All the Parties
by Drake feat. Chief Keef
Writers - Graham/Saint Fort/Coleman/Fierce/Arsenault/Dolla/Blackmon/Bidaye/Samuels/Tennant/Lowe
First released - 2023
Original album - For All the Dogs (Drake)
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - (none)
On October 6, 2023, the extremely popular Canadian rapper/singer Drake released his eighth studio album, For All the Dogs. One of its tracks, "All the Parties" (featuring guest rapper/singer Chief Keef) was immediately—that very same day—called out on the Pet Shop Boys' official website: "Surprising to hear Drake singing the chorus of 'West End girls' [sic] in the track 'All the Parties' on his new album. No credit given or permission requested." Sure enough, toward the end of the Drake track sings in a distorted voice that familar melody and those equally familiar lyrics: "… a dead-end world, East End boys and West End girls… East End boys and West End girls." In short, Drake had clearly interpolated a portion of WEG into "All the Parties." Yet, indeed, the song's credits made no mention whatsoever of Tennant and Lowe.
This incident quickly garnered a good deal of press, with various music/entertainment outlets like Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety—not to mention non-entertainment-specific outlets like Esquire magazine, The Independent, and even CNN—hopping on the story, generating considerable brouhaha. As it turns out, Neil had found out about it so quickly through one of his nephews, who is apparently a Drake fan. After communicating with the appropriate personnel, Neil observed (in an interview with Laura Snapes of The Guardian) that "they were very helpful and apologetic." And when asked whether they got paid for it, Neil replied, "Oh we certainly did."
By early January 2024, the credits for the song, at least as they now appear in such internet-based outlets as Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and Wikipedia, had been modified to add Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe to the already rather crowded list of songwriters. So the problem was rectified, albeit belatedly.
Incidentally, please don't ask me to interpet the lyrics of this track or even to speculate as to why Drake chose to interpolate a portion of "West End Girls" into it. The lyrics are so thick with parlance beyond my realm of cultural familiarity that it would be presumptuous for me even to attempt it. I know when I'm out of my element.
List cross-references
- This track doesn't appear in any of my lists.
All text on this website aside from direct quotations (such as of lyrics and of other nonoriginal content) is copyright © 2001-2019 by Wayne Studer. All Rights Reserved. All lyrics and images are copyright © their respective dates by their respective owners. Brief quotations and small, low-resolution images are used for identification and critical commentary, thereby constituting Fair Use under U.S. copyright law. Billboard chart data are copyright © their respective dates by Nielsen Business Media, Inc.