S. Samuel
Canadian rapper Drake has helped the United States of America earn the right to be known as the country most notorious for illegally downloading content through BitTorrent this year.
While the USA tops its competition, close contenders include the United Kingdom.
A report detailing illegal download activity worldwide has put the American people as the globe’s most prolific music pirates. The Digital Music Index has broken down BitTorrent users country by country and has found the United States had illegally shared almost 97 million files over the past six months. Coming in at a respectable second place was the U.K., followed closely by Italy and Canada. Incidentally, France, who last week bagged its first illegal downloader under the controversial Hadopi Law, came in ninth. (Fast Company)
Drake is reportedly the most popular illegally downloaded artist.
#YOLO, indeed: Drake’s single “The Motto” was stolen the most, driving 458,038 downloads during the six-month period tracked, making the Canadian rapper the most illegally shared artist in the United States. Kanye West and Jay-Z beat out Canada’s native son for most pirated media in that country, with Watch the Throne downloaded 71,132 times. Folk singer and Ron Weasley stand-in Ed Sheeran is the most pirated artist in the U.K., with his 2011 album, +, reported as the most popular torrent in 460 towns and cities across the nation. (SPIN)
Drake’s popularity recently got highlighted when a California aspiring rapper tweeted out his “YOLO” catchphrase shortly before passing away.
At a time when activists are calling for more responsibility in hip-hop, the genre finds itself under the microscope again. People are blaming “YOLO (You Only Live Once),” an expression popularized by Drake, for the death of five young men in Ontario, [California]. Ervin McKinness, who rapped as Inkky, thumbed several YOLO tweets before his death. McKinness and four other 20-somethings died in a drunk driving accident on Labor Day in Ontario, Canada. Marquell Bogan (23), Dylan George (20), Jonathan Watson (21), and JaJuan Bennett (23) also died in the crash. (Rap About)
Drizzy spent this past weekend in Kentucky where he took part in a Wildcats alumni basketball game.
Opposite of Wall was hip-hop mogul Drake, a friend of Calipari’s who has become a fixture at UK events since Calipari asked him to be a guest coach at his first Big Blue Madness in 2009. After the game, hugging Cousins and Davis on the Rupp Arena floor, Drake credited Calipari and Kentucky with motivating him to go back to school and get his high school degree. “Kentucky has given me a real home,” said Drake, who served as the unofficial “Y” during one of the timeouts. “I actually dropped out of high school, which I don’t if a lot of people know that, but I dropped out of high school. I never really got like a great school experience. When Coach Cal asked me to come here for the first Midnight Madness, it just really gave me a sense of school, a sense of love, a sense of belonging to something. That’s why I feel like I belong in the UK family and that’s why I’m graduating high school this month. I’m definitely inspired by UK.” (Coach Cal)
Check out a recent Drake interview below:
