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The Game has been one of the more vocal champions of West Coast Hip-Hop but fans couldn’t help but notice he was noticeably absent at Kendrick Lamar‘s concert on Juneteenth. Fans on X are saying that The Game was frozen out of the West Coast show due to his affiliation with K-Dot’s chief rival, Drake.
In the wake of The Pop Out: Ken & Friends Concert, which featured Kendrick Lamar and a large host of his famous pals, the absence of The Game alongside a variety of West Coast acts stood out as a curious moment. While it doesn’t appear that the former Aftermath is bothered by being excluded from the show, fans on X are speculating that the artist born Jayceon Taylor was left off the bill due to his alignment with Drake.
Back in April, Game posted a video of him listening to Drizzy’s “Energy” track which some took to mean he was on the side of the so-called 6 God. In the now-deleted post, fans blasted Game for seemingly going against his fellow Compton native in Lamar although the rapper never publicly chose a side.
Still, the optics of it all have fans believing this is why Game, a capable rapper despite what some might say, was not part of the epic cameo performances that included the likes of YG, TDE mainstays Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, and ScHoolby Q, and others.
On X, the jokes are flying about The Game now appearing on the bill and we’ve got the best we could find below.

Photo: Getty

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Pharrell Williams seemingly doesn’t involve himself in the war of words that some of his past collaborators have, but fans are wondering if a new track takes a shot at Drake. Via the “Double Life” track, some have suggested that Skateboard P may have had light smoke for Drake but nothing has been confirmed.
Pharrell Williams has been part of the Despicable Me franchise since its early days, producing across a majority of the soundtracks for the corresponding films. For Despicable Me 4, “Double Life” serves as the first single for the soundtrack and the opening verse has been interpreted as Drake this on Genius and across social media channels.

From “Double Life”:

Hey, what are you hiding? (Watch)/What you do when you’re gone? (Hey)/Nothin’ wrong bein’ private (Watch)/Make sure it ain’t wrong (Yeah)/Your life double-sided (Watch)/Two-faced like coins/What side do I get? (Watch)/What side are you on?
As most know, Drake took shots at Pharrell Williams on the “MELTDOWN” track from Travis Scott’s UTOPIA album and also reportedly melted down chains owned by the Virginia producer as seen in the video for Drake’s “Jumbotron Sh*t Poppin.”
In our opinion, this seems like a strong reach but anything is possible. Check out the track below.
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Photo: Getty

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Source: Prince Williams / Getty
Drake has yet another legal matter on his hands. An apparel company has a filed a lawsuit against him over his tour merch.

Rolling Stone is reporting that Champagne Papi has been served with a lawsuit by JR Apparel World LLC; the company who owns the Members Only brand. According to the paperwork submitted the New York based limited liability operation claims that the “First Person Shooter” rapper has infringed on the label’s iconic trademark. They point out that Drizzy’s Away From Home Touring Inc. is producing tour merch with the slogan “Members Only”.

While the capsule collection does not feature any outwear pieces JR Apparel claims it slogan is causing confusion in the marketplace. “Away From Home’s use of ‘Members Only’…is likely to cause confusion, mistake, and deception among consumers as to the origin of Away From Home’s infringing T-shirts,” the filing reads. “Away From Home sold…goods bearing the mark ‘Members Only’ that are identical, overlapping, and/or highly similar to the goods that JR Apparel sells bearing its MEMBERS ONLY Marks.”
The phrase is a direct reference to Drake’s song of the same name from For All The Dogs which JR Apparel references to in the complaint. “The fact that ‘Members Only’ is a song on Drake’s album For All the Dogs does not obviate the likelihood of confusion or give [him] a license to use our client’s ‘Members Only’ marks in such a confusing manner, particularly on or in connection with apparel items.”
Drake has yet to comment on the matter.

