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International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
Entertainment
Adrienne Martinez

Several Rappers and Artists Hacked as Drake's YouTube Channel Streams Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us': Details

Drake's YouTube Channel among rappers and artists who were hacked (Credit: Drake/Instagram/@champagnepapi)

Drake's official YouTube channel briefly appeared to stream Kendrick Lamar's Grammy-winning diss track 'Not Like Us' after a wave of unauthorised uploads affected several major artists across YouTube and Apple Music, prompting widespread discussion across social media.

The incident extended far beyond Drake. Fans spotted leaked songs, unreleased albums and promotional posts directing viewers to Discord servers on official artist pages belonging to Playboi Carti, Ye, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, Michael Jackson, D4vd, Ken Carson and several others.

The coordinated uploads led many online to speculate that multiple digital music distribution systems had been compromised.

Drake's Channel Becomes the Biggest Talking Point

Among all the affected artists, Drake's account drew the most attention because the unauthorised upload featured Lamar's 'Not Like Us' alongside an Instagram plug for '@PAYPHOBIA'.

The song became the defining track of Drake and Lamar's highly publicised 2024 feud, making its appearance on Drake's verified YouTube channel particularly striking.

The rivalry escalated through a series of back-and-forth diss tracks before Lamar released 'Not Like Us', which topped charts, dominated social media and won five Grammy Awards.

The upload initially left fans wondering whether it was intentional before it was identified as unauthorised. Additional leaked music and promotional content also appeared on Drake's page before being removed.

Multiple Artists Reportedly Affected

Similar activity appeared across numerous high-profile artist accounts, suggesting a broader compromise of digital music distribution systems.

Playboi Carti's YouTube page reportedly featured an unreleased album alongside more than 20 leaked tracks, making it one of the most extensive incidents. Lamar's channel briefly displayed the unreleased songs 'Prayer' and 'I'm Better' alongside promotions for a Discord server.

Could somebody explain to me what the heck is going on with Kendrick’s page? Is it hacked?
by u/Whole-Lychee7517 in KendrickLamar

Ye's account allegedly received an unauthorised upload of the track 'HH' alongside a video titled 'Mama's Boyfriend' featuring unrelated audio.

D4vd's Apple Music profile also displayed the unreleased tracks 'I DID IT', 'I'm Sorry, I Love You Celeste' and 'I'll See You in Hell, Celeste'.

Frank Ocean, Michael Jackson, Ken Carson, Quadeca, Juice WRLD, Future, Travis Scott and The Weeknd were also reportedly affected, with several pages promoting the Instagram account '@Babywutswrong'.

I think Frank's YouTube Music profile got hacked lol
by u/Charming_Tiger_3137 in FrankOcean

Music commentator Spectre compiled a running list of affected artists on X, linking the widespread uploads and Discord promotions to the same group.

Fans React to the Widespread Disruption

The incident quickly became a trending topic on X and Reddit, where users tracked the unauthorised uploads in real time.

One viral post on X read: 'kanye west, kendrick lamar, drake, and playboi carti youtube accounts r getting hacked rn wtf is happening'.

Others responded with humour. One user wrote, 'All these rappers got the same password bro, istg,' while another joked: 'This might get you a Grammy Drake.'

Distribution Exploit Claims Emerge

Although the incident was widely described as a mass hacking campaign, some observers argued the uploads were more likely caused by vulnerabilities in digital music distribution services than direct compromises of individual YouTube accounts.

One widely shared post claimed: 'I would not call them hackers, they just used a terrible paid distributor service with barely no moderation at all (@OffStepMusic in this case) to distribute these songs with their name to YouTube Music. Because if it was on Spotify or Apple Music it would be taken down instantly.'

At the time of writing, YouTube and most affected artists had not publicly explained how the unauthorised uploads appeared on their official pages.

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