Was This The Biggest Music Industry Hack In Years?

Over the course of July 26th and 27th, several high-profile rappers had their Apple and YouTube Music hacked. Kendrick Lamar, Drake and Playboi Carti were among the most notable names involved. The group of hackers used music distributor OffStepMusic to publish unreleased songs to official pages while promoting their own Instagram and Discord.

Due to the nature of the hacks, Kendrick and Drake were the main talking point. On Drake's page a song titled 'Kendrick A Meenie' was released, giving the internet more ammunition to unload on Drake. It went further for Drake however as Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us' was also published on his page. One of the most influential rap songs of the 21st Century, a song that was aimed directly at Drake. As for Kendrick Lamar, Drake's 'Family Matters' was shared on his page, the song was a direct diss at Kendrick during their 2024 feud. The irony was not lost.

Playboi Carti and Ken Carson were also hit fairly hard with the leaks. Carti had over twenty unreleased songs leaked, something he is no stranger to but will have angered him nonetheless. Ken Carson also had multiple songs leaked which were likely to be a part of his upcoming project 'Cartunez'. The project was originally set to release on July 10 before being pushed back to the last day of the month. One Instagram user commented 'We prolly never gonna get Cartunez' under a post discussing the leaks.

Ye's controversial song 'HH' was also briefly re-released and so was Central Cee's highly anticipated 'Sea Bass'. Leaks in the music industry are not uncommon and can come from many directions. Lil Mosey recently revealed on Zias and Blou's platform that one of his close friends had been leaking his unreleased music. However, leaks on the scale of the one we witnessed on Sunday evening and the dawn of Monday morning are not standard.

There has been a limited response from the respective camps as of writing.