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Podcaster and live streamer DJ Akademiks recently alleged that Kendrick Lamar’s diss track aimed at Drake, Not Like Us, was “added” to 105 botted playlists to compete with his Canadian rap rival. On February 17, Akademiks took to the social networking site X to share through his account @AkademiksTV:
“Fans discover Kendrick Lamar label has added ‘Not Like Us’ to 105 botted playlists and ‘Luther’ to 35 botted playlists to compete with Drake. Compared to ‘Nokia’ which has zero botted playlisting.”
The post included a screenshot of Spotify’s artist.tools page comparing K-Dot’s Not Like Us and Luther (featuring SZA) with Drake’s Nokia. The first two showed 105 and 35 botted playlists, respectively, while the third showed none.
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The authenticity of Akademiks’ claim remains unverified. According to Venture Music, a “botted playlist” refers to a playlist on music streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and SoundCloud, where the majority of listens are generated by automated “bots” or software programs. This leads to an artificial inflation of the number of streams on a song, with actual listeners engaging with it.
More about botted playlist in wake of DJ Akademiks’ claim about Kendrick’s songs
According to Digital Music News, a botted playlist is a fake playlist designed to make a song appear more popular than it actually is. It utilizes bots or software programs to control individual accounts on music streaming platforms, playing the same songs or playlists repeatedly on a loop.
While a botted playlist may not involve real listeners, it often employs a company that recruits or incentivizes people to stream a playlist on repeat, often using gift coupons, cards, vouchers, or other kinds of rewards. However, these streams are generated purely to increase the number of listeners and not for actual listening purposes.
As stated by the outlet, botted playlists can disrupt the data or algorithms on music streaming platforms. When detected, they often lead to the banning of a song. In other words, a botted playlist is synonymous with streaming fraud and is used by certain pay-to-play services.
A botted playlist can be identified by a sudden and dramatic spike in streams for no apparent reason or if the song appears on any playlist other than its original one.
Some other ways to locate such playlists include looking for playlists with no proper branding such as missing or bad cover/profile artwork, a mysterious or unusual user profile, a lack of a proper online presence (like a dedicated social media account or website), odd follower names, featuring lesser-known artists, and random songs that don’t fit the theme/genre, among others.
DJ Akademiks has previously made botted playlist claim about Kendrick’s Not Like Us
During the 2024 rap battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, the former released Not Like Us in May. The song debuted simultaneously at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, Global 200, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and Streaming Song charts.
Additionally, the track set a record for the highest single-day streams for a hip-hop song in Spotify's history, with over 12.8 million streams. In light of this, in mid-June, DJ Akademiks had an unnamed guest on his show who alleged that Kendrick’s manager, Anthony Saleh, paid him to use bots and boost the streams of Not Like Us.
The guest further claimed that K-Dot’s team threatened his life for exposing them and that they also didn’t pay him in full. The following month, during one of his live streams, Akademiks shared that his Spotify contact denied the allegations.
“I talked to my man from Spotify. I won’t say his name right now. He said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna be honest with you. I don’t know what that person on your stream is talking about, them Kendrick streams is real,” DJ Akademiks said.
Following this, Akademiks faced backlash. However, he responded by doubling down on his claims, stating,
“No DSP (Digital Service Provider) will ever Admit they counted or have counted FAKE STREAMS.”
The podcaster added that, in most cases, the DSPs “DO NOT detect” when streams are botted or faked. He said that even if they detect them, they are “definitely not announced,” especially for established artists. Representatives of Kendrick Lamar never addressed the claims.
The music video for Not Like Us was released in July 2024 and garnered over 37 million views in less than 72 hours.
