Drake’s podcast interview with Bobbi Althoff was mysteriously scrubbed from YouTube, and a new theory has emerged that possibly explains why.
A TikTok user by the name of @PhotogSteve81 posted a clip that went viral earlier this week, in which he claimed that Drizzy essentially controlled the fate of the episode, which was uploaded to Althoff’s Really Good Podcast channel in July, through “corporate bullying.”
With the 6 God playing Tyga’s “Rack City” during the interview, @PhotogSteve81 theorized that he could have had Universal Music Group — who reportedly own the rights to the track — threaten to take all of the profits from the interview or have it taken down due to copyright law.
“Drake paid her travel to come to his location,” the TikToker began. “Negotiated where his team would produce, film and control mostly everything about the podcast.
“He then goes on to play Tyga’s ‘Rack City.’ He specifically leaves it playing and airs a very long clip in the episode which now appears to have been his leverage he planted in the beginning.”
He continued: “Drake’s team reached out to Universal Music Group which owns the rights to ‘Rack City’ and filed a copyright strike against Bobbi’s podcast. They filed it under the terms that YouTube has with Universal Music.
“This meant that all of the proceeds from the podcast would have to be turned over to Universal Music or Bobbi would be facing a very large lawsuit… Bobbi’s team, realizing they would not be able to monetize their biggest podcast in history, decided to pull the podcast.”
Drake using Tyga’s “Rack City” as way to get the Bobbi Althoff interview taken down is some evil mastermind stuff. pic.twitter.com/2nhllsmild
— AJ Hughes (@_ajhughes) September 5, 2023
A fan reposted the theory on Twitter, writing: “Drake using Tyga’s ‘Rack City’ as way to get the Bobbi Althoff interview taken down is some evil mastermind stuff.”
Drake and Bobbi Althoff have been tight-lipped about their apparent fallout after their interview got deleted and they unfollowed each other on Instagram.
Salacious rumors continued to flood social media, forcing Althoff to deny speculation that she hooked up with Drizzy and divorced her husband in a private DM convo with Barstool Sports CEO Dave Portnoy.
“My girlfriend says you hooked up with Drake and got divorced. I am saying that is not true,” Portnoy asked in a message, to which Althoff replied: “I am not commenting publicly but off the record, you’re right that is not true.”
Bobbi then posted the exchange on her Instagram Stories, where she further explained that she didn’t even want to appear on Portnoy’s BFFs podcast, which she did in August.
“I did not want to do this podcast in the first place, and now so much negativity is coming from it. I’m going to leave it alone after this but this is the uncensored dm between Dave and I,” she wrote.
Tyga, Offset and Lil Yachty have all followed Drake in sitting down with Althoff, but it’s unclear what the road ahead will be for her when it comes to interviewing rappers.