Many rappers have personal cheat codes that give them that extra something when it comes to their music and fandom. However, some fans have accused Atlantic Records of cheating when it comes to using bots to increase engagement in music videos by Lil Uzi Vert, Roddy Ricch, Don Toliver and other rappers.
On Saturday (November 26), DJ Akademiks took to his Twitter account and criticized Atlantic Records for allegedly manipulating views on their artists’ videos. This comes after several fans days earlier accused Don Toliver of allegedly using bots in his music video for “Do It Right.”
“Don Toliver is paying views out here on YouTube…” one person tweeted earlier this week.
“They said Don Toliver bought views for his latest music video,” wrote another fan.
Another commenter tweeted: “Don Toliver Bott really views [man face palming emoji] [tears of joy emoji].”
“Don Toliver just got exposed for posting views and comments on his new song lol,” wrote another fan.
This prompted Ak to join his critique: “Damn…Atlantic Records got lit by hella shit a few years ago,” he wrote. “They’ve literally thrown in the towel in terms of marketing and promoting their artists… they’re just buying WILD lots of fake views… which makes their artists look even worse.”
More fans jumped in, claiming that bots were engaging in the comments section of Don Toliver’s “Do It Right” video.
“Don toliver cooking views? [sob emojis] why he is my favorite jackboy [weary emoji]’ commented one fan.
“Go to Don Toliver’s latest music video, sort comments by new and keep scrolling. Let me know how many genuine comments you find,” tweeted another person.
Another fan also claimed that Lil Uzi Vert has the same problem with his music video for Just Wanna Rock, but that’s because he’s trending at #1 on streaming platforms.
“Uzi’s video faces a similar problem; partly because it’s trending #1, but we know Uzi’s song is a hit,” the fan wrote. “It’s got 60 million streams on Spotify and it’s being talked about everywhere. Don Toliver, on the other hand… that’s not the case.”
XXL has reached out to Atlantic Records for comment.
To be fair, bots are just one part of the digital ecosystem. According to TechTarget, bots are computer programs that act as agents for a user or other program to simulate human activity. They’re a variety of bots and they’re everywhere – on Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms.
Bots aren’t much different on YouTube, so it’s unclear how they get engagement on the platform, either from paying people or from artist management separate from the record label. Overall, bots are here to stay and they’re not going away anytime soon.
Fans have expressed their opinion on using bots to promote artists.
“Atlantic Records is being hyped for spamming their artists like Lil UziVert and Roddy Rich new videos with bots in the comments to increase engagement. Guys, really surprised?!? They’re doing the same with streams to pump up the numbers since inception,” one person said.
“They beeeeen did that, have you ever seen a youtube comments section on music videos??? lmao even underground artists buy bots for views,” tweeted another fan.
Hopefully record labels and managers will go back to relying on real authentic engagement and not relying on analytics and computers to promote their music artists.