Drake accuses Spotify, UMG of artificially inflating streams of Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" in court filing
Rapper Drake's company Frozen Moments filed a petition in a New York court Monday accusing the streaming service Spotify and Universal Music Group of conspiring to inflate the streams of Kendrick Lamar's hit diss track "Not Like Us."
"Not Like Us," the result of Lamar and Drake's weekslong beef, broke records on the Billboard rap charts, retaining the top spot all summer. Frozen Moments, described in the filing as "an entity wholly owned by Drake," alleges that UMG "launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves" with "Not Like Us" via bots and pay-for-play agreements.
The filing alleges the song was licensed to Spotify at a 30% discount in exchange for a boost in recommendations to users — the track now has over 900 million streams on Spotify, according to the service. The petition also alleges UMG used bots to drive up the streams on "Not Like Us," paid radio promoters to increase air play and even paid tech giant Apple to have its voice assistant Siri misdirect users to Lamar's hit song.
A spokesperson for UMG called the allegations "offensive and untrue."
"We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns," the spokesperson said in a statement. "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."
When reached by CBS News, a publicist for Drake Tuesday had no comment. Spotify, Apple and representatives for Lamar did not immediately respond to CBS News requests for comment.
According to the Associated Press, Drake on Tuesday filed a second legal action against UMG, but in Texas, also over "Not Like Us." According to the AP, Tuesday's filing in Bexar County accuses UMG of engaging in "irregular and inappropriate business practices" to get radio airplay for "Not Like Us," including making illegal payments to San Antonio-based iHeartMedia.
When reached by CBS News Tuesday, iHeartMedia also declined to comment.
UMG owns both Interscope, Lamar's label and Republic Records, where Drake has spent his entire career. Drake has mentioned UMG CEO Lucian Grainge in lyrics multiple times over the years, including 2023's "Away From Home" — rapping "Who the CEO of Universal? They mistaken, 'cause Google saying Lucian, but that just doesn't make sense. Who filling up the piggy bank? Who bringing home the bacon?" The line seems to indicate Drake's perceived importance to the label as Spotify's second most streamed artist behind Taylor Swift, whose Big Machine Records is also distributed by UMG.
According to the petition, UMG terminated certain employees perceived as being loyal to Drake during the inter-label feud with Lamar, and rebuffed his attempts at negotiation, insisting that Drake take it up with Lamar directly instead of the label.
The petition filed Monday is not a lawsuit, but a pre-action motion meant to gather more information from UMG and Spotify in the pursuit of a civil claim under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as RICO.
The legal action comes days after Lamar released "GNX," his first album since the beef. Lamar references the feud multiple times on the project, including Snoop Dogg's posting of one of Drake's diss tracks and Lil Wayne taking offense to Lamar's headlining of the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime show in New Orleans.
