The media personality says that Drake forfeited his publishing rights to the track, which interpolates Ella Langley's smash No. 1 hit "Choosin' Texas," to get the fan-favourite FOMO track released on streaming services.
Drake's remix of "Choosin' Texas" is finally on streaming, and it came with a compromise.
The 6 God released his Habibti (FOMO) deluxe edition today (Oct. 2), adding four unreleased songs from his FOMO short film onto streaming services, including the Don Toliver-assisted "Solar Eclipse." The slow jam first made headlines for its key interpolation of Ella Langley's No. 1 chart mainstay "Choosin' Texas," and it quickly became a fan favourite after being premiered in full in September.
According to DJ Akademiks, Drake forfeited his publishing share on the track to help clear it for release, given the high-profile track it samples. He reportedly did so as an act of fan service after his listeners spent weeks clamouring for the track, even sending unofficial uploads to streaming service.
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"Apparently, all the publishing actually goes to the women on the song, so, I believe the producer and Ella. So, Drake doesn't even make any money off of this... He opted to do that, obviously," Akademiks said during a recent Kick livestream. "The reason why we're getting it is literally because the fans have been blowing up his DMs. There's fake uploads of the song constantly, and clearly people like this remix from FOMO and he wanted to get it on streaming."
While Noel Cadastre is listed as the sole producer on "Solar Eclipse," country star Miranda Lambert is credited as a co-writer on the track for her role in co-writing and co-producing "Choosin' Texas." Even if Drake himself isn't earning publishing money off "Solar Eclipse," the royalties from his track would add onto the $13.9 million revenue that Langley's smash single has already amassed between audio and video streams, digital sales and airplay in the U.S., per Billboard.
Drake's connection to "Choosin' Texas" has been unfolding over the past months, between his onscreen appearance at Langley's Arkansas concert during which he sang the track, to him premiering "Solar Eclipse" during a DJ set in Toronto one week later (Aug. 30). The song's music video, premiered in the FOMO film, even features footage of Drake and Langley backstage, clips that were later removed from the film's official YouTube upload. Drake's later appearance at Don Toliver's Toronto concert in August, during which he played Iceman songs live for the first time, is also prominently featured in the video.
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"Choosin' Texas" continues its monster run on the Billboard Canada charts, and this week tied Alex Warren's "Ordinary" as the second-longest-running No. 1 song in Billboard Canadian Hot 100 history at 21 weeks. She needs just four more weeks to tie Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" (25 weeks at No. 1) for the longest-running No. 1 in Canada, a record she already toppled and extended in the U.S. with 24 weeks at No. 1, surpassing Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (22 weeks).
