DJ Akademiks always has updates and insights when it comes to Drake, whether it's talking about his spending habits or his supposed dynamics with other rappers. But on the One Night with Steiny program, he dropped a claim about the Toronto superstar's next career moves that he wanted to clarify after the fact.
Ak's claims relate to the OVO mogul's next record deal, as his reportedly $400 million contract with UMG is allegedly up. This comes amid his defamation appeal against the major label, a massive 2026 with multiple new albums, and a lot of other factors and narratives at play.
"Drake is at the precipice, and I can definitely say this is definitely official. And I think everybody has speculated or even reported on it accurately," Akademiks told Steiny. "He's at the precipice of being in a new deal. He's just completed a very lucrative, reportedly $400 million [deal], with Universal Music Group. And he's about to be out of it. Before he dropped these three projects, specifically ICEMAN – no, [he didn't owe them three albums], he owed them one. However, it was a strategy of his, though. It was a lot more to it... He's said to receive probably the biggest record deal [in] history on the books, in terms of what they would have to pay him as an advance."
Drake's Next Record Deal
After the clip made the rounds on social media, DJ Akademiks took to his livestream to clarify a few things. This isn't an announcement that Drizzy will sign a new deal imminently, but rather just a preview of what the stakes look like.
"I like to hold myself accountable with the words I use and make sure I'm saying the right thing," he remarked, as caught by HIPHOP media.com on Twitter. "This was not an announcement that Drake signed a new deal. This was me explaining to Steiny that, pretty much, his deal is up. Now, I don't know what Drake is going to do. However, it still remains true that would be the biggest deal in hip-hop history if he does resign."
Although Akademiks did not explicitly name UMG regarding a new deal, his final words in the livestream clip suggest there's a chance the 6ix God could resign with the label he claims defamed him by dropping the "Not Like Us" diss track by Kendrick Lamar. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
