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Did Kendrick Stop the Drake/PND Album Rollout?

Did Kendrick Stop the Drake/PND Album Rollout?

Plus, Lil Durk's trial gets a major setback.

January 03, 2025

LeBron James actually knew the words for once and was caught rapping K. Dot’s “man at the garden” at his 40th birthday party. In other news:

Drake’s next album delay already has a conspiracy theory 😬
Lil Durk gets updates in his upcoming trial 👀
New Music Friday releases 💿️
Industry Insights 📈

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New Year, New Drake Conspiracies About His Next Album

There isn’t a rapper hoping for a “Happy New Year” more than Champagne Papi. He went through an eventful 2024, to say the least, after trying to (literally) size up Kendrick Lamar, only to get stomped out multiple times.

Understandably, Drake couldn’t take it anymore. He tried to “Karen” his way out of the rap beef and filed legal action over “Not Like Us” against UMG and Spotify. It seemed like the world was conspiring against the leading force in hip-hop and 2025 is no different, with a new conspiracy emerging about what’s holding up his next album.

Where is the collab album?

Controversial streamer Adin Ross and the rapper joined forces to host a DRIZZMAS live stream on December 26, where gifts included a year’s worth of rent, luxury cars, and even a trip to Australia to see Drake perform at his Anita Max Wynn Tour. However, Ross also had plenty of time to call “Unc” out during the stream.

“I’m waiting for you and [PartyNextDoor] to drop that album … You said it was going to drop three weeks ago. You lied to me,” Ross said.

Drake reassured fans that the album was coming, but the damage was already done. According to Ross' estimate, the album was expected to drop on November 22 (AKA the same day K. Dot surprised us with GNX).

YouTuber Poetik Flakko decided to add gallons of fuel to the blazing fire online and stated that he already suspected Kendrick was the reason for the delay (according to them, it was supposed to drop four weeks ago instead of three).

“ … Drake was working with the label trying to figure out how they could roll out this Party album they got. He wanted to drop on November 22; however, there are some things they obviously had to work through. So while Drake is telling people like Adin Ross that ‘Yo, we might drop on November 22’ … The label behind the scenes is feeding Kendrick that Drake is dropping on November 22,” he said.

From there, Kendrick had an opportunity to strike.

“Kendrick Lamar at this moment feels that he has the culture by their balls, so he can essentially outsell Drake or at the very least, UMG is going to make sure that he outsells Drake,” he theorized.

Neither party has responded to the YouTuber’s claims, but it’s obvious that the two have been going “BAND4BAND” in pettiness for months now. If there’s any truth to these conspiracies, Drake’s hairline might not make it until 2026.

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Lil Durk’s Trial Has A Major Delay

On October 24, Lil Durk was arrested on federal charges, stating that he paid for the 2022 revenge murder of rapper Quando Rondo for his longtime friend, King Von. On November 14, he officially entered his “not guilty” plea on all three charges for firearms, conspiracy, and murder-for-hire. However, the case has gotten even more chaotic since he filed his response.

In December, the rapper was linked to a second murder-for-hire plot against Stephon Mack (allegedly the leader of a faction of the Gangster Disciples called Smashville and potentially connected to Lil Durk’s brother’s 2021 murder). Despite all the new updates, it now looks like Durk will have to wait a while for his day in court.

There has been a significant pushback

On New Year’s Eve, the rapper’s team agreed to push the proceedings to October 14 instead of their original date of January 7. Court documents revealed that the government is putting together a discovery including “approximately 230 GB of digital evidence” and about “20,000 pages of reports concerning murder and other violent acts, photographs, witness statements, and medical documents.”

The prosecutors also stated that due to the number of defendants involved, it was “unreasonable to expect adequate preparation for pretrial proceedings or for the trial itself.”

Not everyone is pleased with this update. Durk’s co-defendant, Asa “Boogie” Houston, who was supposed to appear in court on January 14, is pushing back. Meanwhile, Deandre Dontrell Wilson (one of the five OTF members arrested in October) is seeking a “pre-plea sentence report” (which gives the “court important background information about the defendant, in order to provide context for his case so that a fair and appropriate sentence may be ordered by the court…”).

Durk was denied bond in December after his attorneys offered $2.3 million in house equity, $1 million in cash from Sony Music, and for him to be under 24-hour surveillance.

Judge Patricia Donahue said there wasn’t a way to “reasonably assure the safety of the community” and that the rapper had “a significant amount of control over others.”

Despite his legal issues, his delayed album Deep Thoughts is expected to drop on January 31, and fans are hoping and praying that the rapper can make it back outside.

Will ‘Deep Thoughts’ be a banger?