DJ Akademiks Explains How Drake’s UMG Lawsuit Could Affect His PartyNextDoor Collab Album

Akademiks began by theorizing that Drake and Party’s collaborative album is already done. “Whatever he signs, this will be the first project off of it,” he said. From there, he argued that Drake’s negotiations must have been stalling, but criticized his decision to take legal action so soon after the release of Kendrick Lamar’s new album, GNX. “I still think he should’ve waited two weeks,” he said. “You can’t contribute to anything that Kendrick got going on because if I’m Kendrick’s team, I’m gonna use this too. And I’m gonna milk it.”

Drake filed the “pre-action” petition in Manhattan court on Monday, alleging that UMG and Spotify worked together to artificially boost the popularity of Kendrick Lamar’s viral diss track, “Not Like Us.” He is accusing UMG of using bots and payola to do so. “UMG did not rely on chance, or even ordinary business practices,” lawyers for Drake’s company wrote. “It instead launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves.” They accuse the company of violating the RICO Act as well as using deceptive business practices and false advertising.

Drake has been teasing the release of a collaborative album with PartyNextDoor for months now. Prior to the new lawsuit, it was expected to drop at some point before the end of the year. Check out DJ Akademiks’ stance on Drake’s legal action against UMG and Spotify below.