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Today would have been Juice WRLD’s 26th birthday and there’s no telling the heights he’d have taken his career to by now as one of his generation’s leaders and rap’s sui generis stars.
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There’s no perfect way to end Juice WRLD’s story but Grade A Productions CEO Brandon “Lil Bibby” Dickinson and Juice’s manager Peter Jideonwo approached the daunting task of putting a bow on the probable final studio album in the late rapper’s discography.
The long-awaited The Party Never Ends arrived on Black Friday (Nov. 29) — just days ahead of the fifth anniversary of Juice WRLD’s tragic passing (Dec. 8, 2019).
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“His legacy was decided from the first day to the last day,” Jideonwo tells Billboard. “Taking the negative and turning it into a positive. That’s the correlation to his music and the fan base he has, because he’s really been what 999 [his code for his overall lifestyle and message] stands for — which is helping people through depression and [helping] them see you’re not alone.”
Bibby and Jideonwo detailed the enduring process of digging through thousands of songs in different studio vaults and dealing with leakers, deciphering AI-generated tracks, navigating clearance issues, a rabid fan base demanding perfection and more leaks on the journey to The Party Never Ends.
“I wanted to close out the best way possible, and give the fans as much as they’re asking for,” Bibby adds. “A lot of the music been sad and I wanted to give them some type of uptempo, happy vibes to end it with.”
The duo wanted to honor Juice WRLD’s vision in various ways, like recruiting his favorite band (and fellow Illinois natives) Fall Out Boy for a rock-tinged “Best Friend” collaboration.
In the months before his death, Juice spent six figures on a private jet to meet Takashi Murakami, and they invited the Japanese contemporary artist to design the cover art for TPNE, which also drew backlash from fans.
While this is being billed as the final album, the Grade A executives aren’t ruling out more music in the future, and even a project that could possibly be tied to a Juice WRLD movie.
Check out the rest of the interview with Bibby and Jideonwo as they detail The Party Never Ends, the future of Juice WRLD music, favorite studio stories and more.
Billboard: How important was it to nail this as the final album for Juice? How did you go about piecing the album together and executing that vision?
Lil Bibby: Trying to find the right music is tough, because the fans leak them songs every f–king day. So it’s just going to the vault and finding some smashes the fans haven’t heard. It’s been kind of difficult. Every time I find a list of songs and they get to leaking those. The ones I find I gotta keep secure.
What does that entail? Is there a folder of Juice’s songs that you and a select number of people have access to?
Bibby: Nah, it’s the craziest s–t because he recorded in a lot of different places. He recorded a lot of his music with this one engineer Max Lord. I had to go pull up on Max and go through his vault, which — 90-something percent of it is leaked. I had to pick the best songs that weren’t leaked and go to other people. Everybody hitting me, “Oh, I got some songs that aren’t leaked.” I gotta pick through everybody’s s–t. A lot of the time they be leaked.
Has anyone hit you with AI tracks?
Peter Jideonwo: We’ve had a lot of AI. They will hear a snippet of a record and they’ll go finish it with AI and send it back like, “We got an unreleased song y’all need to put out.” The stuff is so good at this point you don’t even know, because Juice recorded so many places and studios. He was a studio whore everywhere he went. Last week, we had a studio say, “Somebody broke in trying to steal our hard drives for Juice WRLD’s music.”
The one particular AI memory is Adin Ross. This dude was sending us all the biggest songs and some we were looking for that snippets were out — and when we got them we were like, “Finally, we got the songs.” Then we listened to them and looked at each other and Bibby was like, “This is AI.” A lot of times, it’s the fans in leak culture paying $30,000 or $40,000 for a leak. These kids are paying money and they don’t even know if they’re getting a real song.
Do you guys have to litigate that and crack down on it? I’m assuming in the future you don’t want any part of Juice’s vocals being used.
