Drake Thinks Spotify and Apple Rigged His Rap Beef With Kendrick Lamar

Nothing says you mislaid the rap beef similar hiring a squad of lawyers to reason that the way that broke streaming records and earned 5 Grammy nominations successful the process of humiliating you wasn’t really that popular.

But according to attorneys for Drake’s institution Frozen Moments LLC, the opus widely credited arsenic the knock-out punch successful his feud with Kendrick Lamar—titled “Not Like Us,” which Lamar released successful May—owes its occurrence not to genuine emotion from fans but to a firm strategy involving Spotify bots and payola.

In a petition filed Monday successful Manhattan ultimate court, Frozen Moments asked a justice to bid Spotify and Universal Music Group, which owns Lamar’s grounds statement Interscope, to sphere grounds of the alleged strategy successful anticipation of a imaginable lawsuit.

The filing claims Universal Music Group “launched a run to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves with a song, ‘Not Like Us,’ successful bid to marque that opus spell viral, including by utilizing ‘bots’ and pay-to-play agreements.”

The song, among different scathing lines, suggests that Drake is simply a pedophile.

Frozen Moments claims that Universal Music Group took a fig of steps to unfairly boost the popularity of “Not Like Us,” including charging Spotify a reduced licensing complaint for the opus successful speech for the streaming institution recommending it to users who searched for different music. The institution besides alleges that Universal Music Group paid Apple to configure its Siri dependable adjunct to play “Not Like Us” to users who asked Siri to play Drake’s medium “Certified Loverboy” and that it paid vigor stations and influencers to beforehand the opus without disclosing that they were being compensated for doing so, an amerciable signifier known arsenic payola.

The petition besides accuses Universal Music Group of conspiring with “unknown parties” to usage bots to artificially inflate the popularity of “Not Like Us” connected Spotify. Frozen Moments’ attorneys mention a video connected the YouTube transmission of creator Jambisco Don successful which an alleged hacker claims to person operated a bot web to boost the opus connected behalf of Lamar’s label.

Upon its release, “Not Like Us” broke Spotify’s single-day streaming record, surpassing Drake’s 2021 opus “Girls Want Girls.” It went connected to go the fastest hip-hop opus to scope 300 cardinal streams connected Spotify and has been streamed much than 914 cardinal times. It was besides nominated for 5 Grammy awards successful the categories Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, and Best Music Video.

The petition says that Frozen Moments is preparing a civilian suit that could impeach Universal Music Group and Spotify of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a instrumentality often associated with mob prosecutions. It asks the tribunal to bid the defendants to disclose documents and communications related to the alleged strategy successful mentation for specified a suit.