Drake is BACK + Kevin Hart Roast Backlash + Trump’s $1.7B Slush Fund

But is the boy actually back or is the culture totally done with him? Let's break down the facts.

On May 15th, Drake dropped his ninth studio album, Ice Man, along with two extra surprise albums, Habibti and Made of Honor.

The rollout, especially that massive ice sculpture stunt, seemed to be a marketing win, and the numbers are crazy.

Ice Man is projected to do 460,000 first-week units with all three projects combining for over 680,000.

So let's not be stupid.

Drake is not washed.

But the issue was never whether people would press play.

The issue is whether people still respect him the same after Kendrick, after Not Like Us, and after the lawsuit.

The Drake defenders say the numbers end the debate.

He took the worst hit of his career and still made the whole industry stop.

Even people who hate Drake had to listen so they could explain why they hate him.

That is not a dead career.

That is a superstar who still controls attention.

The other side says he did not fix the damage, he just made a lot of noise.

There is a difference between being popular and being respected.

McDonald's sells a lot of food.

That doesn't make it the best burger in town.

And the lawsuit made it worse.

In hip hop, if you lose a battle, you just get back in the booth.

You don't ask the judge to repair your aura.

Here's my take.

Drake is commercially back.

There's no debate about that.

But culturally, uh, he's not all the way back yet.

He's in the room, but he's not sitting at the head of the table like nothing happened.