Drake accuses Spotify and UMG of artificially inflating streams of Kendrick Lamar's “Not Like Us” in court filing

Rapper Drake's company Frozen Moments filed a motion in a New York court on Monday, accusing streaming service Spotify and Universal Music Group of conspiring to inflate streams of Kendrick Lamar's hit track, “Not Like Us.”

“Not Like Us,” the result of Lamar’s week-long showdown with Drake, broke records on the Billboard rap charts, holding on to the top spot all summer. Frozen Moments, described in the filing as “a wholly owned entity by Drake,” alleges that UMG “launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate streaming services and the airwaves” with “Not Like Us” via bots and deals fee-for-service payment.

The filing alleges that the song was licensed to Spotify at a 30% discount in exchange for increased user recommendations — the track now has more than 900 million streams on Spotify, according to the service. The petition also alleges that UMG used bots to increase streams of “Not Like Us”, paid radio promoters to increase airplay and even paid tech giant Apple to have its voice assistant Siri redirect users to Lamar's hit song.

A UMG spokesperson called the allegations “offensive and false.”

“We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “No number of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can obscure the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”

Spotify, Apple and representatives for Drake and Lamar did not immediately respond to CBS News' requests for comment.

UMG owns both Interscope, Lamar's label, and Republic Records, where Drake has spent his entire career. Drake has mentioned UMG CEO Lucian Grainge in lyrics several times over the years, most notably on 2023's “Away From Home,” rapping “Who's the CEO of Universal? They got it wrong, 'cause that Google says Lucian, but that just doesn't make sense Who's filling the piggy bank? Who's bringing home the bacon? This line seems to indicate Drake's perceived importance to the label as the second artist. most listened to on Spotify behind Taylor Swift, whose Big Machine Records is also distributed by UMG.

According to the petition, UMG fired some employees perceived to be loyal to Drake during the inter-label feud with Lamar, and rebuffed his attempts at negotiation, insisting that Drake go directly to Lamar rather than the label.

The motion filed Monday is not a lawsuit, but a pre-action request to collect more information from UMG and Spotify in a civil action under the Privacy Act. racketeer-influenced and corrupt organizations, commonly known as RICO.

The lawsuit comes days after Lamar released “GNX,” his first album since The Beef. Lamar references the feud several times on the project, including Snoop Dogg posting one of Drake's diss tracks and Lil Wayne taking offense to Lamar's halftime headliner Super Bowl 2025 in New Orleans.

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Rishikesh Rajagopalan

Rishi Rajagopalan is an associate social media producer and content editor for CBS News.

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