DJ Akademiks defends Drake in the UMG battle for Kendrick's diss song

TV personality DJ Akademiks defended Canadian rapper Aubrey Drake Graham in an X post on April 5, 2025. He commented on a video by TikTok user @loosenecka19, who reacted to a netizen’s remark about Graham winning the rap beef. Akademiks wrote:

“Drake has been in 3 public beefs and in both Pusha T and Meek Mill beefs there was no label involvement. The reason why there’s a lawsuit with UMG is because the label got involved in promoting Kendrick’s smear campaign to defame him with ped*phile allegations. It’s that simple.”

The TikTok user responded to a comment saying the rapper wouldn’t be facing backlash if he had won the rap battle. He broke down Graham’s past feuds, starting with Pusha T. The user explained that Pusha had been throwing shots at Lil Wayne and Cash Money for years, and on his album Daytona, he included a track that also targeted the Nokia singer.

Graham fired back with his response, but Pusha countered with The Story of Adidon, revealing personal details about Drake's life. The TikToker explained that during the feud between them, Graham didn’t take legal action.

Instead, he accepted the outcome, released Scorpion, and the album broke records. The user added that he felt Pusha T went harder on Graham than Kendrick Lamar did.

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What did “@loosenecka19” say about Drake’s beef with Meek Mill?

The TikToker said that after Meek Mill accused the Canadian rapper of using ghostwriters and leaked reference tracks, Graham first dropped Charged Up and followed it with Back to Back, which became a hit diss track.

While the label wanted to heavily promote Back to Back, even pushing for a Grammy nomination and including it on Drake’s next album, the rapper himself wasn’t comfortable with that.

He didn’t want the song to become a big commercial moment. The TikTok user noted that a year later, he stopped performing it and later shared in an interview that he was bothered by the Recording Academy wanting to give it a Grammy nod. Additionally, @loosenecka19 said:

“So, the reason I brought up the Pusha T and Meek Mill battles was to show that Drake had already, before battling Kendrick Lamar, he had already been on both sides. He had been on the losing side with Pusha T and he had been on the winning side with Meek Mill.”

The TikToker explained that when Graham clashed with Pusha T and things didn’t go in his favor, he didn’t take legal action because it was just two artists exchanging diss tracks with no involvement from their labels. He accepted the outcome and moved on.

However, when he came out on top in the battle with Meek Mill, the label wanted to turn his diss into a commercial hit, pushing it heavily. Graham wasn’t okay with that because he felt diss tracks should stay within the realm of competition, not be treated like regular hit singles.

The TikToker compared this to how Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us was backed by his label, saying that’s the kind of push Drake never wanted for his diss tracks.