For 40 years, the Silva family toiled in relative anonymity making and delivering ice. That all changed when the biggest rapper in the world came knocking
It is hard to pinpoint the exact date John Silva decided to name the ice company he started out of his parents’ variety store in downtown Toronto the Iceman, but his path from inspiration to incorporation was abundantly clear.
Whenever he would pull up in his truck, say, to a restaurant, gas station or hotel with his latest ice delivery, someone would blurt out some version of “The iceman is here” or “Are you the iceman?”
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“It was always iceman-this and iceman-that, so I got the name from there,” he said.
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Despite niche celebrity status, the Iceman toiled in relative anonymity for the better part of 40 years, making, selling and delivering ice to street festivals, concert venues, hotels, restaurants, food processing companies and construction giants throughout the Greater Toronto Area.
In other words, Silva was plenty busy before Drake briefly entered his life, not to mention his ice distribution centre, dressed as an Iceman employee in July 2025.
The international rap icon picked up a clipboard and a tape measure and measured an ice block. He heated some food in the lunchroom microwave, rapped a few lines and then drove off behind the wheel of an Iceman delivery truck, turning laps on nearby streets before he parked the vehicle and disappeared into the night.