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Drake is taking legal action against Universal Music Group and Spotify over allegations that the companies worked together to artificially inflate the streaming numbers of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
In a “pre-action” petition filed in Manhattan federal court on Monday, Drake’s Frozen Moments LLC accused UMG of engaging in an illegal “scheme” that involved using bots to boost “Not Like Us”‘s popularity on Spotify and making “covert payments” to radio stations to increase the song’s airplay (via Billboard).
Drake claims to have an “inside source” who alerted him to UMG’s scheme.
“UMG did not rely on chance, or even ordinary business practices,” attorneys for Drake’s company wrote in their filing. “It instead launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves.”
Originally released on May 4th as part of a series of back-and-forth diss tracks between Lamar and Drake, the track proceeded to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, became the fastest rap song on Spotify to accumulate 700 million streams, and recently earned five Grammy nominations, including Record and Song of the Year.
This is a developing story…
English (US) · 