Drake has alleged that Common Music Group (UMG) and Spotify artificially boosted Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us diss observe, that was geared toward him.
Legal professionals representing the Canadian artist’s agency Frozen Moments LLC filed a authorized petition at a court docket in Manhattan on Monday making the claims.
It comes after Drake and Lamar, who’re each signed to UMG labels, had a high-profile feud earlier this 12 months, focusing on each other with diss tracks.
This included Lamar’s Not Like Us single which has been streamed virtually 900 million occasions and savagely attacked Drake, making critical allegations towards him and people near him.
The music proved to be an enormous hit because the row between the 2 hip-hop giants spilled into the general public realm.
Such disagreements will not be uncommon in hip-hop however this one got here between two artists who had beforehand collaborated on plenty of songs.
‘Contrived and absurd authorized arguments’
Drake has claimed that UMG labored to inflate the streams and radio performs of the diss observe “to maximise” income.
He claimed that UMG and Spotify artificially boosted the observe’s streams “including by using ‘bots’ and pay-to-play agreements”.
They added: “We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns.
“No quantity of contrived and absurd authorized arguments on this pre-action submission can masks the truth that followers select the music they need to hear.”
In the legal petition, representatives of Drake claim: “It [UMG] as a substitute launched a marketing campaign to govern and saturate the streaming companies and airwaves with a music, ‘Not Like Us’, to be able to make that music go viral.”
It additionally claimed that UMG charged Spotify decrease licensing charges than regular to play the music and that Spotify really useful the music to customers looking for different content material.
The petition additionally cites the claims of 1 particular person made on a “popular podcast” that he was paid to make use of bots to inflate the music’s streams.
It additionally alleges that Apple digital assistant Siri “purposely misdirect[ed] users to ‘Not Like Us'” citing “online sources”.
Monday’s submitting shouldn’t be a full lawsuit however a pre-action petition – a process in New York that goals to safe data forward of a lawsuit.
It is not clear if the proceedings will progress to a full lawsuit.