Jideonwo: It’s hard because the internet is the wild, wild west. I can go to a public library and log into one of these AI sites and drag a 40-minute Juice WRLD interview and put another song on top of that and say, “Hey, make a song with this voice.” Then I could put it on Twitter and tag 10 Juice WRLD pages and say, “New Juice WRLD leak!” They’re gonna run it up. You don’t know where it comes from. It’s so many different parties doing it that you’ll be on the rat chase, and it’s a waste of money trying to find where it’s coming from.
How did you want to stay true to Juice’s vision — and did he ever say anything about a last album?
Jideonwo: I don’t think he ever came and said, “This is what I want my last project to be.” Juice was 21, so we never had those discussions. The quantity of music Juice made, he might be disappointed that this is his last project, to be honest.
Bibby: Just trying to remember some of the songs that he was most excited about — “Pills in the Regal.” A lot of the ones he made Instagram Lives too were ones he was most excited about. Giving them enough songs that were unleaked also.
Is it tough to finish certain records?
Bibby: It’s super tough, because Juice’s fans — once they hear a song, they want it to be the exact way they heard it. Even if you go in and mix or master it. A lot of times they hear a raw untouched song and they don’t realize it was gonna get mixed and mastered anyway.
Jideonwo: I think another way we did what Juice would’ve wanted, for example: the Murakami cover. Prior to Juice passing, a month or two before, in between his tour in Australia he booked a private jet for $200,000 and went and met Murakami. His goal was always to work with Murakami in any capacity. After he passed, we made it a priority to make sure Murakami had something to do with the final album, because it was that important to [Juice] when he was alive. He expressed his vision to him. Murakami’s just not out here doing album covers. We tried to do things like that he would’ve loved, to keep his legacy alive and aligned with what he’d want to do.
Hitting on the cover art, I saw a lot of backlash to it on social media. Was there anything you guys saw and thought to change it at all?
Bibby: Yeah, I saw a lot of the backlash, but Murakami did what he does. Can’t nobody tell him what to do with his art. A lot of fans said they didn’t like the cover. I think it’s okay. It gives me that feeling when Elon Musk released his Cybertruck and the same week Kanye did his dad shoes. People hated them at first then they grew to really like it. I hated how those shoes looked, but I ended up buying two pairs.
Jideonwo: With this album, there’s been so many leaks, and I think the universe formed a committee of leakers that were targeting the project from the cover to the songs to the Fortnite. When the original cover leaked, it was very low-definition. The first leak came from a phone screen. The fans were like, “I don’t like this. It’s not that good.” That started a trend. The environment we live in, nobody thinks for themselves anymore.
I think there’s a difference from the fans not liking it to somebody big saying, “Oh, this is fire.” If an HD one came out first and one of the big guys said, “This is the [most fire] s–t I ever seen.” They would’ve jumped on the bandwagon. I think all promo is good promo. A piece of art by Murakami lasts forever and I think in the long run it’s going to be very appreciated and be part of both fo their stories which makes it legendary.
How’d you secure the Em feature?
Jideonwo: Em has always been a longtime collaborator for Juice. They did “Godzilla” together. He’s always publicly acknowledged Juice. I think Em really cared about Juice. Bibby reached out and he said, “Whatever little bro wants, I’m gonna do it.”
I look at Em as someone who’s so hard to get into contact with and he’s just not gonna hop on any record.
Bibby: I wanted him on a few different records, but he was adamant on doing that one. He didn’t want to glorify the drugs and stuff. It’s tough [to get into contact with him] but we know some mutual people so it’s easier for me I guess.
Goodbye and Good Riddance had its biggest streaming day last week in nearly five years. What about that project has connected so well all these years later?
Peter Jideonwo: We put that in the category of classic. A perfectly put together album. That’s gonna span for generations. That’s like Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Juice is really Michael Jackson. That’s the Thriller of this generation. It’s gonna keep getting played and every five or 10 years it’s gonna have these moments where it’s spiking.
With this being the last album, is there any chance there could be guest verses or singles used in the future? Maybe something pops up on a soundtrack or is the pop kind of completely closed after this project?
Bibby: I think I want to get into making a movie. [An album] could probably be a soundtrack to the movie.
