Pet Shop Boys have shared that Drake‘s team were “very apologetic” about the rapper’s unauthorised sample of ‘West End Girls’ in one of his tracks.
- READ MORE: Pet Shop Boys: “This is our queer album”
Last October, the UK pop duo claimed that the Canadian rapper sampled their 1985 hit without their knowledge or permission.
On Drake’s track ‘All The Parties’ from latest album ‘For All The Dogs’, the artist sings: “East End boy and West End girls.”
The lyrics and melody mirrored the Pet Shop Boys’ own track, in which they sing: “In a West End town, a dead end world/ The East End boys and West End girls.”
“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 band wrote on Twitter after the release.
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe shed more light on the beef in an interview with NME, sharing that it has all been resolved. “It’s all sorted now, but I must say I thought it was a really nice bit in the record. He sang it very well,” Tennant said.
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Now, they’ve elaborated further on how the saga unfolded. “I was driving in my car back from the supermarket, and my brother phoned me to say his son, my nephew who’s a Drake fan, said, ‘Oh, does Neil know ‘West End Girls’ is on Drake’s new album?” he shared in a new interview with Rolling Stone.
“So I stopped the car and played it on Spotify. We get a lot of requests, so I thought, maybe we agreed to this? But this, I thought we’d remember it,” he added.
Tennant continued that he emailed their manager who confirmed they had not agreed to a sample. “So we put up a social media post, because we thought it was the best way to bring it to everyone’s attention.”
The artist added that, within 15 minutes, their reps received a call from Drake’s people, who were “very apologetic”. They even said Drake wished to speak to the duo – but they never did – and that the “whole publishing thing” had been resolved.
Lowe then followed up on their previous comments about being fans of Drake’s singing, sharing: “I really like the track.”
The duo pair added that they needed to figure out Drake’s vocal trick, so they could perhaps try it out themselves.
Reviewing the Pet Shop Boys’ new album ‘Nonetheless‘, NME said the pair were “still setting pop’s benchmark”. Ahead of the release, Tennant told NME the record was their “queer album.
Meanwhile, Drake has been embroiled in a heated feud with Kendrick Lamar in recent weeks, which has seen the pair make serious allegations against one another through numerous diss tracks in recent days.