NEW YORK (AFP) - Hip-hop star Drake has hit back at charges he relies on ghostwriters for his songs, releasing a new track dissing his accuser which quickly went viral online.

Fellow rapper Meek Mill recently took to Twitter to accuse Drake of not writing his own songs and suggested that the Toronto-born artist retaliated for his knowledge of the secret by not promoting Mill's work.

Drake - whose latest mix tape topped the United States album chart and who recently headlined major festivals including Coachella - broke his silence late Saturday to respond in verse with a diss song entitled Charged Up.

The song soon hit No. 1 on Billboard's Trending 140 chart, which looks at social media impact in the US.

"Wow, I'm honoured that you think this is staged," Drake raps over a minimalist beat. "I seen it all coming... 'cause it ain't like I need the money I make off a feature," he said, presumably explaining why he did not promote Mill's album.

Referring to recent police killings of African Americans that have provoked outrage, Drake raps, "Cops are killing people with their arms up/ And your main focus is trying to harm us?"

Drake debuted the song on Apple Music, the tech giant's new streaming and radio service for which he has been a prominent spokesman.

He referred to his Apple collaboration in Charged Up as a way to tell Mill that he has been successful.

Drake appeared to confirm in the song that the company paid him US$20 million (S$27.4 million).

Mill, while not taking back his accusations, wrote on Twitter of the song: "I can tell he wrote that one, though."