Key Takeaways:

• DJ Akademiks dropped a new Drake snippet just before J. Cole’s The Fall-Off went live.
• Fans accused Drake of trying to overshadow Cole’s release with the timing of the leak.
• Akademiks claims he had the track for days and made the call to post it himself.

DJ Akademiks has arguably been at the forefront of helping to build anticipation for Drake’s forthcoming new album, Iceman. While a release date still hasn’t been set, the popular streamer shared a snippet of a new song from the 6 God on Thursday (Feb. 5) night, which caused some controversy.

At the very beginning of a clip shared to social media, the Toronto rapper is heard rapping: "You know what, don’t call me no greatest, them guys you sayin’ are great makes that an understatement, f**k them haters, double agents, even my label, gave them 15 years of my soul…"

Per usual, Drizzy’s confrontational — yet still vague — bars sparked plenty of speculation about who he may be talking about specifically. However, what fans questioned even faster was the timing of the teaser’s release, as it hit the airwaves around the same time as J. Cole — who is now apparently a Drake nemesis — dropped his long-delayed new album, The Fall-Off, at midnight on Friday (Feb. 6).

Cole fans were not pleased with Ak throwing Drake into the chat. “Doing this as Cole is dropping is some real [h**] a** sh**. And you know Ak got paid for this as well. Says a lot,” wrote one user on X.

Another X user commented, “Drake is such a weirdo for sending that snippet to Akademiks when Cole’s album was about to drop, desperately trying to steal Cole’s shine.”

However, Akademiks maintains that he actually received the “leaked” Drake track several days ago. Since he claims he didn’t get the song from Drake himself, he chose to share it since he’s a “media personality.”

"I made that call. I had this snippet for about four days. How I got it, I won't mention…,” he said on a stream addressing the situation. "If Drake tells me something, if the info came from him, sworn to secrecy. Because I would have never known if he didn't tell me... Now, if I go out and get it independently, I gotta do my job. That’s our understanding."

Iceman will be Drake’s first solo album since 2023’s For All The Dogs.