Drake’s war of words with Kendrick Lamar, through a vicious back-and-forth of diss tracks, generated some of the biggest headlines in rap this year.
And now it has landed in court.
On Monday, lawyers for Drake filed legal papers in New York and Texas accusing the Universal Music Group — the giant record company behind both rappers — of operating an elaborate scheme to promote Lamar’s Not Like Us at the expense of Drake’s music, using bots to drive up clicks on streaming services and payola to influence radio stations.
In documents filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan on behalf of one of Drake’s companies, Frozen Moments, the rapper’s lawyers said that Universal “launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves with a song, Not Like Us, in order to make that song go viral, including by using ‘bots’ and pay-to-play agreements.”
In a separate filing in Bexar County, Texas, lawyers for Drake — this time filing under his real name, Aubrey Drake Graham — said they were considering a defamation claim against Universal over Lamar’s Not Like Us, the hit song that represented the climax of Drake and Lamar’s rap war.
In that song, Lamar took various swipes at Drake — including calling Drake and his crew “certified pedophiles.” Universal, Drake’s filing said, “could have refused to release or distribute the song or required the offending material to be edited and/or removed,” but chose to put it out instead.
“UMG knew that the song itself attacked the character of another one of UMG’s most prominent artists, Drake,” the filing said, “by falsely accusing him of being a sex offender, engaging in pedophilic acts, harboring sex offenders, and committing other criminal sexual acts.”
Both documents were not full legal complaints, but instead preliminary steps to obtain further information, which could lead to lawsuits in the future. The New York filing, described as a petition, named Spotify in addition to Universal; the Texas document added radio giant iHeartMedia.
Much of Drake’s 17-page petition in New York focuses on streaming, saying that Universal gave Spotify a 30 per cent reduction from its standard licensing fee for streams of Not Like Us. But the petition made scant reference to evidence to support the accusations.
The document cites a YouTube video featuring an interview with an unnamed man who claims that Lamar’s label, Interscope — a division of Universal — “paid him via third parties to use ‘bots'” to boost the plays of Not Like Us.
Both documents say that Universal orchestrated a radio payola campaign through third-party promoters. But the Texas petition — filed near the corporate offices of iHeartMedia, the largest radio station owner in the United States — said that Drake “has been unable to confirm whether any iHeartRadio stations were among the stations” that it says Universal paid.
In response to Drake’s filing in New York, a spokesperson for Universal Music said 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.”
A representative of Universal did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the Texas filing. Spokespeople for Spotify and iHeartMedia declined to comment.
The feud between Lamar and Drake exploded through a series of back-and-forth tracks released this spring, which grew increasingly harsh. On one, Family Matters, Drake described Lamar as a fake activist and suggested friction and alleged abuse in Lamar’s romantic relationship.
Hours later, on Meet the Grahams, Lamar called Drake a liar and a “pervert” who “should die” to make the world safer for women.
A day later, Lamar released Not Like Us, which would be the biggest hit in the feud, generating 915 million clicks on Spotify around the world, far more than any of Drake’s tracks. Not Like Us went to No. 1 and was recently nominated for Grammy Awards for both record and song of the year.
As the record company behind both Drake and Lamar, Universal would stand to earn money from each of those tracks, regardless of which ended up being more popular.
Drake’s petition in New York was filed three days after Lamar released a new album, GNX, whose songs have quickly shot up the streaming charts.