For Drake and 21 Savage, Her Loss could soon be their loss, with news that the duo's internet foolery promoting the LP has landed them in legal hot water.
A preliminary report from TMZ published yesterday (November 8) claims Drake and 21 Savage have been sued by mass media giant Condé Nast and parent company Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. for posting and distributing a mocked-up Vogue magazine cover as part of the memetic marketing rollout of Her Loss.
In a since-deleted Instagram post made October 30 that is cited in the suit, Drake shared the above image of the mocked-up cover, writing in the caption, "Me and my brother on newsstands tomorrow!! Thanks @voguemagazine and Anna Wintour for the love and support on this historic moment."
In the complaint [via Variety], lawyers for Condé Nast argue that the Her Loss rollout was "built entirely on the use of the Vogue marks and the premise that Drake and 21 Savage would be featured on the cover of Vogue's next issue ... All of this is false. And none of it has been authorized by Condé Nast."
The Vogue cover is one of a handful of mass media spoofs created for the arrival of Her Loss. Others included a purported entry in NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series that was subsequently debunked by the broadcaster, a staged Howard Stern Show segment, and parodied appearances on Saturday Night Live and video sessions series COLORS.
The suit also takes issue with how Drake and 21 Savage allegedly created counterfeit Vogue issues and posters bearing the cover that were distributed in "North America's largest metropolitan areas." TMZ's report includes an image said to be of the fake mag layout, featuring an image of Drake posing alongside a young Wintour, while the face page's body text is obstructed by the album's title done in a spray paint style.
Despite the artist's aforementioned claims of "love and support," Condé Nast's lawsuit claims Wintour "had no involvement in Her Loss or its promotion," arguing that the fake cover led to "unmistakable" confusion among the public.
It did manage to get the best of some news aggregators out there: a yet-to-be-corrected or retracted article from HotNewHipHop reads, in part, "The accompanying cover story has yet to be released, but when it is, you can rest assured it will be loaded with all kinds of juicy information about the prolific rhymers and their work—both past, present, and future."
Clearly, the heads of these other media properties were feeling much less litigious. In confirming that Drake and 21 did not film a Tiny Desk Concert, NPR remained "open to the possibility," writing that the two are "welcome anytime." In an actual segment of his show, Stern shared how he thought Drake's send-up and wider "fake press tour" was "kinda interesting."
The issue of veracity was arguably more obvious when it came to the spoofs of Stern, SNL and COLORS: those three visual pieces were published via Drake's social channels, with viewers concluding that the appearances were feigned upon finding no respective promotion by the programs.
What the Her Loss rollout shows is that Drake's continued meme-fuelled cultural omnipresence has legal limits, and that media literacy — the ability to think critically about what one watches, reads or hears — continues to be of utmost importance in a fast-paced information ecosystem where funny cultural fakery isn't limited to being floated on April Fool's Day anymore.
In the wake of paint-by-numbers streaming plays and trendy try-ons, Drake remains too big to fail. For all his recent betting action with gambling platform Stake, the reported $4 million being sought in damages is likely a drop in the bucket. Maybe all of this could have been avoided had Drake done what Elon recommends, and marked the cover as a parody. We'll see whose loss it becomes when he starts dabbling in deepfakes.
A preliminary report from TMZ published yesterday (November 8) claims Drake and 21 Savage have been sued by mass media giant Condé Nast and parent company Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. for posting and distributing a mocked-up Vogue magazine cover as part of the memetic marketing rollout of Her Loss.
In a since-deleted Instagram post made October 30 that is cited in the suit, Drake shared the above image of the mocked-up cover, writing in the caption, "Me and my brother on newsstands tomorrow!! Thanks @voguemagazine and Anna Wintour for the love and support on this historic moment."
In the complaint [via Variety], lawyers for Condé Nast argue that the Her Loss rollout was "built entirely on the use of the Vogue marks and the premise that Drake and 21 Savage would be featured on the cover of Vogue's next issue ... All of this is false. And none of it has been authorized by Condé Nast."
The Vogue cover is one of a handful of mass media spoofs created for the arrival of Her Loss. Others included a purported entry in NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series that was subsequently debunked by the broadcaster, a staged Howard Stern Show segment, and parodied appearances on Saturday Night Live and video sessions series COLORS.
The suit also takes issue with how Drake and 21 Savage allegedly created counterfeit Vogue issues and posters bearing the cover that were distributed in "North America's largest metropolitan areas." TMZ's report includes an image said to be of the fake mag layout, featuring an image of Drake posing alongside a young Wintour, while the face page's body text is obstructed by the album's title done in a spray paint style.
Despite the artist's aforementioned claims of "love and support," Condé Nast's lawsuit claims Wintour "had no involvement in Her Loss or its promotion," arguing that the fake cover led to "unmistakable" confusion among the public.
It did manage to get the best of some news aggregators out there: a yet-to-be-corrected or retracted article from HotNewHipHop reads, in part, "The accompanying cover story has yet to be released, but when it is, you can rest assured it will be loaded with all kinds of juicy information about the prolific rhymers and their work—both past, present, and future."
Clearly, the heads of these other media properties were feeling much less litigious. In confirming that Drake and 21 did not film a Tiny Desk Concert, NPR remained "open to the possibility," writing that the two are "welcome anytime." In an actual segment of his show, Stern shared how he thought Drake's send-up and wider "fake press tour" was "kinda interesting."
TMZ would later update their report to note how Drake's team was "both surprised and confused by the lawsuit as so many other organizations ... all gladly jumped on board and had fun" with the rollout.
The issue of veracity was arguably more obvious when it came to the spoofs of Stern, SNL and COLORS: those three visual pieces were published via Drake's social channels, with viewers concluding that the appearances were feigned upon finding no respective promotion by the programs.
What the Her Loss rollout shows is that Drake's continued meme-fuelled cultural omnipresence has legal limits, and that media literacy — the ability to think critically about what one watches, reads or hears — continues to be of utmost importance in a fast-paced information ecosystem where funny cultural fakery isn't limited to being floated on April Fool's Day anymore.
In the wake of paint-by-numbers streaming plays and trendy try-ons, Drake remains too big to fail. For all his recent betting action with gambling platform Stake, the reported $4 million being sought in damages is likely a drop in the bucket. Maybe all of this could have been avoided had Drake done what Elon recommends, and marked the cover as a parody. We'll see whose loss it becomes when he starts dabbling in deepfakes.