It’s the most Toronto collab in music history: a surprising artist is joining Drake for a feature on his upcoming new album! Drake has been teasing the release of another album for a few months now, and this past weekend he hinted once again that Iceman is coming soon. On Wednesday, he decided to drop a little snippet of one of his upcoming songs, and the teaser featured none other than Imara, the Toronto Zoo’s newly-named baby giraffe!
The short clip, released on his Instagram, featured the not-so-dulcet sounds of Imara layered over a beat. Giraffes normally make sounds so faint and low-pitched that humans can’t actually hear them, so it’s likely that Drake had to use some pretty high-tech equipment to capture Imara’s voice for the song!
He didn’t reveal anything else about the song or the album, instead simply captioning the post, “IMARA LOVE,” followed by (fittingly) the giraffe emoji and ice cube emoji.
Drake has been teasing the release of Iceman for over a year now, dropping a few singles that will likely be included on the new album and including hints on multiple Instagram posts. But it was this past weekend, during his speech honouring Nelly Furtado’s induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the Juno Awards, where he dropped a real hint.
“Enjoy your Hall of Fame status, it’s long overdue… Iceman coming soon,” was how Drake ended his speech.
It’s unclear why Drake decided to include Toronto Zoo’s new giraffe on his album, but we’re loving this ultra-Toronto collab! And his timing is impeccable: he dropped the teaser featuring Imara just a day after her name was officially announced by the zoo. Over 23,000 people participated in the public vote for her name, and Imara (which is Swahili for strong, firm and resilient) won!
If this announcement is any indication, Iceman is gearing up to be Drake’s most experimental album yet. Who knows which animals he might tap next to feature on an upcoming single — maybe the Toronto Zoo’s adorable new Komodo dragon siblings?
In other news — April Fool’s!
