Drake reveals father’s cancer diagnosis in the most personal way possible. through his music. On “Make Them Cry,” the opening track of his surprise album Iceman, the 39-year-old rapper shares that his father, Dennis Graham, is currently fighting the disease. The revelation arrived alongside two other surprise albums, Maid of Honour and Habibti, released at midnight.
The lyric lands near the end of the track with devastating simplicity. Drake raps that his father has cancer right now and that the family is battling stages. He admits there are plenty of things he would rather be facing. No further details about the type or stage of cancer have been shared.
Dennis Graham, a 71-year-old former drummer for Jerry Lee Lewis, was largely absent during Drake’s childhood in Toronto after his parents divorced when the rapper was five. The two have since reconciled. Graham now openly beams with pride, once telling an interviewer that he always tells people “that’s my son.”
The song does not stop at the diagnosis. Drake uses the track to unpack multiple battles at once. He raps about turning forty soon and fighting the reality of aging. He mentions battling labels, battling majors, and even battling the perception of fans who turned against him. But the weight of the song rests on those few words about his father.
Hours before the album dropped, Graham posted a photo on Instagram of himself embracing his son. He captioned it simply, calling them the Ice Man and the Nice Man just doing what they do. The post ended with prayer emojis. Fans flooded the comments with messages of support, with many telling Graham he has got this.
For now, Drake has chosen to let the music speak. The absence of further details suggests the family is processing this privately. But by placing the revelation on the very first track of a major album cycle, Drake has made one thing clear: some fights are bigger than rap beefs and chart positions.
