Who is Anthony Saleh? Kendrick Lamar's manager allegedly paid underage botter to boost the rapper's streams

On June 17, an underage botter who goes by the nickname Epic alleged that Kendrick Lamar’s manager Anthony Saleh paid him to boost the rapper’s streaming numbers and sales. The claim was made on DJ Akademiks’ show.

The guest told the internet personality that Saleh asked him to inflate the streams for K-Dot’s number one latest single, Not Like Us, and reportedly showed DJ Akademiks how he did it.

“I’m crashing out. This is for my safety. This is how I feel… [Saleh] is who paid me… I wasn’t in direct contact with him, that’s just the name that was on the account I got paid by,” Epic noted.

He further continued by saying how he has “payment proof” and would “DM” Akademiks as long as he did not “expose” it online. The young botter also mentioned that Kendrick Lamar’s manager asked him to do “30 million [streams] early.”

Epic also claimed that he did not receive full payment, and when he threatened to expose them, he was reportedly threatened back by the rapper's team, led by Saleh.

The underaged botter alleged during DJ Akademiks' stream that he also boosted streams for other artists, namely the Twitch influencer Adin Ross.

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Kendrick Lamar’s manager has also worked with Nas and Future

Anthony Saleh is an entrepreneur, music manager, business investor, and record executive, better known as a close associate of Kendrick Lamar and his music and visual media production company, pgLang. Reportedly, the former became officially linked with K-Dot only 10 weeks before he unveiled his latest LP, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

He is also the co-lead of WndrCo seed funds with ChenLi and the general partner of WndrCo Growth. He has also been a part of WndrCo Investments, which funds companies including Robinhood, Dapper Labs, MixCloud, Community, Statespace Labs, 100 Thieves, and more.

Anthony Saleh is also the co-founder and CEO of Emagen Entertainment Group, which has managed hip-hop artists including Nas, Future, Col3trane, Devault, as well as singer Alina Baraz. He even assisted Future on his Future & Hndrxx venture and was a silent partner of Nas, helping him to manage his finances and executive produce his songs.

Previously, Saleh served as the co-founder and partner of Queensbridge Venture Partners with Nas, where he built and managed a $20 to $40 million fund that invested in leading tech startups.

Besides, he has served as the executive vice president at C3 Presents and Atom Factory’s talent management and production divisions for two years and oversaw the careers of Nicki Minaj, Robin Thicke, Toni Braxton, and Lady Gaga, among others.

Anthony Saleh also co-owns a Nevada-based apparel line called 12amRun with artists Nas, Nick Sakai, and Dee Murthy. The Kendrick Lamar associate has been featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Music, Billboard’s 100 Most Powerful People in Music, Billboard’s 30 Under 30, and the Levo 100 Entrepreneur charts.

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Notably, even before the botter Epic made his recent claims about Anthony Saleh, Canadian rapper Drake posted images of Anthony Saleh on his social media in late April, using captions like, “Is today the day?” and “Are we getting in our bag or nah??”

He was seemingly trying to lure Kendrick Lamar to come up with a response to his previous diss numbers, Push Ups and Taylor Free Lifestyle, by attempting to troll his associate Saleh.

Later, in his May 2024 Kendrick Lamar diss track Family Matters, Drizzy dropped the name Anthony.

“Anthony set up the plays, Kojo be chargin’ you double for nothin’/ They shook about what I’ma say, but textin’ your phone like, ‘We already won,’” Drake rapped.

However, it remains unclear whether he referred to Anthony Saleh or Kendrick Lamar’s former manager, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith.