It seems Drake can’t catch a break. After Kendrick Lamar received five Grammy’s for his Drake diss track and went on to have the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show of all time — which also happened to feature Drake’s ex, Serena Williams — fans were eager to see how the Canadian rapper would take his rival's back-to-back successes. Despite the drama, Drake and fellow Canadian singer, PartyNextDoor, released their joint album on Valentine's Day, titled $ome $exy $ongs 4 U. But before the album even dropped, fans were calling out the duo for ripping off the title and artwork of famous American rapper Freddie Gibbs, who took to X to call out the Canadian artists for their perceived plagiarism.
The accusations started circulating on Thursday when the artists revealed the track list for $ome $exy $ongs 4 U ($$$4U). Rap fans were quick to call out the album’s distinct use of $$$ was similar to American rapper Freddie Gibbs’ 2022 album, $oul $old $eparately. While some fans dismissed the comparison as a stretch to maximise drama, others pointed out another comparison to Gibbs on the released track list. The graphic artwork for $$$4U features three cartoon rabbits, each with different images in their eyes, including dollar signs, flaming earbuds, and red hearts.
Rabbits are Gibbs’ unofficial mascot. The rapper has called himself “the rabbit” for years and features rabbit references in his records Big Boss Rabbit, Space Rabbit, and on the $oul $old $eparately album cover. Like many fans, Gibbs did not take the similarities as a coincidence and took to X to address the speculation, posting: “Damn they even stole the rabbits too. I’m flattered.”. Gibbs continued to stoke poaching rumours by reposting accusatory messages like: “I forgot Freddie Gibbs be using the bunny with dollar signs a lot for his stuff. Yeah, Drake and PND just straight up copied that lmfao”.
Neither Drake or PartyNextDoor have commented publicly on the allegations. The Mirror has reached out to Drake, PartyNextDoor and Freddie Gibbs' representatives for comment. The $$$4U album dropped at 12am EST on Friday, February 14th, marking a Valentine’s day debut for the R&B-focused record. The album features 21 tracks and was produced by OVO Sound, Santa Anna and Republic Records. This past week, he also gave attendees at one of his Australian concerts a prologue to the album, saying: “It’s called $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, but it’s some turned up songs for you on there too.”.
He went on to say, “And there’s some personal feelings on there for you. So hopefully whoever you’re with on Valentine’s Day, hopefully y’all can share that experience together.”. Currently touring in Australia and New Zealand as part of his Anita Max Win Tour, Drake made a subtle reference to his ongoing feuds. During his Monday night performance in Melbourne, the rapper changed the lyrics to his song Knife Talk from: "Beef is live, spoiler alert, this n***a dies" to “Beef is live, spoiler alert, I never died.”.
