RBX isn’t done with Spotify. The Long Beach rapper, born Eric Collins, has filed a notice of appeal with the Ninth Circuit after a federal judge in Los Angeles threw out his bot-streaming lawsuit against the platform, as first reported by AllHipHop.
How We Got Here
RBX sued Spotify in 2025, claiming fake, artificial plays were distorting the royalty pool that pays artists. His complaint pointed to what it called suspicious activity in Drake’s catalog. Spotify was the only defendant.
U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton dismissed the first complaint in June but let him amend it. RBX came back in July with an amended class-action complaint. In October, the judge dismissed the unfair-competition and negligence claims with prejudice and entered judgment for Spotify. The federal docket shows the notice of appeal was filed November 6.
The IAHHM Take
Whatever happens in court, RBX is asking a question a lot of independent artists ask in private: if streams can be faked, who is really getting paid? Streaming pays out of a shared pool, so every fake play on one song is money that doesn’t go to someone else.
RBX has been around since the Death Row era, so this isn’t a newcomer chasing a headline. It’s a West Coast veteran pushing a fight about how the money moves. Music money disputes are piling up, too: just look at Timbaland’s $15 million suit against his former managers.
Do you think streaming platforms do enough to stop fake plays? Let us know.
Source: AllHipHop
