Drake Embroiled in Another Tiresome Accusation of Plagiarism

Plagiarism–the act of using someone else’s work without their permission and then passing it off as your own–is serious stuff. But for it to exist, you have to prove intent–at least at some level.

The latest accusation involves a song from Drake’s new album, Views.  The record includes a track entitled “Too Good,” which features Rihanna.

Anyone can hear that it’s a pretty simple melody, something that anyone could come up with. Now let’s move to Keayana Coke who posted this on Facebook.

A case of an unfortunate sonic coincidence, yes? But there’s a wrinkle.

Coke says she sent a demo for a song called “Too Good” to Drake and his father, musician Dennis Graham, in an Instagram direct message back in February. She wanted his opinion. Graham then responded some time later acknowledging that he heard the song and thought it was great–but that he hadn’t heard it until much later after it was sent.

Question: Is it reasonable to assume that Drake heard Coke’s song and appropriated it for his own? I highly doubt it. He doesn’t need to do anything like that. And no artist would knowingly rip off the work of another knowing full well that in the age of social media, they’d be set upon by the Internet, Game of Thrones-style.

Naturally, though, the Internet is still all in a kerfluffle about this. No response from Drake yet.

(Via the Toronto Sun)