Drake talks dad's cancer fight on emotional new album ‘Iceman'

Drake used the opening track of his highly anticipated new album Iceman to disclose that his father, Dennis Graham, is currently battling cancer.

On Make Them Cry, released Friday, May 15, the 39-year-old rapper delivers one of his most personal verses to date.

“My dad got cancer right now, we battlin’ stages. Trust me when I say there’s plenty things that I’d rather be facin’,” he sings.

The song intertwines Drake’s reflections on family and childhood.

“I’m an only child, no one could’ve made another,” he raps, before adding, “I have to father my mother and treat my son’s grandfather like my older brother.”

Later, he notes: “I know for sure that my parents, they look at me and see an overcomer / I’m looking back at them and these days, I see an older couple.”

Following the album’s release, Dennis Graham posted a photo of himself hugging Drake on Instagram, captioning, “The Ice Man and The Nice Man just doing what we do, don’t get it twisted.”

Fans flooded the comments with messages of encouragement for Graham after the cancer reveal.

Drake has long spoken candidly about his relationship with his father.

In 2019, Dennis addressed “absentee father” rumours, telling Nick Cannon’s Close Conversations radio show: “I have always been with Drake. I talk to him, if not every day, every other day.”

At the time, Drake countered on Instagram, writing, “Every bar I ever spit was the truth and the truth is hard for some people to accept.”

The Iceman rollout included two surprise albums, Habibti and Maid of Honour, dropped after a four-part livestream that concluded May 14.