Drake accused of paying YouTube to promote ‘NOKIA’ music video

Is Drizzy trying to shove his latest music video down everyone's throat?

Drake released the music video of his song NOKIA on April 1. The track is part of a collaborative album between the Canadian rapper and PartyNextDoor titled $ome $exy $ongs 4 U.

The nostalgia-filled video was shot entirely in black-and-white and seemed to draw mixed reactions from fans with some accusing Drake of copying the moves of his long-time rival Kendrick Lamar.

However, others believe that it was Drake’s way of trolling Lamar.

The music video has recently been the subject of further scrutiny after some viewers believed that it was popping up as paid advertisements on YouTube.

Many took to X, formerly Twitter, to post clips of NOKIA’s YouTube ads as evidence of alleged collusion between the 38-year-old and the video-sharing giant.

Some fans also claimed that Lamar never ran YouTube ads for his hit song (and Drake diss track) Not Like Us.

This seemed to start a debate as users claimed that ads for Not Like Us did appear on Spotify.

One user tried to rationalise why NOKIA is appearing as a YouTube ad, explaining that this is how marketing works.

Despite the apparent controversy, Drake’s NOKIA, and by extension $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, is a bonafide success, becoming the singer’s fourteenth album to top the Billboard 200 chart.

RELATED: Drake subtly trolls Kendrick Lamar in ‘NOKIA’ music video