Why Drake Forfeiting His ‘Solar Eclipse’ Publishing Rights to Ella Langley and Her Co-Writers is a Big Deal

Shortly after the arrival of Drake and Don Toliver's long-awaited ’Choosin’ Texas’ remix, titled ‘Solar Eclipse’, one of Drake's closest media allies, DJ Akademiks, revealed that the Toronto rapper had forfeited the publishing rights to the song.

If Akademiks is correct, this means Ella Langley and her co-writers will receive 100% of the writing and publishing shares for ‘Solar Eclipse’, with Drake and Toliver receiving nothing.

While interpolating, sampling and remixing is a common technique in modern music, especially in Hip Hop and R&B, to forego the royalties in this way is a highly unprecedented move.

But it's a move that sheds light on the way Drake is moving as he continues his feud with his label, Universal, his relationship with Langley, and his approach to music as a whole.

It's possible, of course, that Akademiks was mistaken in his declaration. The media personality, who served as a mouthpiece of sorts for Drake during his Kendrick Lamar beef, shared via a recent Kick stream, “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”.

The popular streamer went on, “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”.

The first observation is that this mentality feels like the nail in the coffin of the age-old accusation that Drake is a culture vulture. In the past, when he's experimented with genres like Jamaican dancehall, regional Mexican music, House and Afrobeats, the ‘God's Plan’ hitmaker has come under fire for “stealing” elements of the original scene, without crediting or elevating artists within that scene.

This has always been a flimsy argument, with Drake often collaborating with artists from the genres he is dabbling in. And although there's no Langley feature here, his decision to forfeit the publishing rights gives ‘Solar Eclipse’ the feel of an homage, rather than a means of jumping on the country music bandwagon.

It's no surprise that Langley is not a guest, given the fact that ‘Choosin’ Texas’ is in the midst of a record-breaking streak atop the Billboard Hot 100. If she was to lend her vocals to ‘Solar Eclipse’, it might split streams and take away steam from the original.

Which leads us to another key observation - that Drake and Toliver deciding not to haggle over publishing means that any rumours of there being beef with Langley are clearly baseless.

There were some clickbait-driven headlines surfacing after Drake re-uploaded his FOMO short-film, and some footage of Langley backstage with the rapper had been removed. However, it's evident that there's no bad blood between Drizzy and Langley. If Langley hasn't acknowledge ‘Solar Eclipse’, it's likely for the aforementioned reason of not wanting to draw attention away from the OG ‘Choosin’ Texas’ right now.

And lastly, this decision tells us something that any Day One fans of Drake already knew - that he's all about giving his listeners what they really want. Sure, there are some unreleased snippets that fans still clamour for, and seemingly to little avail.

But generally, Drake makes an effort where many of his contemporaries don't to give the people what they want. He saw, as Akademiks highlighted, how many fake uploads there were online of ‘Solar Eclipse’, and how much buzz there was around the song.

So even though he doesn't really stand to gain much - at least financially - from the release, he decided to make it available to stream anyway. It's an approach that explains why Drake is one of the few artists of his calibre and status to have maintained a steady output of albums almost every year or two, where many artists that reach his stratosphere (although there aren't many) slow down their rollouts.

As a result, ‘Solar Eclipse’ might seem like a low-key, throwaway single from Drake as part of his FOMO deluxe version of HABIBTI, as he continues his victory lap after his three-album spree earlier in the year. But due to this publishing quirk and the fact that ‘Solar Eclipse’ is en route for a Top Five debut on the Billboard Hot 100, this collaboration carries an array of fascinating implications. Perhaps most importantly all in the eyes of the OVO boss, ‘Solar Eclipse’ is another timely reminder to Universal of just how easily he can craft a hit - even one that won't make him money - as he doubles-down on his hostility towards the label.