West Coast Rapper RBX Sues Spotify; Says Drake Bot Fraud Cost Legit Peformers Millions
RBX, the Long Beach rap veteran who debuted on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, is taking Spotify to court, accusing the world’s largest music-streaming platform of knowingly allowing fake “bot” streams for Drake that cheated working artists out of millions.
In a 28-page class-action complaint filed November 2 in Los Angeles federal court, the rapper claims Spotify inflated total play counts by ignoring “billions of fraudulent streams” generated by automated accounts.
The suit argues that these fake plays artificially inflated the earnings of superstar acts, such as Drake, while shrinking the royalty pool for all other artists.
“Every month, more than a hundred thousand artists, songwriters, and producers are forced to compete for their share of a limited pool of royalty payments from Spotify,” the filing says. “Success begets success… some take the Hustle too far—they resort to cheating.”
RBX accuses Spotify of turning “a blind eye” to the scheme because higher play totals help the company sell more ads and please investors. Spotify, the suit alleges, has “an incentive for turning a blind eye to the blatant streaming fraud occurring on its service” since inflated numbers make its platform look larger and more profitable.
The lawsuit paints a detailed picture of how bots allegedly manipulated charts and royalties—programs that played the same songs for 23 hours a day, VPN networks that created the illusion of phantom listeners scattered across the globe, and bizarre data showing some users “traveled 15,000 kilometers in a month” between songs.
The complaint singles out Drake, whom it refers to as “the most streamed artist of all time.”
RBX’s lawyers say data show “billions of fraudulent streams” tied to his catalog from 2022 to 2025. They claim that Spotify “knew or should have known” about the anomalies but “never properly addressed the millions—if not billions—of fraudulent and artificial music streams attributed to Drake’s music.”
Spotify publicly touts anti-fraud measures, yet RBX says those defenses are “nothing more than window dressing.”
His filing argues that, despite promising to crack down on bots, the company’s policies “failed, over at least the past four years, to prevent or detect billions of inauthentic streams.” Represented by Baron & Budd P.C. and Irpino Law Firm, RBX seeks to represent a nationwide class of recording artists, producers and songwriters dating back to 2018.
The suit demands damages, restitution, and a court order forcing Spotify to disclose and repay affected rightsholders.
RBX argues the alleged fraud drained legitimate performers’ paychecks while rewarding a handful of inflated stars. Spotify has not yet filed a response.
The lawsuit requests a jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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