Yahoo Lifestyle Spotify Slams Drake’s Claim That It ‘Artificially Inflated’ Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ Streams; Drake’s Legal Team Fires Back
UPDATED: Spotify has made an official statement denying Drake’s claims in a legal filing last month that the streaming numbers for Kendrick Lamar’s song “Not Like Us,” which took powerful verbal shots at the Canadian rapper, were “artificially inflated.”
Last month, Drake, through his company Frozen Moments, accused the streaming giant and his own label, Universal Music Group, of artificially inflating streaming numbers for Lamar’s track. He also accused UMG of defamation. UMG, the world’s largest music company, also distributes Lamar’s recordings.
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In response, Spotify has filed opposition papers, about which a spokesperson said: “Spotify has no economic incentive for users to stream ‘Not Like Us” over any of Drake’s tracks. Only one of Spotify for Artists’ tools, Marquee, was purchased on behalf of the song, for €500 to promote the track in France. Marquee is a visual ad that is disclosed to users as a Sponsored Recommendation.”
Relevant points in the opposition papers include: “Contrary to the allegations in the Petition, UMG and Spotify have never had any arrangement in which UMG ‘charged Spotify licensing rates 30 percent lower than its usual licensing rates for ‘Not Like Us’ in exchange for Spotify affirmatively recommending [“Not Like Us”],’ including ‘to users who are searching for other songs and artists.” It also states that it found no evidence to support Drake’s petition’s claim that an unnamed individual used bots to falsely boost the song’s streams by 30 million, and emphasized its extensive efforts to combat artificial streaming.
A spokesperson for Drake’s legal team responded on Friday, saying in a statement to Variety: “It is not surprising that Spotify is trying to distance themselves from UMG’s allegedly manipulative practices to artificially inflate streaming numbers on behalf of one of its other artists. If Spotify and UMG have nothing to hide then they should be perfectly fine complying with this basic discovery request.”
Shortly after the first of the two legal actions, a UMG spokesperson slammed the accusations, saying: “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.“
Just one day after Drake filed the petition accusing UMG of conspiring with Spotify to falsely boost the Lamar’s numbers, the Canadian rapper filed a second action, this one in Texas, claiming that UMG was aware that the song “falsely” accused him of pedophilia, but chose to distribute it anyway.
It also claims that UMG “funneled payments” to iHeart, the country’s largest radio network, as part of a “pay-to-play scheme” to promote the song on radio.
With regard to the defamation allegations, the petition says the company “could have refused to release or distribute the song or required the offending material to be edited and/or removed. But UMG chose to do the opposite. UMG designed, financed and then executed a plan to turn ‘Not Like Us’ into a viral mega-hit with the intent of using the spectacle of harm to Drake and his businesses to drive consumer hysteria and, of course, massive revenues. That plan succeeded, likely beyond UMG’s wildest expectations.”
To be clear, these petitions are not lawsuits: They’re pre-action filings intended to take depositions from key figures at UMG and iHeart in order to obtain more information for a potential future lawsuit. While the petition claims Drake’s attorneys already have enough evidence of defamation, they say they are considering allegations of civil fraud and racketeering.
Similarly, the petition stops short of actually alleging defamation, but it does say Drake’s attorneys have “amassed sufficient facts to pursue certain tortious claims against UMG, including, but not limited to, a claim for defamation, but currently lacks factual support necessary to determine whether he may bring claims of civil fraud and racketeering against UMG and its many (as of yet) unidentified co-conspirators who violated payola laws and accepted illicit payments, and other things of value, from UMG without disclosure.”
It also should be noted that neither artist is signed directly to UMG: Both artists are now at the level where they own their own masters and are signed with their own companies — Drake’s OVO and Lamar’s pgLang — and license their music to Universal labels for marketing and distribution.
While sources close to the situation claim that Drake’s petition is about Universal — the label that has distributed his music since he first signed with Lil Wayne’s Young Money label in 2009 — rather than Spotify, iHeart or even Lamar directly, it hardly seems coincidental that the legal action is based around the song at the center of a long-running feud between the two artists; “Not Like Us” is also a rare diss track that not only topped the Billboard Hot 100 but is nominated for multiple 2025 Grammy Awards.
Earlier this year, Lamar piled on a series of increasingly personal diss tracks against Drake, not only accusing him of having relationships with underaged women — which Drake has denied — as well as children not revealed to the public, and has gone so far as to address Drake’s son Adonis, his mother and others in his songs.
Drake released songs in response, but soon removed them from his socials and then went silent. The beef calmed down after a man was shot outside of Drake’s Toronto residence in May, but fired up again with the surprise release of Lamar’s new “GNX” album last month.
It seems possible that, having quite clearly lost the battle with Lamar in the virtual streets of hip-hop cred, Drake may be trying to up the stakes by taking it to court. How that plays out is an open question.
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