Drake’s Frozen Moments LLC has issued a brand new authorized submitting in Manhattan court docket, accusing Common Music Group and Spotify of “illegally” boosting streams of Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-nominated diss monitor “Not Like Us” by allegedly utilizing bots, undisclosed funds, and biased suggestions, in line with court docket paperwork seen by Pitchfork. “UMG didn’t depend on likelihood, and even abnormal enterprise practices,” wrote attorneys for the Canadian rapper’s firm. “It as a substitute launched a marketing campaign to govern and saturate the streaming providers and airwaves.”
Drake’s attorneys accuse UMG of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), implementing misleading pay-to-play enterprise practices, and utilizing false promoting beneath New York state regulation. In court docket paperwork, his attorneys declare they tried to “meet and consult with UMG” for the previous a number of months,” however the label “declined to enter into substantive negotiations” and as a substitute allegedly insisted that they take it up with Lamar immediately.
Of their pre-action petition, Drake’s attorneys search numerous paperwork from UMG and Spotify, together with proof of cost or diminished licensing charges supplied to the streaming platform in alternate for selling “Not Like Us,” and the identities of third events that UMG allegedly employed to make use of bots to extend streams of the track or music video. At one level within the authorized paperwork, Drake’s attorneys declare Spotify advisable “Not Like Us” to customers who looked for “unrelated songs and artists” on account of UMG’s diminished licensing charges, {that a} UMG worker paid an impartial radio promoter to “switch these funds” to radio stations who aired the track, and that the label paid influencers to advertise the track on social media.
A notably particular declare that Drake’s attorneys make in these paperwork is that UMG paid Apple Inc. to have Siri “purposely misdirect” customers to “Not Like Us” after they ask Siri to play Drake’s 2021 album Licensed Lover Boy. (In fact, “Not Like Us” contains the notorious lyric and allegation “Licensed Lover Boy?/ Licensed pedophile.”)
Drake’s attorneys paint an image within the authorized filings of UMG suppressing its personal employees who spoke out towards these alleged actions, writing, “[We] acquired info that UMG has been taking steps in an obvious effort to hide its schemes, together with, however not restricted to, by terminating workers related to or perceived as having loyalty to Drake.”
A Common Music Group spokesperson denied Drake’s claims in an announcement, writing, “The suggestion that UMG would do something to undermine any of its artists is offensive and unfaithful. We make use of the best moral practices in our advertising and marketing and promotional campaigns. No quantity of contrived and absurd authorized arguments on this pre-action submission can masks the truth that followers select the music they need to hear.”
“Not Like Us” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 again in Could, and has since remained one of the vital in style songs of 2024. Drake’s retort, “Household Issues,” landed at No. 7 on the singles chart. His final album, For All of the Canines, got here out in October of final yr, whereas Lamar shock launched a brand new full-length this previous Friday titled GNX.
