Drake alleged in a courtroom submitting Monday that Common Music Group falsely pumped up the recognition on Spotify and different streaming providers of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” a music that viciously attacked Drake amid a bitter feud between the 2 hip-hop superstars.
The petition in a New York courtroom by the rapper’s firm Frozen Moments LLC calls for the preservation and divulgence of data that is perhaps proof in a possible lawsuit in opposition to UMG, which is the distributor for the report labels of each Drake and Lamar.
In allegations that UMG calls “offensive and untrue,” the submitting says the report firm “launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves with a song, ‘Not Like Us,’ in order to make that song go viral, including by using ‘bots’ and pay-to-play agreements.” It stated the corporate and Spotify “have a long-standing, symbiotic business relationship” and alleges that UMG supplied particular licensing charges to Spotify for the music.
The petition additionally says UMG has fired staff seen as loyal to Drake “in an apparent effort to conceal its schemes.”
Common Music Group stated in a press release in response that the “suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue. We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. 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.”
“Not Like Us,” the wildly in style Lamar single launched in Could as a part of a flurry of dueling tracks by the 2 artists, contains the lyrics, “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young, You better not ever go to cell block one.” It has gotten greater than 900 million performs, in accordance with figures listed on Spotify.
Spotify representatives declined quick remark, however in a press release on a earlier case, the corporate stated it “invests heavily in automated and manual reviews to prevent, detect, and mitigate the impact of artificial streaming on our platform,” and in broader public statements has stated it has gone to nice lengths to mitigate the results of unhealthy actors on streaming numbers and royalties.
The feud between Drake, a 38-year-old Canadian rapper and singer and five-time Grammy winner, and Lamar, a 37-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner who is about to headline the following Tremendous Bowl halftime, is among the many largest in hip-hop in recent times, with two of the style’s largest stars at its middle.
The 2 have been occasional collaborators greater than a decade in the past, however Lamar started taking public jabs at Drake beginning in 2013. The struggle escalated steeply earlier this 12 months. The transfer to courtroom, whereas not but a lawsuit, nonetheless represents a serious escalation of the feud and includes among the largest enterprise companions of each males.