Drake Threatens To Sue UMG For Allegedly Inflating Popularity Of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ - Black Promoters Collective (BPC)
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Drake Threatens To Sue UMG For Allegedly Inflating Popularity Of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’

November 26, 2024
Home > News > Drake Threatens To Sue UMG For Allegedly Inflating Popularity Of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’

There is yet another twist in the ongoing feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. Drake has now filed a “pre-action” petition lawsuit against Universal Music Group as he accuses the company of allegedly inflating the popularity of K. Dot’s “Not Like Us,” a diss track aimed toward him. Drake’s label Frozen Moments LLC stated in the lawsuit that UMG used bots and payola to inflate the numbers for “Not Like Us,” which topped the charts over the summer.

UMG “engaged in conduct designed to artificially inflate the popularity of ‘Not Like Us’… including by licensing the song at drastically reduced rates to Spotify and using ‘bots’ to generate the false impression that the song was more popular than it was in reality,” the lawsuit states, per Variety.

More on what Drake is alleging

While other streaming platforms go unnamed in the lawsuit, it states that UMG may have “used similar tactics with other streaming services.”

“On information and belief, UMG paid, or approved payments to, Apple Inc. to have its voice-activated digital assistant ‘Siri’ purposely misdirect users to ‘Not Like Us,’” the complaint states. “UMG did not rely on chance, or even ordinary business practices. It instead launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves.”

Drake is also accusing UMG of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, the statute used in cases relating to organized crime. Billboard reported that the petition allows Drake to gather information before moving ahead with a full lawsuit.

According to Billboard, Drake’s petition stated that UMG aggressively boosted “Not Like Us” due to the fact that financial incentives for its executives are “largely based on the specific UMG division, rather than the performance of UMG more generally.”

“UMG’s schemes  … were motivated, at least in part, by the desire of executives at Interscope to maximize their own profits,” attorneys argued, per Billboard. “Executives at Interscope have been incentivized to maximize the financial success of Interscope through the promotion of ‘Not Like Us’ and its revitalizing impact on the artist’s prior recording catalog.”

How UMG responded

UMG denied Drake’s claims. Per Billboard, they said in a statement, “The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” to said the company in a statement sent to Billboard. “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.”

In “Not Like Us,” and other diss tracks that Lamar put out against Drake, he accuses him of having relationships with underage women (which Drake has denied), as well as fathering children people don’t know about. Lamar, who’s up for seven Grammys, including Album of the Year, surprised fans on Friday when he released his latest album, GNX.