You mean like a Juice WRLD biopic movie, and his music would kind of soundtrack that?
Bibby: Yeah, I think we could probably put out a greatest hits album or something. As far as a studio album, I don’t know if I could keep [going]. I feel like it’s cheating. I don’t know if that’s the right word for it.
Jideonwo: If the right opportunity presents itself, you might see Juice here and there. It’s so crazy — I think what Bibby was trying to say was, what Juice is able to do five years later is almost unheard of. It should be almost impossible, that five years later with no promotion from the artist himself… That’s why Bibby says it’s cheating. Like, why not put out another project when the fans want it? This is too easy at this point.
Bibby: I wouldn’t say easy — it’s not fair. If I see crazy-enough engagement and they really, really want another one then maybe. I just don’t feel like it’s right to keep doing it.
It’s such a delicate situation — how do you make sure posthumous releases are done tastefully rather than feeling exploitative?
Bibby: I try to look at everything the fans are talking about. Juice’s mom always says, “What’s the meaning behind it?” Before I put out anything, I gotta think, “What is the meaning?” That’s what she would always say. So before we release something, it’s gotta mean something to me. Then I gotta come up with an idea and I gotta feel good about it.
Jideonwo: People are gonna say what they want regardless. They’re free to comment. I think we’ve done a good job. As far as tastefully, we haven’t overdone it where it’s OD. We’ve never sold a Juice WRLD verse to anybody. We’ve always tried to keep the integrity of the music. We’ve gone as far as keeping it tasteful where we haven’t put a random artist on a song just because. We try to keep everything in the ecosystem of people Juice looked up to or who he worked with in the past.
That’s how we keep the integrity of it. We haven’t chased numbers or the extras other people might do to make it something it’s not. I think Juice’s catalog has been treated pretty well. Even going back to what his mom does with the foundation and the charity and helping people with a mental health awareness program. We’ve tried to do the best job we can to keep his name in a good light.
Do you remember a time you were most impressed with Juice in the studio?
Bibby: The first day I saw him record it was crazy. It was me, my brother, G Herbo, Southside, Max Lord and his A&R Dash [Sherrod]. I saw him rap through the entire beat. I’m just listening, and when people freestyle they just say anything. But everything Juice was saying made perfect sense. He came out the booth and Herbo was like, “You gotta do this.”
He looked at me and I go, “I can’t tell you s–t! It sound like you been doing this longer than me. How long you been rapping?” I just knew that was some alien s–t. I was the only one freaking out when I heard that s–t. As soon as I heard him do it, I just never saw nobody do that. I spent a lot of time behind the microphone and I never saw nobody do no s–t like that. That s–t was insane.
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Following Kendrick Lamar’s name-dropping of Lil Wayne on GNX opener “Wacced Out Murals,” Weezy allegedly attempted to check in with Lamar and take his temperature on what he meant exactly, according to Joe Budden.
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On the latest episode of his eponymous podcast, Budden claimed on Wednesday (Nov. 27) that Wayne called Kendrick, and the Compton native didn’t respond.
“I’m hearing that somebody picked up the phone and tried to call and see what the energy was,” Budden stated. “I’m hearing that Kendrick didn’t answer. If I’m calling you rapper to rapper and you don’t answer.”
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Joe went on to say that he heard Wayne went in the booth after Kendrick allegedly deaded his olive branch, and presumably recorded something to send in the Compton rapper’s direction.
“Now I’m going in the booth,” he continued. “You have until I get in that booth to hit me back. I’m hearing that Wayne went in the booth.”
Billboard has reached out to reps for Lil Wayne and Kendrick Lamar.
Kendrick raps on the album’s opening track: “Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud/ Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down.”
Word travels fast and Weezy got wind of Kendrick’s bars not long after GNX‘s arrival. “Man wtf I do?!” he tweeted on Saturday (Nov. 23). “I just be chillin & dey still kome 4 my head. Let’s not take kindness for weakness. Let this giant sleep. I beg u all. No one really wants destruction,not even me but I shall destroy if disturbed. On me. Love.”
