After several months of clashes through songs, the Canadian rapper relaunched his battle against Kendrick Lamar and filed a complaint against Universal Music Group for defamation.
Drake restarts his battle against Kendrick Lamar. As reported by the media Variety, the rapper filed a complaint against the label Universal Music Group, which he accuses of defamation for promoting the song. Not Like Us by Kendrick Lamar.
Released by Kendrick this summer during his song clash with Drake, Not Like Usis a diss track – a song aimed at an attack on one or more other rappers – in which the artist attacks his opponent.
In this piece, which was a real success when it was released, Kendrick Lamar notably describes Drake as a “scrounger” and a “scavenger” and insinuates that he is a “certified pedophile”, in reference to Drake’s album, Certified Lover Boy, released September 2021.
“Greed at the expense of artists’ safety”
In his complaint, Drake therefore indicates that Universal Music Group, by authorizing the release of the title and promoting it “to create a viral success”, contributed to the harassment of which the rapper was a victim, according to him, and to his defamation, “by conveying false accusations of pedophilia” against him.
Drake also specifies that the cover of Not Like Us shows a photo of his home in Toronto and that following the success of the song, he was the victim of a shooting in front of his home and that individuals attempted to break into his home twice in the days that followed.
The rapper thus accuses Universal Music Group – which is both his record company, but also that of Kendrick Lamar – of having “shown greed to the detriment of the safety and well-being of its artists”.
First complaint filed against Spotify
Last May, Drake and Kendrick Lamar clashed through songs for several weeks against the backdrop of a rivalry that has lasted for more than ten years. Among them, Not Like Us by Kendrick, became a real hit and has been listened to more than a billion times on Spotify since its release.
A success which did not leave Drake unmoved since in November 2024, the rapper accused Spotify of having secretly helped Kendrick Lamar propel his song to the detriment of other diss tracks published by Drake.
The Canadian rapper thus filed a complaint against Universal Music Group and Spotify. The record company would, according to him, have established a contract involving a reduction in the prices of its licenses for Spotify, in exchange for which the streaming platform would massively recommend Kendrick Lamar’s song to users.
He also accuses Universal and Spotify of having used “bots” to automate the reading of Not Like Us and thus artificially inflate its audience.
Questioned by the media The Verge Universal Music Group defended itself, indicating that it sticks to “ethical practices”: “Fans choose what they want to hear,” specifies a representative of the record company.
For its part, Spotify also completely denied these accusations, assuring that the platform and UMG “never had an agreement of this type” and that the allegations made by Drake are “false” and “far-fetched”. “.
