Death Row Legacy Vs. Streaming Scam: RBX Lawsuit Against Spotify Exposes Drake’s Alleged ‘Padded’ Path to the Top

Recording artist RBX, who was once in Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment and Death Row Records camp, has sued streaming platform Spotify, accusing the company of benefitting from “billions of fraudulent streams” attributed to Canadian rapper Drake.

According to Pitchfork, the paperwork was filed as a class-action lawsuit (RBX is listed as the lead plaintiff) claiming that the company turned a blind eye to the manipulation of bots that artificially drive streams, thereby depriving other artists of revenue under the current business model. Due to artificially inflated numbers, those other artists do not receive their proportional share of Spotify’s royalty pool, as their share is reduced.

Attorney Mark Pifko, who is representing RBX, said in a written statement, “Not everyone who makes a living in the music business is a household name like Taylor Swift—there are thousands of songwriters, performers, and producers who earn revenue from music streaming who you’ve never heard of. These people are the backbone of the music business, and this case is about them.”

The lawsuit does not target Drake; Spotify is the only defendant named.

Filed Nov. 2 in a California federal court, the alleged bot-driven streaming fraud “causes massive financial harm to legitimate artists” and other rights-holders, as Drake’s streaming numbers were used as an example of widespread streaming fraud.

In the lawsuit, it alleges that a “non-trivial percentage” of Drake’s 37 billion streams appeared to be the work of a sprawling network of “Bot Accounts.” They state that the evidence shows “abnormal VPN usage” in short time spans with high streaming volume. An example given stated that during a period in 2024, 250,000 streams of Drake’s “No Face” registered in the United Kingdom were geo-mapped back to Turkey.

“If these streams are not legitimate, then Drake received royalties that Spotify should have paid out to other artists. They estimate that the cost of “the fraudulent boosting of Drake’s music is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.” Spotify has little incentive to crack down on fake streams because bot accounts boost user figures and help them sell ads.

Spotify responded by saying that the streaming service “in no way benefits from the industry-wide challenge of artificial streaming.”