Thread by @realalmightee

Theory - Why Drake may own a % of Kendrick’s & other artist’s publishing: (THREAD)

Fans have started speculating & are trying to put the pieces together…

Joe Budden Podcast sparked a theory the other day that Drake may own a portion Gamma Music Company, and gets splits from the artists signed to them

Besides Gamma, it’s also plausible Drake gets splits from UMG artists

Here’s some reasons as to why these could be true ⬇️

First, let’s take a look at the artists beefing with Drake and who they’re signed to:

Rick Ross - MMG (Gamma)
NAV - Republic (UMG)
Weeknd - Republic (UMG)
Metro - Republic (UMG)
Kendrick - Interscope (UMG)
A$AP - RCA Records (Sony)
Future - Epic Records (Sony)

Now let’s start with Gamma, owned by Larry Jackson

Budden says while forming Gamma, Larry told him his plan: to find the “Avengers” and create a content mega house

Drake is speculated to be the “Nick Fury” of this Avengers, in that he’s the one getting shit moving & happening

Keep in mind Larry Jackson has known Drake since he worked at Apple before forming Gamma

Drake, Apple & Larry have been good friends for years, with Drake even having an Apple Music deal

If Larry was going to pick anyone to be his “Nick Fury”, Drake makes perfect sense

Here’s the list of Gamma artists. Funny enough, multiple of these are people who Drake has recently collabed & surrounds himself with (Sexyy Red, 4batz, etc.)

Budden also called Larry Jackson during his podcast, and Larry commented that he “thought the cease & desist was funny”

On top of that, Ross partnered with Gamma in Sep. 2023. His collab album with Meek released a month later

Drake hardly promotes his own music on socials, let alone his peers. But he did post this album on his IG stories 👀

Meek even said Drake was “supposed to be featured”

Besides that, Drake has also made it evident in various lyrics throughout the years that he has ownership / partial ownership over some of these artists

He also sounded very confident in his recent diss track, focusing heavily on contracts

“Drop & give ME 50”

Now let’s focus on UMG

In 2022, Drake inked a huge $400mil+ deal directly with UMG, who owns Interscope (Kendrick’s label). It’s stated as “one of the biggest deals in history”.

Michael Jackson previously held the record for the largest music deal, his being $250mil from Sony.

Keeping the topic of MJ, we obviously know Drake compares himself to the pop king often

Michael Jackson also had ownership over various artists catalogs

Gamma & UMG are the owners of Republic, Interscope, MMG, & various other subsidiary companies

The Weeknd, Rick Ross, NAV, Metro Boomin, & Kendrick Lamar are all signed under these companies

Could this be why they’re all mad at him? Is Drake getting a piece of everyone’s pie?

The full details of Drakes UMG deal were never released, but given that it’s “the biggest music deal ever” it could be possible Drake received more than just money

*Just to re-clarify, this is all speculation*

If you made it this far, I love you 🫶 lmk your takes on this‼️