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Source: Carmen Mandato / Getty
Drake’s fashion choice while watching his son Adonis’ soccer game has gone viral, with many social media users seizing the chance to crack jokes.As the summer gets underway, superstar rapper Drake has kept it fairly low-key since his battle with Kendrick Lamar dominated the cultural conversation for the past few weeks. But the Certified Lover Boy rapper popped up on Sunday (June 9) with a new post on Instagram which saw him sporting a summer outfit fit for lawn picnics, consisting of a cream t-shirt with a white sweater tied around his shoulders and wide-leg brown trousers with a brown belt. Drake finished off the look with a pristine pair of sunglasses. The caption to the post read, “Goats don’t worry about one-trick ponies.”

The reactions in the comments of the post lauded the Canadian artist’s look. Ice Spice simply replied, “Ate” while recent collaborator Sexyy Red wrote “Fyrrrre”, completing her comment with two heart-eyed emojis. The photos captured Drake as he was on the sidelines at his son Adonis’ soccer match – one photo shows the child from the back during play, wearing a blue long-sleeved jersey kit with the number 25 on the back as Drake looks on.
Other social media users weren’t as approving of the summer style from Drake. In posts on X, formerly Twitter, users clowned the Her Loss rapper for both the apparel choice and his perceived post being a jab towards Kendrick Lamar in light of the latter’s “Not Like Us” diss track taking a major hold on the public. “Drake the type of rapper that hands out orange wedges at his son’s soccer game,” someone wrote, while another user commented that Drake’s style reminded them of the famed actress Katherine Hepburn’s classic film outfits. One stylist among others interviewed by The Cut claimed it was too much. “It’s like a lot of a look and too on the nose with styling; it’s styled like cosplay. It’s too much of a concept and looks forced,” the unnamed source said. When asked if it was an ode to “quiet luxury”, they responded, “he’s quietly doing the most.”
We’ve selected some of the more witty observations for you to take a look at below. 

1. Wynter Mitchell

2. Certified Jared

3. Derek Guy

4. Mister Geezy

5. Eric Harvey

6. Kellen Voss

8. Whitley

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Source: Tom Szczerbowski / Getty
The 6 God is back at it. Drake is choosing the Dallas Mavericks to win the NBA Finals and he is putting his money where his mouth is.

As reported by HipHopDX the “Family Matters” rapper is putting his past with Kendrick Lamar behind him. This week Drake reappeared on social media with one of his first few posts since his beef with you know who. In the Instagram post he stood tall on sports business and shared who he thought will be winning not only the NBA Finals but also the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.

He is picking the Dallas Mavericks to defeat the Boston Celtics and the Edmonton Oilers over the Florida Panthers. “Dallas cause I’m a Texan. Oilers are self explanatory” he wrote in the caption. The accompanying visual is as a screenshot of his STAKE account that shows him betting $500,000 on each series. If he has chosen correctly he stands to win an estimated $1,375,000 dollars.

Drake has a steady history of insane wagers. Back in February he laid a $1.15 million dollar bet on the Kansas City Chiefs winning the NFL Super Bowl over the San Francisco 49’ers. The Boston Celtics easily defeated the Dallas Mavericks in game 1 of the NBA Finals beating them 107-89.

On May 24, Sexyy Red and Drake teamed up on the track “U My Everything.” And in a surprise — Drake’s beef with Kendrick Lamar had seemingly ended — the track samples “BBL Drizzy” (originally created using AI by King Willonius, then remixed by Metro Boomin) during the Toronto rapper’s verse. 
It’s another unexpected twist for what many are calling the first-ever AI-generated hit, “BBL Drizzy.” Though Metro Boomin’s remix went viral, his version never appeared on streaming services. “U My Everything” does, making it  the first time an AI-generated sample has appeared on an official release — and posing new legal questions in the process. Most importantly: Does an artist need to clear a song with an AI-generated sample?

Trending on Billboard

“This sample is very, very novel,” says Donald Woodard, a partner at the Atlanta-based music law firm Carter Woodard. “There’s nothing like it.” Woodard became the legal representative for Willonius, the comedian and AI enthusiast who generated the original “BBL Drizzy,” after the track went viral and has been helping Willonius navigate the complicated, fast-moving business of viral music. Woodard says music publishers have already expressed interest in signing Willonius for his track, but so far, the comedian/creator is still only exploring the possibility.

