Drake May Soon Find Out If the Law Can Settle a Rap Beef

Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s ongoing feud already had precocious marks for being the astir technology-fueled rap beef of each time. Dis tracks connected Instagram, lyric breakdowns connected podcasts, concerts live-streamed connected Amazon Prime Video. This week, though, the relation exertion plays successful the dustup deed each caller highs (or possibly lows?) via a brace of tribunal filings from Drake, some of them pointing to the value of streaming euphony platforms successful fashionable music.

In the archetypal filing, a pre-action petition filed Monday successful New York, attorneys for Drake’s institution Frozen Moments accused Lamar’s grounds statement Universal Music Group (UMG) of utilizing respective methods to summation plays connected “Not Like Us,” including allegations that the grounds institution paid Apple to person Siri nonstop listeners to the way erstwhile they requested Certified Loverboy.

Drake’s lawyers wrote that “online sources reported that erstwhile users asked Siri to play the medium Certified Loverboy by signaling creator Aubrey Drake Graham d/b/a Drake, Siri alternatively played ‘Not Like Us,’ which contains the lyric ‘certified pedophile,’ an allegation against Drake.” It besides alleges UMG, which is besides Drake’s label, “paid, oregon approved payments to” Apple to person Siri bash this.

In a 2nd filing made successful Texas that became nationalist connected Tuesday, Drake’s lawyers accused UMG of defamation, claiming the grounds statement could person halted the merchandise of “Not Like Us” oregon modified it to region immoderate of its “false” statements astir Drake.

Defamation and Siri-souping are conscionable a mates of the claims made successful the petitions. They besides allege UMG charged Spotify reduced licensing rates successful speech for the streaming work recommending Lamar’s opus to listeners. There are besides claims UMG utilized bots to inflate the streaming numbers for “Not Like Us,” which is approaching 1 cardinal streams connected Spotify and was nominated for 5 Grammys earlier this month.

The archetypal petition seeks “pre-action disclosure” of immoderate grounds UMG oregon Spotify has regarding these allegations. The 2nd does the aforesaid of UMG and iHeartRadio, the vigor institution Drake’s attorneys assertion besides participated successful a “pay-to-play scheme” to beforehand “Not Like Us.”

Throughout their beef—which has been escalating since Lamar called retired Drake connected “Like That” successful the outpouring and seemed each but ended aft helium dropped “Not Like Us”—both rappers person hurtled haymakers astatine each different done songs. Allegations regarding home violence, hypocrisy, and authenticity person been par for the course. That’s however hip-hop feuds work. But successful a warfare of words that got arsenic heated arsenic Drake and Lamar’s did, to ticker it present travel to tribunal filings astir Spotify streams and Siri suggestions feels some lackluster and the epitome of what happens erstwhile rap beefs go truthful intertwined with technology. Longtime hip-hop fans volition ever person their opinions astir who “won” the beef, but the humanities grounds inactive counts cold, hard numbers—from Spotify streams to likes connected an IG post.