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The Drake-Kendrick Lamar beef has taken another wild turn. Over the summer, Lamar and Drake went at each other in an extremely high-profile rap beef. Unfortunately for Drake, Lamar bested him when he came out with the song “Not Like Us,” which became one of the summer’s biggest hits.
Months later, Drake and his team are now accusing Universal Music Group (UMG) of artificially inflating his streaming numbers and are now filing legal action. According to Billboard, Drake’s Frozen Moments LLC filed a “pre-action” petition against UMG, claiming they developed an illegal “scheme” to promote Lamar’s song.
“UMG did not rely on chance, or even ordinary business practices,” attorneys for Drake’s company said in a statement. “It instead launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves.”
Here’s TMZ’s legal breakdown of Drake’s court filing.
Via TMZ
According to the docs, obtained by TMZ Hip Hop, Drake says an “inside source” told him UMG made “covert payments” to multiple platforms, including radio stations, to play and promote the hell outta “Not Like Us.” Legally, that’s known as payola, and it’s prohibited by the FCC.
In the docs, he also claims a whistleblower has accused UMG management of spending thousands in May 2024 on “bots” in order to get the song to 30 million streams on Spotify — and it also paid social media influencers to promote the song. He alleges the label dropped all copyright restrictions so the influencers could repeatedly post the song … helping it spread like wildfire.
Drake has some huge legal goals here — he says he’s filing this suit just to get a full understanding of how UMG funneled payments to iHeartRadio and its network of stations. Once he has that info, according to the docs, he’s gearing up to file a civil fraud and racketeering case against UMG and any co-conspirators.
Drake’s case is fascinating, considering UMG distributes his music.