Drake's label status has been a mystery for some time.
Scorpion was thought to be his last album on his Cash Money deal, which would make his next album, likely to drop this summer, his first on his new deal.
Record exec and manager Steve Stoute and rapper Russ speculated on what would happen if Drake decided to take things totally indie during a virtual SelectCon conference on Friday.
"You think that if Drake right now, completely independent … if Drake posts a picture on the ‘Gram of his new album, link in bio — f–k a link in bio, “new album out” — and he was fully independent, Drake will make $10 million a week for f–ing 60 weeks," Russ explained
Stoute then interjected: “I said this before, Drake is about to come out in the next six months, Drake is about to get the biggest bag in the history of the music business by far. Both A and B, they don’t want that to happen. Because the day that happens, they might as well close the business down.”
Russ made a point to say if Drake should go, “It’ll f–k the whole shit up.”
Stoute seconded: “If Drake goes independent, the music business is over. If Drake goes independent, the music business is done.”
Russ then did the math out loud: “Drake uploads ‘God’s Plan’ on a digital distributor so whatever money it is: less than $10 dollars, right? Fine, pay for the beat — $10K, $20K, $30K, $40k, whatever the f–k it is — and to get mixed: four racks. So you’re all, $50K tops. That song, you owning it forever and getting paid weekly on it, you’re making a million dollars a week off that song. It’s different. If Drake goes independent, this whole industry gets turned upside down. That’s why I’m independent, putting out music independently. I’ma f–k this whole industry up.”
Do you think Drake can and will bring down the industry?