The conflict that has been pitting Canadian rapper Drake against American rapper Kendrick Lamar for months will not stop at invective through songs. Drake decided to launch at the beginning of the week, Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 November 2024, two separate legal proceedings, not against Lamar directly, but against the record company Universal Music, with whom the two rival rappers are under contract.
In question, the “diss track” (a song which verbally attacks a rival, a common exercise in rap) Not Like Us by Kendrick Lamar released last May, in which the Californian rapper accuses Drake of having a weakness for very young girls and calls him a “certified pedophile”, a predator, and someone whose name should be included in the registry neighborhood watch.
The piece, which exceeds 900 million plays on Spotify, became one of Lamar's most listened to and received several nominations at the next Grammy Awards, including best song of the year.
A first procedure – not a complaint per se, but a “pre-litigation complaint” – dated Monday 25 November, was launched in a court in New York. Drake accuses Universal Music Group (UMG) of having made Spotify pay lower streaming rights on the condition that the streaming platform recommend Not Like Us massively to its subscribers.
According to a court document, Drake also accuses UMG of having used bots (computer automation machines) to artificially inflate the number of plays of this song, and of influencers paid to promote the song on social networks. He also claims that UMG paid Apple for the Siri voice assistant to divert listeners from Drake's song Certified Lover Boy to the song Not Like Us by Kendrick Lamar.
“UMG did not rely on chance, nor even on common business practices“, write the lawyers of Drake's company, Frozen Moment LLC. “Instead, she launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate streaming services and the airwaves.” “The idea that UMG would do anything to harm any of its artists is shocking and false (…) fans choose the music they want to listen to“reacted a UMG spokesperson.
In the second procedure, revealed Tuesday 26 November by the specialized site Billboard, and filed in a Texan court, Drake accuses UMG of defamation. Its lawyers believe that UMG “could have refused to release or distribute the song (Not Like Us) or demand that the offensive comments be edited and/or removed“, more “she chose to do the opposite“. All this in order to generate buzz and “maximize profits“, according to them.
Winner of a prestigious Pulitzer Prize, Kendrick Lamar released a surprise album on Friday 22, GNX. He was also chosen to take the reins of the halftime concert of the next Super Bowl, the final of the American football championship, in February 2025.
