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One of Drake's friends and affiliates, DJ Akademiks, has suggested during a new live-stream that Drake's mysterious new project, Fear Of Missing Out, could be a country record.
Rumours have been swirling around the possibility of Drake dropping a full-blown country project for years, but they've intensified in recent weeks after the Toronto rapper teased a remix of Ella Langley's chart-topping single, ‘Choosin‘ Texas’.
It's widely speculated that this will be featured on Fear Of Missing Out, with many theorising that Drake's good buddy, Morgan Wallen, could also be involved in the project.
We'll know more on September 15th, with Drake confirming last night (September 3rd) that he'll be sharing one of his signature YouTube live-streams on that date.
This is how he launched the rollout for 2026's ICEMAN, HABIBTI and MAID OF HONOUR, and given how many months in advance he started doing those ICEMAN live-streams, we shouldn't assume he'll be releasing any new music on September 15th.
Mr. Morgan, the head of Drake's OVO Sound imprint did, however, tease that something would be coming this winter, as he posted, “summers ours, winter too” when Drake dropped his three albums in May. So it seems Fear Of Missing Out, whether it's a full record, an EP or something else entirely, will arrive before the end of the year.
DJ Akademiks, a longstanding affiliate of Drake's, has shared some of his ideas as to what Fear Of Missing Out could be via his live-stream, “Y'all want some more music? Some people say, ‘Oh, no, he just dropped three albums. Why he gonna try to drop again?’ Do y'all want more music? Do y'all want him to chill? Y'all want a tour?”
He teases that, in his view, a country pivot would be “fire”, “What about a little EP? You want to mix it up a bit? You know what would be fire?...I need Drizzy to jump on one of her songs, man...That s*** would be fire, man. He ain't got no competition in rap”.
Akademiks playfully went on, “He might as well, you know? Might as well just go f*** with the country folks. You feel what I'm saying? Them boys don't want to rap with him no more, man. The boys don't want to rap with him no more, man. Drizzy is number one. The rappers quit, they're like, ‘Alright, he's the best, we're done’”.
It's not clear from exactly who he's talking about when he says, “I need Drizzy to jump on one of her songs, man”, but perhaps we can assume it's Langley, given how he then talks about the possibility of a foray into country from the ‘God's Plan’ hitmaker.
Akademiks adds, “So you got to go international again. Bring back the Jamaican vibes. Go country”, before questioning if Fear Of Missing Out could be a documentary. It's worth flagging that Drake is also expected to unveil his long-teased 2027 Freeze the World Tour at some point before the year is up, so this unveiling could have something to do with his enigmatic Fear Of Missing Out project, too.
Now, Akademiks underlines throughout that he doesn't know exactly what Fear Of Missing Out is, and if we take him at face-value, then his hypotheses could be pure conjecture.
But it's certainly interesting that he sounds so keen for Drake to venture into the country music world, an idea many other commentators in the rap world have been critical of.
What's more, it's worth highlighting that, during the beef with Kendrick Lamar, Akademiks acted as a mouthpiece for Drake's camp, with the YouTuber dropping regular hints and clues about what Drake had planned and adding to the buzz around his new diss-tracks. Drake gave him an OVO owl chain in May 2026, famously something the self-proclaimed ‘6 God’ only gifts to his closest allies and friends.
So maybe Akademiks does know more than he's letting on, and maybe his openness to the concept of a Drake country project stems from him having some kind of insider info about Fear Of Missing Out. If a Drake country record is en route, then we can't wait to hear it, and we hope it contains the long-awaited extended version of Wallen's ’Interlude’, which has been the subject of rumours for over a year.
Drake has been showing love to country music throughout his career, name-dropping legends like George Strait and Shania Twain in his music, buying a texas ranch back in 2024, teaming up with Wallen for the ‘You Broke My Heart’ music video and for his 2025 Houston walk-out, as well as donning a Wallen jersey in Berlin last year.
On HABIBTI, the intro - ‘Rusty’ - was widely interpreted as Drake's first full country track, with Drizzy crooning forlornly over a sparse, acoustic guitar instrumental. Meanwhile, his ‘Plot Twist’ music video felt a lot like an homage to classic country visuals.
Fans will know all too well that we've been here before. Many of us were convinced that Wallen would appear on ICEMAN, and then not one but three Drake albums came and went without a feature from the country titan. He did, though, name-check Wallen on ‘White Bone’ (“Goin' to see Morgan, cowboy boots, rhinestones”).
We'll have a clearer picture on September 15th as to whether Fear Of Missing Out is indeed an album, an EP, a tour announcement, a documentary or something completely different. We must say that the fact that Drake dropped an image of Fear Of Missing Out written on a black CD - on the same table on which he first shared his three 2026 album - has us feeling pretty confident it is, indeed, new music. And if it is, then maybe - just maybe - we're about to see Country Drizzy.
