Drake says Universal Music Group, Spotify 'artificially inflated' Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us'

The beef between rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar exploded on the airwaves this summer. Now it's found a new arena: the law courts.

Drake alleged in a court filing Monday that Universal Music Group and Spotify conspired to “artificially inflate” Lamar’s summer hit “Not Like Us” by using bots, payola, and other tactics.

This summer the two released several diss tracks targeting each other. Lamar's "Not Like Us," released in May, was perhaps the most popular, enjoying a multi-week stay on Billboard’s Hot 100 No. 1.

However, the Canadian rapper claimed in a petition filed Monday in New York Supreme Court that the success of "Not Like Us" was due to deceptive practices and not organic streams.

Drake initiated legal action by his company, Frozen Moments, LLC. A petition is typically a precursor to a lawsuit and seeking the preservation of evidence in New York. Most of the claims in the suit aimed at Universal Music Group. (UMG, a Dutch American-owned company, has no relation to NBC Universal, the parent company of NBC News.)

In the petition, he claimed UMG 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.”

UMG allegedly charged Spotify licensing rates 30% lower than usual rates for “Not Like Us” in exchange for Spotify recommending the song to users who are searching for other unrelated songs and artists, the filing claimed.

UMG also allegedly conspired with and paid unknown parties to use “bots” to play “Not Like Us” and boost its popularity. 

The petition alleged that UMG also had some financial agreement with Apple to have its digital assistant “Siri” direct users to “Not Like Us” when users asked Siri to play Drake’s album “Certified Loverboy. “Not Like Us” contains the lyric “Certified Loverboy? Certified pedophiles” as an allegation against Drake. 

UMG also allegedly engaged in pay-to-play schemes, a practice known as payola, the petition claimed.

It alleged a UMG employee made payments to an independent radio promoter who then transferred those payments to radio stations or radio station employees to play “Not Like Us” without disclosing they were paid to do so, the filing said. The petition did not divulge who made the payment nor what radio station allegedly received it.

UMG often boasted of the wild success of “Not Like Us,” which broke Spotify records, the filing said. The hit holds the record for the biggest single day streams of a hip hop song and is the most streamed “diss track” in Spotify history, according to the petition. 

The song has over 900 million streams, according to Spotify.

The petition said that the alleged schemes to inflate the popularity of the song were motivated “by the desire of executives at Interscope to maximums their own profits.”

As a result, Drake, who owns the copyright to his entire catalogue, suffered economic harm, the filing claimed.

Both Drake and Lamar are signed to UMG, under different different divisions — Drake under Republic Records and Lamar under Interscope.

The petition said that Drake tried to engage in UMG in discussions “to resolve the ongoing harm he has suffered as a result of UMG’s actions,” but  “UMG refused to engage in negotiations, and insisted that UMG is not responsible for its own actions.”

The petition claimed that UMG “pointed the finger” at Lamar and “insisted that Drake should initiate legal action against” him rather than the company. The filing further claimed that UMG terminated employees who were loyal to Drake. 

The filing alleged that UMG violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, and engaged in deceptive business practices ad false advertising.

Universal Music Group told NBC News 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,” the statement added.

Spotify declined to comment Tuesday. However, on its website the streaming platform says it has practices in place to prevent, detect and mitigate artificial streaming.

Social media erupted with memes and jokes following news of the petition.

“Drake realizing that he could just sue his way out of his problems instead of facing them like a man,” one social media user wrote on X.

“Drake is the first rapper to ever run to court after losing a rap battle,” another added.

“I speak for EVERYONE when i say we stand with UMG Drake acting like a spoilt brat who lost,” one X user said.