Taylor Swift Accused Of Using 'Tricks' To Beat Out Drake For Billboard Top Spot — And He’s Not Happy About It
Drake's post was kind of petty...
Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock Within the span of a couple of weeks, fans were blessed with back-to-back albums from two of the largest names in music industry history — pop-rap mega-star, Drake, and pop icon, Taylor Swift.
When Swift’s newest album, "Midnights," was released on October 21, 2022, it secured all 10 songs on Billboard’s Top 10 list, breaking Drake’s previous record of nine.
Just under two weeks later, Drake released "Her Loss" on November 4, 2022, and was hoping to at least reach number one on the list and match his previous record.
After failing to reach his goal, fans theorized that Swift may have edged him out of the top spot on purpose and were galvanized when Drake made a subtle post about it on Instagram.
RELATED: Backlash Towards Taylor Swift's 'Anti-Hero' Music Video Is Missing The Point
Drake threw shade at Taylor Swift in his post about the Billboard Top 10.
Drake captioned the Instagram story “@21savage congrats my brother” and showed off his eight spots on the Billboard Top 10 — snubbed by Swift’s “Anti-Hero” in the top spot and Sam Smith’s “Unholy” with Kim Petras at number 10.
Where Swift’s #1 is supposed to be, he placed an assortment of different emojis to block out her name and the title of the song — in order to stave attention away from her.
Smith’s place at number 10 was left alone, furthering the evidence that Drake did it intentionally.
Earlier this year in April, it seemed like Drake and Swift were good friends and were even hinting at a collaboration after the “Hotline Bling” singer posted a photo of the two together.
Now, however, the landscape was changing as fans smelled a feud brewing on the horizon.
Almost immediately, fans took to Twitter to talk about Drake’s jab at Swift and all hell broke loose between the Swifties and Drake stans.
People called Drake “petty” for his post and went as far as to label it “misogynistic” of him to refuse to give her any credit.
Now, however, Swift fans are criticizing Drake for deciding to release an album just two weeks after hers, and Drake fans are criticizing Swift for kicking him out of the top spot on purpose.
Drake fans theorized that Taylor Swift’s third consecutive #1 spot wasn’t achieved organically.
The second week after "Midnights" was released, many of her Top 10 songs had dropped down, but “Anti-Hero” remained number one for the second week in a row.
By this time, Drake’s album had already been released but was still too new to break into the list, so his November 4th album would have to wait.
Drake fans believe that Swift saw this coming — that her number-one spot was being threatened by Drake’s release, and so she decided to rush her release of the “Anti-Hero (Remixes).”
Vinylz, the producer of "Her Loss" hinted that Swift used a cunning tactic to beat out Drake and 21 Savage.
“The world knows what the real #1 song is.. No tricks on this side,” he wrote in an Instagram caption showing Drake's single in the top spot on Billboard's Global 200 chart.
The “Anti-Hero” remixes were a release of five songs (including the original) that fans believe Swift used to artificially generate more hype and plays for the original song.
This artificial boost, Drake fans believe, was just enough to take “Rich Flex” out of the number one spot in order to land “Anti-Hero” its third consecutive week at the top.
However, if this was Swift's tactic, it can be chalked up to a simple marketing strategy — don't hate the player, hate the game, Drake.
Swift has yet to respond to the controversy.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.