Many rappers have personal cheat codes that give them an edge in their music and fandom, but some fans are now accusing a record label of using bots to achieve success. Fans accuse Atlantic Records of using bots to boost engagement in the music videos of Lil Uzi Vert, Roddy Ricch, Don Toliver, and other rappers.
DJ Akademiks took to Twitter on Saturday (Nov. 26) to criticise Atlantic Records for allegedly manipulating views on their artists’ videos. His response follows several days of tweets from fans earlier this week accusing Atlantic of allegedly using bots for Don Toliver’s “Do It Right” music video.
“Don Toliver out here paying YouTube views….,” tweeted one person on Nov. 23.
Don Toliver out here paying views on YouTube….
— l (@blrdddd46) November 23, 2022
They saying don toliver bought views on his recent music video pic.twitter.com/phi4ajeIld
— New user (@NoiamNotSamiam) November 24, 2022
Don Toliver Really Botting Views 🤦😂 pic.twitter.com/hIVlxs8cdf
— ig: @slayerapp (@slayerrapp) November 24, 2022
don toliver is carrying cactus jack on his back sheck wes and sofaygo are done 💀
— ꜰʟᴀᴍᴇ (@LAxFLAME) November 24, 2022
This prompted Ak to respond, writing, “Damn.. Atlantic Records went from being hella lit a few years ago to being shit.” “They literally threw in the towel when it came to marketing and promoting their artists…they just bought WILD amounts of fake views…making their artists look even worse.”
Damn.. Atlantic Records went from being hella lit a few years ago to being shit… they literally threw in the towell on marketing and promotin their artists..they just buying WILD amounts of fake views…which makin their artists look even worse.
— DJ Akademiks (@Akademiks) November 26, 2022
More fans chimed in, claiming that bots were commenting on Don Toliver’s video for “Do It Right.”
“Do you have any cooking opinions? Why is he my favourite jackboy”A fan remarked.
“Go to the most recent music video by Don Toliver, sort the comments by new, and keep scrolling. Please let me know how many genuine comments you find “someone else tweeted
Cactus Jack made that #bosscall pic.twitter.com/6QICBgQ9d8
— Kurrco (@Kurrco) November 26, 2022
Another fan claimed that Lil Uzi Vert is experiencing the same problem with his music video for “Just Wanna Rock,” but it’s because he’s trending at No. 1 on streaming platforms.
“Uzi’s video is experiencing a similar problem; partially because he is trending #1, but we know Uzi’s song is a hit,” the fan wrote. “It has 60 million Spotify streams and is being talked about everywhere. Don Toliver, on the other hand…. no such luck.”
Atlantic Records has been contacted for comment by XXL.
To be fair, bots are merely a component of the digital ecosystem. Bots, according to TechTarget, are computer programmes that act as an agent for a user or another programme in order to simulate human activity. There are numerous bots and they can be found on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media platforms.
Because bots are different on YouTube, it’s unclear how they get engagement on the platform, whether through paying people or through artists’ management that is separate from the record label. Overall, bots are here to stay and are not going away anytime soon.
Hopefully, record labels and managers will return to promoting their artists’ music through genuine authentic engagement rather than analytics and computers.