What is Drake’s Goal?

Making Sense of Drake’s Goal

It’s easy to pile on a public figure or company that makes a poor decision. Our media culture loves to build something up and then take it down. But it’s harder to put ourselves in the mind of the man in the arena and understand why they made that decision.

Would others in the same situation have played it differently? Is there more that the public doesn’t know?

That said, I am struggling, struggling, to make the case for Drake’s legal action against Universal Music Group, Spotify, and others. Nonetheless, let’s run through some scenarios.

Money

If Drake’s legal actions become lawsuits, these would be civil cases that lead to financial payouts if Drake and his Frozen Moments LLC win those cases. But Drake is already rich. He may believe that the actions taken by his label and other partners have hurt his ability to make money, but that’s a tough case to make.

His Spotify Monthly Listeners still exceeded Kendrick Lamar’s even at the height of “Not Like Us.” In February, he will tour Australia and New Zealand, which should bring in tens of millions of dollars. Culture is too fragmented today for the hip-hop talking heads and viral tweets to hurt Drake’s bag enough to validate his legal claims.

Whistleblowing

Drake’s legal action claimed that inflated streams, bots, and payola led to the heightened success of “Not Like Us.” I can’t speak to the validity of that claim outside of a few rumors I’ve heard, but I’ll say this. Inflated streams and bots aren’t uncommon. In fact, some people in the industry see it as table stakes to push a record for mainstream popularity.

But even if Drake’s claims are true, are we certain that Drake’s music hasn’t also benefitted from similar tactics, with or without his knowledge? It wasn’t that long ago that Spotify subscribers wanted a refund in 2018 because Drake’s Scorpion was inescapable.

“Juiced” streams in music are like the steroid era in baseball. Drake has had a dynasty-level run like the 1990s New York Yankees. That’s that World Series attitude, champagne bottle life. But what if the 2001 Yankees sued the team that defeated them, the Arizona Diamondbacks, for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs? Sure, the Yankees could make a compelling case, but are we sure that any Yankees didn’t also use PEDs?

In Drake’s situation, what gain is there in whistleblowing? To be clear, I don’t condone the tactic. But we saw how whistleblowing turned out for Jose Canseco who called out himself and his MLB peers for steroid use. Canseco may have been correct when the truth finally came out, but he was ridiculed and became a pariah along the way. Like an anonymous lawyer told Rolling Stone, “I don't think the average consumer is going to say, 'Oh, Kendrick paid for bots. Therefore, Drake actually won.'"

Ego

Drake has more total streams than any other artist on Spotify. He has been the most commercially successful artist on Universal Music Group for over a decade. In an era where it’s harder than ever to build Drake-level superstars, his success is in their interest. Drake has likely gotten used to the superstar treatment, unlimited budget, and everything that comes with it.

So if those partners promote music that takes a hit against Drake or “defames his character,” then Drake will express his issue with that. Yes, even despite the hypocrisy of Drake’s questionable claims made about Kendrick Lamar!

But Drake, like most superstars, doesn’t get paid to be rational. He gets paid for being an exception to the rule and has proved that to be true. In most situations, it works in his favor. Until it doesn’t.

It’s hard to understate the role of ego. It can lead to unreasonable demands and unprecedented ways to respond to rap beef.

When artists are happy with their labels and teams, we rarely head about it. When artists are unhappy with their labels, they are loud about it and the news captures headlines. In most cases, the fans and general public take the artist’s side against the Big Bad Record Label. Even when the artist is wrong and being unreasonable, the court of public opinion in with the artist.

Drake’s legal situation is a rare case when the court of public opinion is not on the artist’s side. But it’s less about the public siding with the corporations. The people are siding with Drake’s rival, Kendrick Lamar, who is more popular than ever.

The legal action from Drake may be somewhat understandable given the shock to the system. But it’s hard to see a situation where this leads to his intended outcome.

In the meantime, you should listen to the rest of the episode here.

Chartmetric Stat of the Week - squabble up!

Ever since Kendrick Lamar dropped his surprise album, GNX, the online searches for Debbie Deb have been through the roof. In the three days before the album, her Wikipedia page was visited 447 times. On the day GNX released, which includes a sample for her 1983 song “When I Hear Music” on Kendrick’s “squabble up,” her Wikipedia page has been visited 10,483 times.