Drake's go-to producer called out Spotify after the streaming service shared that the rapper is the most-streamed artist in the service's history.
To celebrate their 10-year anniversary, Spotify released data about their most-streamed artists, albums and songs, breaking it down by year and also giving all-time rankings. Drake was at or near the top of most of these lists and it pushed Noah "40" Shebib, as the architect of many of Drake's hits, to speak out on what he saw as unfair compensation for producers.
"Sick, now tell Spotify to pay producers their publishing at a full rate," he commented on an Instagram post from The Faderabout Drake's accomplishment. "Their [sic] still trolling the people that make the music. This is why anyone who does a secret genius billboard is actually getting played. They give you a billboard but owe you real money with no intentions of paying it."
Drake and 40's partnership has been an incredible boon for Spotify. The rapper's most-recent album Scorpion broke the U.S. record for most streams in a single week. Drake notched five songs on Spotify's recent rundown of the biggest global hits of the summer, with "In My Feelings" taking the top spot with over 393 million streams between June 1 and Aug. 20.
And it's not like Spotify isn't aware that it needs to keep Drake and his crew happy. They pushed Drake's new album so much that users started demanding refunds from the service. So, for 40 to feel like he's being shafted is significant.
40 isn't the first A-level artist to speak out against the way Spotify treats creators. Nicki Minaj blasted the service recently, saying that they intentionally downplayed her album Queen to "teach [her] a lesson."
