As listeners continue to dissect Drake’s new album For All the Dogs, English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys are calling out the MC for interpolating their 1986 song “West End Girls” on “All the Parties” without proper credit or permission.
The lyrics in question come when Drake sings, “And it’s 6, our town a dead end world/ East End boys and West End girls.” In “West End Girls,” Pet Shop Boys sing: “In a West End town, a dead end world/ The East End boys and West End girls.”
Following the album’s release Friday (Oct. 6), Pet Shop Boys shared this message on X: “Surprising to hear @Drake singing the chorus of ‘West End Girls’ in the track ‘All the Parties’ on his new album. No credit given or permission requested.”
The credits for Drake’s “All the Parties,” which features Chief Keef, do not include Pet Shop Boys members Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe on Spotify Apple Music or the Songview database performance rights organizations use to track fractional ownership. As for “West End Girls,” the song enjoyed a fruitful run in 1986, netting the top slot on the Billboard Hot 100 that year — the group’s highest-charting song on the tally.
Drake has a long history of interpolating records. His most recent comes from T.I.’s 2003 song “24’s,” which subtly resides on Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss single “Rich Flex.” Certified Lover Boy included several samples from songs by The Beatles, *NSYNC and R. Kelly. His Hot 100 chart-topper “Way Too Sexy,” also from CLB, sampled Right Said Fred’s 1991 single “I’m Too Sexy.” Shortly after the album was released in September 2021, a source told Billboard that the writing credit splits had yet to be finalized. That’s a common practice among writers, but one that can become particularly problematic with interpolation as it gives the original songwriters and their rights holders greater leverage when negotiating a share of the song’s copyright.
Billboard reached out to Kobalt, which represents Tennant and Lowe’s publishing, and Drake’s reps for comment, but neither responded at time of publishing.