Willonius told Billboard that it was “very important” to him to hire the right lawyer as his opportunities mounted. “I wanted a lawyer that understood the landscape and understood how historic this moment is,” he says. “I’ve talked to lawyers who didn’t really understand AI, but I mean, all of us are figuring it out right now.”

Working off recent guidance from the U.S. Copyright Office, Woodard says that the master recording of “BBL Drizzy” is considered “public domain,” meaning anyone can use it royalty-free and it is not protected by copyright, since Willonius created the master using AI music generator Udio. But because Willonius did write the lyrics to “BBL Drizzy,” copyright law says he should be credited and paid for the “U My Everything” sample on the publishing side. “We are focused on the human portion that we can control,” says Woodard. “You only need to clear the human side of it, which is the publishing.”

In hip-hop, it is customary to split the publishing ownership and royalties 50/50: One half is expected to go to the producer, the other is for the lyricists (who are also often the artists, too). “U My Everything” was produced by Tay Keith, Luh Ron, and Jake Fridkis, so it is likely that those three producers split that half of publishing in some fashion. The other half is what Willonius could be eligible for, along with other lyricists Drake and Sexyy Red. Woodard says the splits were solidified “post-release” on Tuesday, May 28, but declined to specify what percentage split Willonius will take home of the publishing. “I will say though,” Woodard says, cracking a smile. “He’s happy.”

Upon the release of “U My Everything,” Willonius was not listed as a songwriter on Spotify or Genius, both of which list detailed credits but can contain errors. It turns out the reason for the omission was simple: the deal wasn’t done yet. “We hammered out this deal in the 24th hour,” jokes Woodard, who adds that he was unaware that “U My Everything” sampled “BBL Drizzy” until the day of its release. “That’s just how it goes sometimes.”

It is relatively common for sample clearance negotiations to drag on long after the release of songs. Some rare cases, like Travis Scott’s epic “Sicko Mode,” which credits about 30 writers due to a myriad of samples, can take years. Willonius tells Billboard when he got the news about the “U My Everything” release, he was “about to enter a meditation retreat” in Chicago and let his lawyer “handle the business.”

This sample clearance process poses another question: should Metro Boomin be credited, too? According to Metro’s lawyer, Uwonda Carter, who is also a partner at Carter Woodard, the simple answer is no. She adds that Metro is not pursuing any ownership or royalties for “U My Everything.”

“Somehow people attach Metro to the original version of ‘BBL Drizzy,’ but he didn’t create it,” Carter says. “As long as [Drake and Sexyy Red] are only using the original version [of “BBL Drizzy”], that’s the only thing that needs to be cleared,” she continues, adding that Metro is not the type of creative “who encroaches upon work that someone else does.”

When Metro’s remix dropped on May 5, Carter says she spoke with the producer, his manager and his label, Republic Records, to discuss how they could officially release the song and capitalize on its grassroots success, but then they ultimately decided against doing a proper release. “Interestingly, the label’s position was if [Metro’s] going to exploit this song, put it up on DSPs, it’s going to need to be cleared, but nobody knew what that clearance would look like because it was obviously AI.”

She adds, “Metro decided that he wasn’t going to exploit the record because trying to clear it was going to be the Wild, Wild West.” In the end, however, the release of “U My Everything” still threw Carter Woodard into that copyright wilderness, forcing them to find a solution for their other client, Willonius.

In the future, the two lawyers predict that AI could make their producer clients’ jobs a lot easier, now that there is a precedent for getting AI-generated masters royalty-free. “It’ll be cheaper,” says Carter. “Yes, cleaner and cheaper,” says Woodard.

Carter does acknowledge that while AI sampling could help some producers with licensing woes, it could hurt others, particularly the “relatively new” phenomenon of “loop producers.” “I don’t want to minimize what they do,” she says, “but I think they have the most to be concerned about [with AI].” Carter notes that using a producer’s loops can cost 5% to 10% from the producer’s side of publishing or more. “I think that, at least in the near future, producers will start using AI sampling and AI-generated records so they could potentially bypass the loop producers.”

