The beef between hip-hop giants Drake and Kendrick Lamar has turned legal with Drake’s camp filing a petition against the Universal Music Group and Spotify for allegedly inflating the success of Lamar’s scathing diss track Not Like Us. The Canadian artist claims that UMG and Spotify inflated streams and radio plays for the track, allegedly using bots and pay-to-play tactics to ensure dominance and profitability for the song.
The diss track, which went straight at Drake and his closest circle, pulled in nearly 900 million streams and became a global phenomenon. Drake’s lawyers argued that UMG exploited the track’s controversy by artificially inflating its streaming numbers. The petition also states that Spotify charged lower licensing fees for Not Like Us and promoted it in search results, and even claims that Apple’s Siri misdirected users to the song.
UMG has strongly denied the claims, which they describe as “offensive and untrue.” But Drake’s charges have fired up an already heated dispute, making this one of hip-hop’s most explosive controversies in recent times. It is not clear if the case could be taken to a full lawsuit. This battle between the two artists went beyond the top of the charts to the courtroom.