Man wtf I do?! I just be chillin & dey still kome 4 my head. Let’s not take kindness for weakness. Let this giant sleep. I beg u all. No one really wants destruction,not even me but I shall destroy if disturbed. On me. Love— Lil Wayne WEEZY F (@LilTunechi) November 23, 2024
Wayne admitted he was hurt by the NFL’s decision to have Kendrick headline the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show next year with the big game in his hometown of New Orleans, which has seemingly caused static between the two.
“That hurt. It hurt a lot. You know what I’m talking about. It hurt a whole lot,” he said at the time. “I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for a letdown. And for automatically mentally putting myself in that position like somebody told me that was my position. So I blame myself for that. But I thought that was nothing better than that spot and that stage and that platform in my city, so it hurt. It hurt a whole lot.”
Watch Joe Budden’s explanation below.
Joe Budden says Lil Wayne tried to call Kendrick Lamar about Wacced Out Murals and Kendrick didn’t pick up the phone which inspired Lil Wayne to go in the booth and make a response record to him 🧐🧐🧐🧐 pic.twitter.com/fhy14otgN9— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) November 27, 2024
How did Fugees member Pras Michél go from being a former member of one of the most beloved hip-hop trios of the 1990s to facing two decades in prison? Slowly, then, it seems, all at once. In a new interview with Variety magazine — his first since a jury convicted him on 10 counts last April in an illegal lobbying case — the 52-year-old MC described his entanglement in one of the world’s largest-ever financial scandals.
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“I don’t know if subconsciously it was a bit exciting for me too. I like spy movies, but I never wanted to be a spy,” said Michél about his role in an influence peddling scandal that wound up with him convicted on charges of violating campaign finance laws during President Obama’s 2012 re-election bid, as well as illegally lobbying the Trump administration in 2017; Michél is facing up to 22 years in federal prison at his January sentencing hearing.
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“I don’t think that’s sexy. But a part of it felt like that,” he said.
The article opens with a spy novel-worthy scene — based on firsthand accounts and court documents — in which the rapper is ordered to go to the front desk of the Four Seasons hotel in Manhattan and used the phrase “banana peel.” That secret message prompted a concierge to hand him an envelope with orders to circle the block twice and await further instructions.
According to the scenario laid out in court, Michél then returned and was ushered into an elevator reserved just for visiting dignitaries facing possible assassination risks on his way to a penthouse suite, where a high-ranking Chinese official booted up an email from then Attorney General Jeff Sessions about three American hostages being held in Chinese prisons. After discussing one prisoner, who was pregnant, the man made a call and moments later showed Michél the itinerary for the woman who was to be flown back to the U.S.
A week after that meeting, federal agents swooped in on Michél, claiming that he was involved in a massive financial scandal that resulted in the siphoning of $4.5 billion from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fun referred to as 1MDB, with the U.S. government tagging the rapper as a Chinese spy.
Recalling the oddity of the hotel meeting, Michél said he noticed a red flag that night in the form of the secret elevator, which, even as a celebrity used to some necessary cloak-and-dagger maneuvers, he was not familiar with.
“I’m going to tell you what was weird to me: the fact that the Four Seasons has a private elevator. I never knew that,” said Michél, who was first charged in the case in 2019. He was accused of funneling money from fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low through straw donors to Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, a well as trying to help scuttle a Justice Department investigation into an extradition case on behalf of China during Trump’s first term. “They have a private elevator for just certain people. But my life leading up to that point felt surreal, so part of that night felt natural,” he said.
Michél was convicted in April on counts including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government in the long-running investigation and trial that featured testimony for the prosecution by stars including Leonardo DiCaprio and name-drops of Kim Kardashian and Martin Scorsese during testimony. In January, Michél’s former attorney, David Kenner, plead guilty to criminal contempt charges over allegations that he leaked grand jury materials to reporters ahead of the trial.
