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Months after Drake and Kendrick Lamar's explosive beef hit wax, it might hit the courtroom next.
On Monday, Drake initiated a petition in a Manhattan court against Universal Music Group and Spotify, claiming both entities artificially inflated the popularity of Lamar's scathing diss track, "Not Like Us," which is up for five Grammy nominations.
Drake’s Frozen Moments LLC is accusing UMG, which also distributes his music, of engaging in an illegal "scheme" to boost the diss track's numbers, which allegedly included bots and payola, or paying radio stations to play a song without disclosing the transaction.
According to Variety, Drake is accusing his label of engaging “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 suit is even alleging tech giant Apple was in on the shenanigans, saying, "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.'”
“UMG did not rely on chance, or even ordinary business practices,” the petition continues. “It instead launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves.”
The claim carries a heavy accusation that UMG violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
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