Drake accuses Universal Music and Spotify of artificially boosting streams of Kendrick Lamar’s diss track against himDrake has taken legal action accusing Universal Music and Spotify of artificially boosting the streams of Not Like Us, the diss track made against him by Kendrick Lamar.
The track marked the fifth Drake diss song Lamar had released since their feud first escalated back in March. It reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart upon its release, and earned over 70 million streams in the first week alone.

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Drake has filed a petition, which according to the BBC is not a full lawsuit, but a so-called “pre-action petition”. Under this, Drake’s lawyers can ask the court to order Universal and Spotify to preserve all relevant documents and information, ahead of potential further legal action in the future.
In this filing, Drake’s company, Frozen Moments LLC, accuses the companies of engaging in an illegal “scheme” to promote Lamar’s song. His lawyers claim that Universal “conspired with and paid currently unknown parties” to “artificially” boost the prominence of Not Like Us, and also claim that the label cut its royalty rates for the song by 30 percent in exchange for Spotify recommending it to users.

The filing also cites alleged claims from a “whistleblower” on a podcast, who claims they were paid $2,500 to set up “bots” that would stream the song on repeat. It also further cites online reports which claim that fans who asked Apple’s voice assistant to play Drake’s album Certified Loverboy were instead played Not Like Us.
Lawyers claim that Drake tried to address these allegations in private but allege that the label had “no interest”. They even claim that Universal tried to “conceal its schemes”, including firing staff “perceived as having loyalty to Drake”.
A spokesperson from UMG told the BBC, “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.”
Representatives of Spotify and Lamar have not yet responded to the outlet. MusicTech has also reached out for comment on these allegations.
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