Low, a free-spending financier who backed the 2013 Scorsese-DiCaprio movie The Wolf of Wall Street, became the toast of Hollywood for a time, with many celebrities partying on his private jet and accepting lavish gifts from the still-missing businessman whom Michél met at a 2006 party after a promoter introduced them. Prosectors said that Low later offered Obama fundraiser Michél $20 million for a photo with the President, money Michél accepted and kept most of, assuming, he said, that was how the rich go about meeting famous people.
Facing decades in federal prison, Yale-educated Michél told the magazine, “technically, I’m a foreign agent.” He said he was never friends with Low, but he connected the businessman to other VIPs and, to date, the rapper is the only in Low’s orbit who has faced serious consequences in the fall-out from the scandal. “The government needed a prize. They needed a head, and he was the low-hanging fruit,” said one of Michél’s attorneys, Robert Meloni.
For his part, Michél — who reportedly had nearly $80 million seized by the U.S. government as part of their sanctions, with prosecutors claiming he pulled in more than $100 million from his dealings with Low — told Variety that he’s going to fight and appeal his sentence, but realizes he might end up behind bars either way. “There’s a possibility that I’m going in while I’m fighting,” he said. “It’s just the reality.” He added that as he awaits his fate, “every aspect of my life has been disrupted. I can’t bank anywhere, been kicked out of 13 banks… Without getting too philosophical about it, it was about me being at the right place at the wrong time. Or the wrong place at the right time.”
Given the cinematic scope of the story, Variety reported that there are at least three books on the subject in the works, with Idris Elba in talks with Michél’s reps about acquiring his life rights and an upcoming documentary about the rapper’s part in the scandal. Director Ben Patterson showed some footage from the in-process doc during a secret screening at the Toronto Film Festival in September, reportedly to stunned silence from the audience. Some of the footage was reportedly shot by Michél, who kept his camera rolling during a meeting with Chinese Communist Party official Lijun Sun — who was sentenced to death in 2022 for taking bribes — during that fateful hotel room meeting.
In the end, Michél said he’s been abandoned by publicists, friends and, without naming names, seemingly his former Fugees bandmates LaurynHill and Wyclef Jean. “I’m done with that. They’re going to Europe [to tour]. I can’t go,” he said of the bail conditions that prevent him from leaving the U.S.
“It’s what it is. You can’t give people that kind of energy. So you could be frustrated, you could be disappointed, but I really believe in my path and in my journey, and I believe what’s mine, no one’s going to be able to take it away from me,” he said. “So it’s better that you have a small group of people who really believe in you and believe in what you’re doing than to have 100 people around you, and the minute something happens — boom. People just disappear.”
In the meantime, Michél filed a strongly worded lawsuit against Hill in October, claiming she defrauded him over proceeds from the group’s foreshortened 2023 reunion tour and that her “gross mismanagement” led to the abrupt cancellation of their planned follow-up 2024 tour; Hill responded, calling the lawsuit “baseless” and “full of false claims and unwarranted attacks.”
After a seven-week reign for Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps” on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart, there’s a new No. 1, as GloRilla and Sexyy Red’s “Whatchu Kno About Me” vaults to the top of the Nov. 30-dated list.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity from Nov. 18-24. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
“Whatchu Kno About Me” leads a slew of songs new to the top 10 of the TikTok Billboard Top 50, some of which are chart debuts. The GloRilla and Sexyy Red collaboration has a lengthier history on the tally, ruling in its sixth week after debuting at No. 39 on the Oct. 26 ranking. It had never even been in the top 20 before the latest chart, with its best having been No. 24 on the survey dated Nov. 23.
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So, why now? Though “Whatchu Kno About Me” initially benefited from uploads by high-profile stars such as Taylor Swift, the song’s rapid ascent is thanks to a trend highlighting GloRilla’s “B—h, I’m from Memphis, what you know about me/ Big G-L-O in that GLE” lyric, usually set to lip synchs.
