lord, going through scriptures, being aware of signs that might just show up in your different parts of your life in different ways. It's all the way down to somebody say something, to you see something, to you like have a conversation, and they're like keep being aligned throughout. Like, oh, it can all show up in one day, it can show out throughout, show up through a week. Show up through a month, um, but it's aligned with these things that you're feeling and that you're experiencing, that you're reading from a scripture perspective. So I'm just heavily acknowledging the quiet time so that I can see and hear clearly to connect those different dots, you know what I'm saying?
I feel you, I feel you, man. I think that's really interesting. I met a guy recently and I was having a conversation with him about when he first discovered like having computers in the household because he was a guy in his 40s and I was kind of really interested in older people's relationship with technology. Like, I'm really intrigued by that right now. And he was like, oh, he was like, man, my dad was a computer software engineer. I said, word, in like the '70s and '80s? He was like, yeah, bro. He said, I think it ruined my parents' marriage. Oh, I said, why? He said, well, because you gotta understand, my dad was a part of something that everyone hadn't came around to yet. You trying to convince somebody of something that isn't popular, right? So I'm like, he's trying to make my mom understand computers are gonna be before they were everywhere. He was like, he said, I think it ruined their marriage. And when he told that to me, Ty, I hit like a light bulb hit my mind about like, dang, bro, sometimes you'd be so in the future that like you trying to bring people there with you. Right. And not to say it's gonna ruin all your relationships, but it can be difficult getting people to see the future. You can see it clear as day and they might be like, but it don't make no sense to me.
Bro, this— Nah, this is it. I'm telling you, my life, the next thing I'm working on right now, when I tell you, it's so futuristic that like, yeah, I might not— people might— boy, that thing gonna be, it gonna be crazy when I put it together and really launch it and roll it out. Nah, I believe you.
But I just like, you remind me so much of someone that's like, you looking so far ahead that like watching people catch up is going to be really interesting and seeing how people come around is going to be really interesting. Because like, I mean, I know you got vision, but I think sometimes having vision don't mean people are having it right now, can see what you see right now.
You definitely be too early for something and then you got to be able to have enough bandwidth to stay in the game until it materializes.
You know, same guy told me about how his brother had a series of Bitcoin ATMs in 2020. That was like his brother's business. And he was like, my brother was in the AJC, they wrote articles about him, but he wasn't able to stay in the game long enough for the Bitcoin boom the way we're seeing it in 2026. Right. Like, dang, he was super early. But I was like, that was like, man, your whole family tend to be so far ahead with things like that. Um, but again, that was another instance where I was like, staying in the game is really important even when you got that vision.
That's the hard part. And at the table, staying at the table, stand at the table.
And to bring it back around, like seeing Drake go independent, that is definitely the table now in the music business. It's like, I think there's times to be signed and there's times to take control of your life. That money, that middleman out. Cut that middleman out. Yeah. Um, but that's, that's all I got. Y'all gotta remember, man, the I in Iceman stands for independent.
The I in Iceman stands for independent.
And if you trying to learn about being independent, pick up that Culture Playbook Volume 2, Volume 1, pick up the vinyl. Nothing but gems, nothing but game. Volume 3 on the way. You know what I'm saying? All about this independent business, all about running things. FYM way. Um, and we will see y'all next time.
Peace. Peace.
