Drake accuses Universal bosses of “conspiring” with Spotify to “artificially inflate” the streaming figures for his rival Kendrick Lamar’s insulting track, Not Like Us.
The feud between the Hotline Bling singer and Kendrick Lamar reached new heights earlier this year, when the two rappers released a series of songs about each other.
Kendrick Lamar’s track Not Like Us, in which he accused Drake of pedophilia and sexual misconduct, proved to be the most popular, becoming the most streamed denunciation track in Spotify history. On Monday (25Nov24), Drake’s company, Frozen Moments LLC, filed a lawsuit over the title. The company’s lawyers filed a lawsuit in Manhattan against Universal Music Group (UMG), Kendrick Lamar’s label, and Spotify, in which they accuse UMG executives of launching a plan “to manipulate and saturate the services streaming and airwaves” with Not Like Us using “bots and pay-to-play agreements”.
“UMG’s maneuvers to artificially inflate the popularity of Not Like Us were motivated, at least in part, by the desire of Interscope (UMG subsidiary) executives to maximize their own profits,” the documents state, assuring that the saturation of the market by the song “came to the detriment of other artists”.
According to the lawyers, the God’s Plan rapper attempted to speak with UMG executives “to resolve the permanent harm he suffered as a result of UMG’s actions,” but they allegedly “refused to enter into negotiations.
The motion is not a lawsuit, but a request for “pre-action discovery” to help Drake’s company “identify” people to name as defendants in a formal complaint.
In response, a representative for UMG told People and Variety: “The idea that UMG would do anything to harm any of its artists is offensive and false. We apply the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. No amount of artificial and absurd legal arguments presented in this case can hide the fact that fans choose the music they want to listen to. »
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