Drake has taken legal action accusing Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG) of artificially inflating the popularity of Kendrick Lamar’s diss track against him, “Not Like Us.”
A Monday filing to New York’s trial court level revealed that the Canadian rapper’s company, Frozen Moments, LLC, believes UMG “launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves” with the viral song by using bots and pay-to-play agreements.
UMG and Spotify have a longstanding business relationship for music and streaming rights, but Frozen Moments alleges Spotify cut licensing rates for “Not Like Us” in exchange for the platform “affirmatively recommending the Song to users who are searching for other unrelated songs and artists.”
The filing also claims that Spotify misled users into believing the song was more popular than it really was with these tactics, and accuse Lamar’s label, Interscope, of paying third-party “bots” to boost streams of the song to 30 million in the first day.
Drake’s attorneys accuse Interscope of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, Act, which is often used in criminal cases against organized crime. They also said UMG cut ties with employees closely affiliated with or seen as loyal to Drake.
“Indeed, UMG has demonstrated that it has no interest in taking responsibility for its misconduct,” the filing read. “Over the past several months, Drake has repeatedly sought to engage UMG in discussions to resolve the ongoing harm he has suffered as a result of UMG’s actions. UMG refused to engage in negotiations, and insisted that UMG is not responsible for its own actions.
Instead, UMG has pointed the finger at Mr. Duckworth [Lamar], insisted that Drake should initiate legal action against Mr. Duckworth rather than UMG, and even threatened to bring its own legal claims against Mr. Duckworth if Drake were to pursue claims against UMG.”
“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” a UMG spokesperson said in a statement to Billboard. “We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”
The filing stated that “Not Like Us” has almost 900 million Spotify streams to date, holding the record for the biggest single-day streams of a hip-hop song.
The well-known diss track has even made its way to Congress, with multiple representatives siding with Lamar in the pop culture feud, which reached its climax with the hit single.