Songwriter-turned-publishing executive Evan Bogart previously told Billboard he feels AI could never replace “nostalgic” samples (like “First Class” by Jack Harlow’s use of “Glamorous” by Fergie or “Big Energy” by Latto’s “Fantasy” by Mariah Carey), where the old song imbues the new one with greater meaning. But he said he could foresee it being a digital alternative to crate digging for obscure samples to chop up and manipulate beyond recognition.

Though the “U My Everything” complications are over — and set a new precedent for the nascent field of AI sampling in the process — the legal complications with “BBL Drizzy” will continue for Woodard and his client. Now, they are trying to get the original song back on Spotify after it was flagged for takedown. “Some guy in Australia went in and said that he made it, not me,” says Willonius. A representative for Spotify confirms to Billboard that the takedown of “BBL Drizzy” was due to a copyright claim. “He said he made that song and put it on SoundCloud 12 years ago, and I’m like, ‘How was that possible? Nobody was even saying [BBL] 12 years ago,’” Willonius says. (Udio has previously confirmed to Billboard that its backend data shows Willonius made the song on its platform).   

“I’m in conversations with them to try to resolve the matter,” says Woodard, but “unfortunately, the process to deal with these sorts of issues is not easy. Spotify requires the parties to reach a resolution and inform Spotify once this has happened.” 

Though there is precedent for other “public domain” music being disqualified from earning royalties, so far, given how new this all is, there is no Spotify policy that would bar an AI-generated song from earning royalties. These songs are also allowed to stay up on the platform as long as the AI songs do not conflict with Spotify’s platform rules, says a representative from Spotify.

Despite the challenges “BBL Drizzy” has posed, Woodard says it’s remarkable, after 25 years in practice as a music attorney, that he is part of setting a precedent for something so new. “The law is still being developed and the guidelines are still being developed,” Woodard says. “It’s exciting that our firm is involved in the conversation, but we are learning as we go.”

This story is included in Billboard‘s new music technology newsletter, Machine Learnings. To subscribe to this and other Billboard newsletters, click here.

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Vory, an artist who was once signed to Meek Mill‘s Dream Chasers record label, is now the topic of discussion after the leak of a reported reference track went wide. Vory is heard rapping lyrics from Drake‘s “Mob Ties” track from the Canadian superstar’s Scorpion album and X has a lot of thoughts.
Vory, 26, is listed as a songwriter on “Mob Ties,” which was considered one of the standout tracks on Scorpion by Drake fans. A leak posted by X user @PushaThanos__ features a track of Vory rapping a verse from the track that sounds quite similar to the finished product and sparked a deluge of comments from fans and detractors. The timing is especially noticeable considering the war of words the OVO Sound honcho finds himself embroiled in with Kendrick Lamar.

As you can hear in the track, the cadence, flow, and the lyrics as a whole are connected but it hasn’t been confirmed if this is an official reference track nor how it was obtained. It isn’t a secret that Drake has employed writers in his sessions as many others have before him and he’s been criticized for it in droves. That same criticism is especially robust now considering the battle with K-Dot taking hold of the culture of late.
Vory caught the ire of Meek Mill back in February of this year after video footage leaked of the Louisville rapper threatening to kill his girlfriend, which of course adds to all of the drama that has ensued over the past two months.
On X, formerly Twitter, the reactions to the Vory “Mob Ties” leak are all over the place. We’ve got the best of the crop below.

Photo: Getty

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Source: Arturo Holmes / Getty / Elliott Wilson
No one man should have all that power. UPROXX’s new Editorial Director and legendary Hip-Hop scribe Elliott Wilson is no longer welcome in Toronto, and it allegedly has to do with Drake being salty.

Wilson spoke on The Bigger Picture podcast about the fallout after he decided that Kendrick Lamar came out on top in the highly entertaining back-and-forth with Drake.

