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Drake has filed the first step towards an incendiary lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify, alleging that the two companies colluded to inflate streams of Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-nominated Drake-diss track, “Not Like Us.”
Why It Hits: On top of being a first in the world of hip-hop beefs, Drake’s swing-for-the-fences legal action (which may or may not turn into a lawsuit) puts the whole streaming ecosystem on trial — is music discovered by the almighty algorithm, or do labels put their thumbs on the scale?
Behind the Beef: Drake accuses UMG — his and Kendrick’s label — of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act for widespread collusion with music distributors to artificially make “Not Like Us” more popular than it would have been.
- The filing alleges that UMG offered Spotify-reduced licensing rates to recommend the song to users who weren’t searching for it, paid influencers to hype the song on socials, and hired people to unleash bot armies to rack up streams.
- It even claims that Apple’s Siri voice assistant would play “Not Like Us” when people asked it to play Drake’s Certified Lover Boy.
- Drake’s lawyers say that UMG carried out the “scheme” because of how its corporate structure emphasizes the financial success of its Interscope label (where Kendrick is tied to through pgLang) than UMG overall.
- The filing also claims that UMG has avoided the issue with Drake, instead hiding wrongdoing and firing employees “perceived as having loyalty to Drake.”
Encore: UMG has called Drake’s allegations “offensive” and “untrue,” clapping back with “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.” Although Drake is one of the most listened-to artists on Spotify with 10 million more monthly listeners than Kendrick, it’s that question of “choice” that the artist may ultimately want to drag into the light… even if it takes him and UMG down with it.
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