GloRilla earns her first No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, which began in September 2023; among eight appearances, her previous best had been a No. 17 peak with “Hollon” earlier this month. Sexyy Red, meanwhile, has her second ruler, as “SkeeYee” was the ranking’s inaugural No. 1 (though she had found success since, paced by the No. 2 peak of “U My Everything,” with Drake, in June.
Concurrently, “Whatchu Kno About Me” jumps 27% in official U.S. streams to 15.3 million in the week ending Nov. 21, according to Luminate. It leaps 26-17 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100, its first time in the chart’s top 20.
Stepz’s “Rock” makes an even more sizable jump on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, vaulting 43-2 after previously enjoying a best of No. 29 on the Nov. 9 list. “Rock,” which represents Danish rapper Stepz’s first appearance on a U.S.-based Billboard chart, has had a dance challenge attached to it since October (the month it was released).
Though it’s yet to make a chart outside of the TikTok Billboard Top 50, “Rock” has been a steady climber as of late; in the week ending Nov. 21, it earned 1.1 million official U.S. streams, up 4%.
A pair of debuts round out the top four: Gia Margaret’s “Hinoki Wood” enters at No. 3 as her first TikTok Billboard Top 50 appearance, while Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” bows at No. 4.
“Hinoki Wood,” released by singer/pianist Margaret in 2023, is the soundtrack to the “chill guy” trend, with a filter that asks if the creator is a chill guy and asks them to choose between a series of prompts (relationship vs. no relationship, walk vs. run, etc.) before providing its determination. Other times, the “chill guy dog” in question is superimposed into creators’ photos to show how laid back they are.
Meanwhile, “Anaconda,” from Minaj’s 2014 album The Pinkprint, rises concurrent with a 10th-anniversary reissue of the full-length that was released Nov. 22. But its TikTok surge is via the #womeninmalefields trend in which women ask what would happen if they did the same thing a man often does to them in a relationship.
“Hinoki Wood” sports an 82% jump in streams to 310,000 in the week ending Nov. 21, while “Anaconda” is up 16% to 818,000.
Two other songs hit the top 10 for the first time. First there’s The Marias, whose “No One Noticed” soars to No. 6 in its ninth week on the ranking, following a previous peak of No. 28. It benefits from a newly released extended version, with the Spanish-language edition scoring the lion’s share of the engagement.
“No One Noticed,” which is up 111% to 15.5 million official U.S. streams toward the Billboard charts thanks in part to the extended version’s release (including a 68-22 leap on the Hot 100), is mostly used in uploads discussing relationships past and present, more often than not the former.
Then comes NLE Choppa’s “Gang Baby,” which debuts at No. 9 two months after the song’s premiere as part of the rapper’s Slut Szn album in September. Its initial gains on the platform were via a dance challenge that NLE Choppa himself promoted, though a more choreographed dance has taken over in recent weeks.
“Gang Baby” jumps 39% in streams to 4 million in the week ending Nov. 21 and concurrently debuts at No. 42 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
Quavo has some more heat on the way, and he announced a star-studded collaboration paying homage to his home state of Georgia alongside fellow Peach State natives Teddy Swims and Luke Bryan. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Huncho teased “Georgia Ways” on Tuesday (Nov. 26), and the […]
On last year’s For All The Dogs, Drake took to “8 AM in Charlotte” to savor his decade-and-half-long tyranny over the rap game, acknowledging his brute strength and chart supremacy: “Things get kinky after fifteen years of dominance,” he proclaimed. A year later, scarred by defeat against Kendrick Lamar, a beaten and battered Drake isn’t the scary king who once struck fear in the hearts of his opponents. This week, Drake filed two legal actions against UMG for allegedly spiking Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” streams during their lyrical squabble. Though seemingly against UMG, these legal actions have been perceived by The Culture as a desperate attempt to maintain his dominance, which for the first time is now being questioned.
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“Dot said squabble up, not lawyer up,” wrote Charlamagne Tha God on social media. Rapsody echoed those sentiments and tweeted the following on X: “Legal action over losing a rap beef. My my my. Not like us at all. #CultureOverEverything.” “You can’t be a bully, swing on someone, they swing back harder. You attempt to shoot, the guns jam, you prosecute for assault,” added DJ Hed on X, slaying Drake with barbs of his own.