Wilson revealed that Drake was in his feelings after his co-host DJ Hed pointed out that Wilson was no longer wearing OVO gear and asked him how he felt about Drake unfollowing him.
The Petty 6 God
“It’s funny because Drake is the kind of dude that, even if he doesn’t f**k with you, he still follows you. So, he’s not an unfollow kind of dude. [But] I saw somebody in my comments say, ‘How do you feel about Drake unfollowing you?’ I got my emotions about it… but look, it’s hard… that’s my guy, I respect him,” Wilson said.
Continuing the conversation, Wilson revealed that he got “calls” from people telling him she should not set foot in Toronto right now.
“I got the calls from OGs — I’m not really welcomed in Toronto right now. I grew up in NYC and you know not to go into other people’s projects. You might visit shorty but you ain’t got no business being over to those projects looking for no problems,” Wilson said. “So, I would not go to TO if me and Drake weren’t good. I just think it’s a tough time to manage these relationships with artists… You develop these connections with them, and then you have to manage these relationships and its ups and downs with that.”
All of this is because Wilson agreed with everyone else that Kendrick Lamar won.
Drake is a very petty individual.
Speaking of Drake, he just hopped on a new Sexy Redd song that features the BBL Drizzy beat.
You can watch the latest episode of The Bigger Picture below.
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Source: @champagnepapi / Instagram
Drake may be done participating in rap beef for the foreseeable future but that isn’t keeping the King of The North from having a little fun with the remnantes of his latest war.

In the midst of Drake’s battle with half of the Hip-Hop game (we’re exaggerating of course), Metro Boomin dropped a free “BBL Drizzy” instrumental for the heck of it and offered up a bag to whoever was able to flip it the best. Well, it seems like challenge was accepted and after multiple artists gave it a try (most of them dissing Drake of course), Drake and Sexyy Red have decided to give it a try and just dropped a collabo cut, “U My Everything” over the Metro Boomin instrumental.

With everything that’s gone down over the past few weeks you can tell Drake took it all in stride and is embracing the hate as he’s dropping bars like “Why you love me still a mystery/Me and this surgeon got history/I changed a lot of girls lives for real, they need a new body they hittin’ me/Hey! BBL Drizzy, they want a new body they ask me for it.”
Lowkey clever on his part.
Check out “U My Everything” below and let us know who you think flipped the “BBL Drizzy” beat the best in the comments section.
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Source: Frazer Harrison / Getty
Drake again leads the pack in nominations at the upcoming 2024 BET Awards, with Nicki Minaj behind him.
The 2024 BET Awards looks to be another intriguing affair, as the full list of nominees was released by the network on Thursday (May 16) with Drake once again topping the list with seven nominations. It’s the second year in a row that he’s accomplished this feat. Nicki Minaj came in second with six nominations. J. Cole, Sexyy Red, SZA, and Victoria Monet tied for third place with five nominations. 21 Savage, Beyoncé, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Tyla and Usher bring up the rear with four nominations. The nominations came from the BET Voting Academy, composed of multiple figures in music, sports journalism, and media.

Among Drake’s nominations are those for Album of The Year with For All The Dogs, Best Collaboration of the Year for his track “Rich Baby Daddy” with SZA and Sexyy Red. All eyes will be on the Best Male Hip-Hop artist category where he’ll face off against Kendrick Lamar, who he’s had a hotly contested beef that has dominated the news in the last two weeks. For Nicki Minaj, she’s also in the running for Album of the Year with Pink Friday 2, Video of the Year, and two nominations for different singles for Best Collaboration of the Year – “Barbie World” with Ice Spice and Aqua, and “Everybody” with Lil Uzi Vert. Nicki Minaj is also nominated for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist.

The 2024 BET Awards will be held in Los Angeles on June 30 and aired live at 8 P.M. ET on BET. The theme for this year’s awards is “Standing On Culture”. The show will be produced by Jesse Collins Entertainment, with Collins also serving as an executive producer along with Dionne Harm, Jeannae Rouzan-Clay, and Connie Orlando. Orlando is BET’s executive vice president of music programming and strategy.