Drake’s company, Frozen Moments LLC, has filed a case against Universal Music Group (UMG) in Manhattan court.
People magazine saw the documents and reported that the filing was made on Monday, November 25.
In the 17-page document, Drake’s lawyers claimed that UMG, through its label Interscope, released Kendrick Lamar’s song Not Like Us on May 4, 2024.
The lawyers alleged that the label “launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves” with the song, using “bots” and “pay-to-play agreements” to make it go viral.
Drake’s lawyers also claimed that UMG gave Spotify a 30% discount on licensing rates and, in return, Spotify recommended Not Like Us to users searching for “unrelated” songs and artists.
The petition mentioned a podcaster who said Interscope paid them $2,500 through third parties “to use ‘bots'” to boost streams.
The lawyers emphasised that this helped Lamar’s song get 30 million streams on Spotify in just a few days following its release.
Moreover, as stated in the petition, Spotify later celebrated Lamar’s single reaching 300 million streams in 35 days.
Drake’s company also claimed that “at least one UMG employee” paid radio stations to play Not Like Us.
The filing highlighted that this conduct is called “payola,” which is “prohibited by the Communications Act of 1934.”
It is pertinent to mention that the filing claimed that Drake had tried to talk to UMG about “the ongoing harm he has suffered as a result of UMG’s actions.”
However, UMG “refused to engage in negotiations,” and they allegedly asked Drake to take this issue to Lamar.
