About the streaming numbers connected with his rival Kendrick Lamar‘s diss track ‘Not Like Us,’ Drake has accused the record label of “conspiring” with Spotify to “artificially inflate” the information.
The ongoing feud between the two superstar rappers reached epic proportions earlier this year when both musicians dropped a collection of diss tracks about each other.
Accusing Drake of pedophilia and sexual misconduct, Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us,’ emerged as the most popular of the singles, becoming the most streamed track of its kind in Spotify history.
On Monday (11.25,) Drake’s company, Frozen Moments LLC, commenced legal action over the song with attorneys filing a petition against Kendrick’s label Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify in Manhattan accusing the record company executives of launching a scheme “to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves” with ‘Not Like Us’ by using “bots and pay-to-play agreements”.
Claiming that the song’s saturation of the market “comes at the expense of other artists,” the filed documents allege “UMG’s schemes to artificially inflate the popularity of Not Like Us were motivated, at least in part, by the desire of executives at (UMG subsidiary) Interscope to maximize their own profits.”
According to his legal team, the Canadian-born rapper attempted to speak with UMG executives “to resolve the ongoing harm he has suffered as a result of UMG’s actions” but they allegedly “refused to engage in negotiations”.
In order to assist Drake’s company “identify” who to name as defendants in an official complaint, the petition is not a lawsuit but a request for “pre-action discovery.”
In response to Drake’s action, a UMG representative told People and Variety in a statement:
“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.”
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Author: Al Denté
Photo: Lunchbox LP