"Why haven’t we seen the opposite?" — DJ Akademiks responds to Kendrick Lamar song playing during a fan's Drake and PartyNextDoor's album reaction

Media personality DJ Akademiks recently commented on a Drake fan alleging that a streaming service automatically played Kendrick Lamar's songs after he listened to the rapper's new album with PartyNextDoor.

The album, titled $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, was released on February 14, 2025, making this the Canadian rapper's first full-length project following his 2023 album For All The Dogs and the peak of his subsequent rap beef with Lamar.

YouTuber Broderick Jones recently uploaded his full reaction of $ome $exy $ongs 4 U on February 15, 2025. Towards the end of the review, Kendrick Lamar's Alright seemingly started playing after $ome $exy $ongs 4 U played out, which Jones claimed was "crazy." It is unclear which streaming platform Jones used to play the songs.

Following this, Akademiks took to his X profile to call out streaming platforms for allegedly forcing Lamar's songs "inorganically" on their platform using the algorithm, adding:

"Kendrick Lamar song played automatically during this fans new Drake and party next door album reaction. More proof the DSP’s forcing Kendrick with the algorithm to inorganically force his streams Why haven’t we seen the opposite? If Kendrick randomly plays during a Drake album why doesn’t Drake play after GNX?"

For context, Drizzy recently accused Universal Music Group (UMG) of using bots and payola to "artificially inflate" the streaming numbers for Lamar's Grammy-winning track Not Like Us. In January 2025, the Canadian rapper also sued the record label for defamation, accusing the label of releasing Not Like Us, which he claimed wrongfully accused him of being a child predator.

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DJ Akademiks claimed Drake was not giving Kendrick Lamar "any more energy"

Drake and PartyNextDoor's highly-anticipated album, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, was released on February 14, 2025, amid much fanfare. The album made history as the "biggest R&B/soul album" by first-day streams worldwide on Apple Music.

The 21-track album came at the heels of Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime performance on February 9, where he performed Not Like Us and several tracks from his latest album, GNX.

On February 14, fans eagerly waited to see if the 6 God subliminally dissed Lamar following $ome $exy $ongs 4 U's release. In the track Gimme A Hug, the Canadian rapper seemingly alluded to moving on from the rap beef, adding he was in the mood to "get the party lit" with his Valentine's Day album.

"They be droppin' s**t, but we be droppin' harder s**t (Droppin' harder s**t)/ F**k a rap beef, I'm tryna get the party lit/ Tryna get the party lit for the b***hes," he rapped.

Akademiks seemingly co-signed this sentiment during an interview with TMZ Live on February 14, claiming the Canadian rapper told him he didn't have "any more energy" to spare for Lamar in his new album.

"I spoke to Drake and shoot, after watching Kendrick's performance that felt so obsessed with Drake at the Super Bowl, I actually asked him. I said 'hey bro, I hope this album is not gonna be completely obsessed with this guy.' And he actually told me directly, he said 'hey listen, I'm not giving him any more energy,'" Akademiks said to TMZ Live.

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In other news, Drake's legal battle against UMG is ongoing at the time of this article. Kendrick Lamar mentioned the suit during his Super Bowl performance.

While the rapper moved on to another song after that line, he returned to the diss track, performing it as the penultimate song during his 13-minute set.