Drake’s label situation has been the subject of speculation for at least four years now, since the surprise release of his mixtape-album If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late in February 2015. And what’s become abundantly clear, both in the streaming era and with the exclusive deals he made with Apple Music surrounding the releases of Views and More Life, is that an artist of Drake’s stature doesn’t really even need a record label in the traditional sense.
Given how Drake has played around with the concept of what actually constitutes an album — both IYRTITL and 2015’s Future collab What A Time To Be Alive were considered “mixtapes”; More Life was memorably called a “playlist” — speculation regarding how different releases affect his label contract in different ways has never truly gone away.
All of which provides the background as to why those conversations have erupted again after the release of his double album, Scorpion, today (June 29). On “Is There More,” the final track on Side A, Drake raps, “Soon as this album drop I’m out of the deal,” which immediately caught listeners’ ears, kicking up conversations about whether he had now fulfilled his obligations to Young Money/Cash Money and was now a free agent. It’s unclear if that’s the case; a rep for Republic, YMCMB’s longtime distributor, declined to comment.
Some of this appeared to come up during Lil Wayne’s lawsuit against Cash Money Records that he had filed in 2016, in which Wayne claimed he was owed millions in royalties from records by Drake, Nicki Minaj and Tyga, all of whom he’d signed to Young Money, his joint venture with Birdman’s Cash Money. That lawsuit claimed that YM’s original deal with CM, which had been extended several times, had expired in mid-2015, yet business seemed to continue on as usual. There’s also no indication that the status had changed following the resolution of Wayne’s lawsuit earlier in June, which resulted in a settlement believed to be around $10 million.
Since signing with YMCMB in 2009, Drake has released four full-length albums (Thank Me Later, Take Care, Nothing Was The Same and Views) and one double-album (Scorpion); two commercial mixtapes (IYRTITL and WATTBA, the latter released jointly with Epic); and one “playlist” album, More Life; for a total of nine commercial releases, if Scorpion is counted twice.
Unrelated to his own music, Drake also has his own label, OVO Sound, which is distributed through Warner Music Group and to which he has signed artists like PARTYNEXTDOOR, dvsn and Majid Jordan. If his solo deal is indeed up, it would make sense for him to begin releasing music under his own imprint, though, again, it would seem slightly unnecessary for him to operate under the purview of a major label anymore, at least in the near future. Given his past history with Apple Music, would a direct deal — a la those that Spotify has been offering, as Billboard reported — with a streaming service be more likely?
What a time.
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