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Business tactics aside, crying foul in a rap beef after you attempted to pin Kendrick’s children onto another man — his business partner and childhood friend, at that — and label him a woman-beater is ludicrous. Drake, a proven mastermind in rap beef, has tangoed with Meek Mill, Pusha T and Kanye and said disparaging things. With him now taking this approach, even if his issues are actually with UMG, is why rap fans are starting to really call it quits with Drake.
From Serena Williams crip-walking at the ESPYs to “Not Like Us” to NBA star DeMar DeRozan jumping on stage during Kendrick’s Pop Out concert and then publicly chewing Drake following a game against his Toronto Raptors, Drizzy’s legacy over the last six months has been riddled with body blows. Though Drake was always at the end of dastardly jokes throughout his storied run, at least he had the charts behind him. After Pusha T nearly decapitated his career with “The Story of Adidion” in 2018, Drake managed to cut through the noise with undeniable hits. His Scorpion era, where he rattled off three Hot 100 No. 1 records — “God’s Plan,” “Nice for What,” and “In My Feelings” — kept his indomitable run intact and, if anything, made him seem like Teflon, even after staring in the eyes of defeat during his tussle with Pusha.
Six years later, things have drastically changed. After “The Heart Pt. 6,” where Drake seemingly denounced the feud with Kendrick, he looked to rebound and operate in a space of normalcy. Unfortunately, things haven’t worked in his favor: Despite handing off features for Camilla Cabello and Gordo, the once highly sought-after Drake Stimulus Package returned with paltry results, with none of the songs reaching the top 40 of the Hot 100.
In hopes of reclaiming the summer, Drake followed with the release of 100 GIGS. The self-release was nostalgic, peeling back the layers on some of Drake’s most treasured moments, including studio sessions from his golden era. Though Drake’s decision to leak his records seemed genuine, a power play was at work, as he was testing the waters, showing UMG that he could be just as formidable on his own, distributing the music on his website and faux Instagram page, Plottttwisttttt.
The three-pack, which included “It’s Up” featuring 21 Savage and Young Thug and the Latto-assisted “Housekeeping Knows,” packed a punch but failed to do damage culturally. Ultimately, UMG grabbed his freebies and released them on streaming services, hoping to salvage whatever streams they could after his move of defiance. Like his features on Cabello and Gordo’s records, none of the songs earned a top 20 slot, with “It’s Up” peaking at No. 24.
Despite the setbacks, Drake seems eager to rally on. He has an album with PARTYNEXTDOOR slated to drop, which he claimed during a Kick stream with Canadian streamer qXc is 75% done. This album, which is highly anticipated by his fans, could be a turning point in his career, as his popularity and power as a rap Goliath are beginning to wane.
Also, if Drake wins any lawsuit against UMG and proves that the streams on “Not Like Us” are illegal, he may change the streaming game forever. For years, it was a running joke that labels paid for streams and that everything was doctored to benefit their pockets. Though Drake may have been the biggest benefactor in this all, with his endless wins on the board, his decision to set his sights on UMG’s practices may reinforce the need to monitor streams even more closely.
Aside from that, Drake will embark on an Australian tour next year, kicking things off the same day Kendrick performs at the Super Bowl. And while Kendrick is enjoying arguably the best year of his career to date, securing seven Grammy nominations, a Super Bowl slot, and most likely another No. 1 album next week with GNX, he has the support of the people behind him. The people made “Not Like Us” a cultural phenomenon, the same way they championed Drake in 2018 with his trio of hits. Fifteen years of dominance isn’t achieved by luck; you need greatness and the people’s faith baked into it. It’s not impossible yet for The Boy to recapture his top spot, but he’ll need God’s plan — or at least another “God’s Plan” — to finish the job.
11/27/2024
Dot repped for the West Coast with this project.
11/27/2024