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Drake & Shai-Gilgeous Alexander
Rb Hip Hop
Shai-Gilgeous Alexander Calls Drake the 'Greatest Rapper of All-Time'
The Billboard cover star and Canadian NBA star also named Iceman the best album of 2026 in a new interview with Spotify.
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is giving major props to Drake.
The Hamilton native and NBA MVP revealed to Spotify in a new interview that he considers Drake to be the greatest rapper of all-time, a claim that he proudly stands on even if it is a hot take among his Oklahoma City Thunder teammates. "Whenever I say Drake's the greatest rapper of all time, all the older guys go crazy, but that's about it," he explains.
The former Billboard and Billboard Canada cover star also revealed that Drake has his current album of the year, while participating in a segment where he ranked his top three Drake albums. “I think Iceman is the best album of 2026,” he explains. “One, it has no skips. And two, the whole storyline... to produce like that after what the narrative was and what it is now... it speaks for itself,” he says.
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Beyond this year, he holds the LP to high regard within the 6 God’s catalogue. While he has two old favourites tied as his all-time favourite, Take Care (2011) and Nothing Was the Same (2013), Iceman comes in as a close second. The album has been one of the biggest albums in Canada since its release in May, spending its first four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart and returning to the top spot in July, notching a fifth week at the summit.
It's not the only recent Drake material Alexander had words of praise for, as he even acknowledged his mention on the Drake and Sexyy Red collaboration "Hurr Not Thurr" from Habibti, which recently extended Drake's record for the most No. 1 albums in Canada following the release of its deluxe edition. In the line, Drake raps "Shai gave your boyfriend a thirty piece all in your face."
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"I was like, confused at first," the basketball star explains. "I had to like play it back to see, did he like actually say my name? And then I laughed a little bit. Interesting enough, I've had 30 quite a few times in my career. So really and truly, he could be talking about anybody. I think it's a great bar."
It’s the latest show of camaraderie between the pair, who have continued to show their close friendship over the past few years. Earlier this year, Drake delivered a freestyle during Alexander’s birthday party in July, and the pair attended the Portugal-Croatia matchup during the FIFA World Cup that same month, the final match that Toronto hosted during the tournament.
Drake is also heavily present in Alexander's new curated Spotify playlist, "Heat Check," making up nine of its 50 tracks with recent tracks like the posse cut "Ya Hit" with Future, Loe Shimmy and Travis Scott and "Cold Shoulder" and "Whisper My Name" from Habibti (FOMO) and Iceman. There's even Canadian throwback with "Right There," a collaboration between Drake and his compatriot Justin Bieber.
Check out the full interview below.
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