Pet Shop Boys accuse Drake of using ‘West End Girls’ without permission on new track
Pet Shop Boys (L) call out Drake for stealing lyrics from ‘West End Girls’. (Getty)
Drake’s latest album, For All the Dogs, has already caused a stir after synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys accused the star of lifting lyrics from their 1986 hit “West End Girls” without permission.
Award-winning Canadian rapper Drake dropped his eighth studio album on Friday (6 October), shortly before announcing a break from his music to focus on his health.
One of the tracks, titled “All the Parties” was immediately flagged by Pet Shop Boys – made up of duo Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe – for including lyrics from their 1986 hit “West End Girls”.
The lyrics “East End boys and West End girls, yeah / East End boys and West End girls, ayy” appear at in the second verse of “All the Parties”.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on the day For All the Dogs was released, Pet Shop Boys called out Drake for using the lyrics without permission or providing a credit.
“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 duo wrote.
Drake and his record labels OVO Sound and Republic Records have not publicly responded to the Pet Shop Boys’ post.
It’s not the only crediting complaint around Drake’s new album, which also features 21 Savage, Bad Bunny, J. Cole and Lil Yachty. Rapper Rye Ryehas also claimed that Drake used her vocals in his song “Calling For You” without permission.
“One of my fave artists doing this I don’t know how to feel anymore,” she wrote.
Copyright has long been a contentious issue within the music industry. Last year, Beyoncé was caught up in her own controversy after Kelis accused her of “theft” for sampling her song “Milkshake” without permission in her Renaissance track “Energy”. Beyoncé later removed her sample.
Meanwhile, Sam Smith and Normani recently won a legal battle after being sued for copyright infringement over their 2019 collaboration “Dancing with a Stranger”.
PinkNews has reached out to representatives for Drake and Pet Shop Boys for comment.
