Drake Drops Petition Against Spotify, UMG For Alleged Boosting Of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”
Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s feud from last year went from songs and videos to Super Bowl bookings and pre-action petitions. The 38-year-old rapper recently dropped his legal action against Spotify and Universal Music Group that accused them of artificially inflating the popularity of the Compton rapper’s hit diss track “Not Like Us.”
On Tuesday (Jan. 14), in a Manhattan Court, Drizzy and his Frozen Moments company voluntarily withdrew the pre-action petition “without costs to any party.” It is important to note that the language used is only relevant to what may have taken place if litigation continued and a trial later ensued, which would require legal fees to be paid. There is a long history of settlements, or some form of agreement, happening outside of court so that all parties involved do not have to endure what can be strenuous and expensive proceedings. There is currently no confirmation that a settlement has happened outside of court.
Spotify, who initially filed an opposition to the 6 God’s legal team’s Order To Show Cause, had “no objection” to the pre-action petition being dismissed. His longtime label UMG, who did not file an opposition to their Order To Show Cause, opted to “reserve its position,” meaning they may have challenged the claims if the process had persisted. Check out the document below.
It is also important to note that Drake’s Texas petition against Universal Music Group and iHeartRadio for defamation is still pending. He first filed both pre-action petitions in November 2024, an unprecedented move in rap beef which, on the surface, made many view the Toronto superstar as a sore loser. He claimed Spotify and UMG were in cahoots to boost Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” through payola, bots, and more alleged underhanded methods. The five-time Grammy winner also cited the fact both he and Lamar were under UMG, thus the alleged boosting of a song calling him a pedophile was defamatory and harmful to one of their signees.
UMG quickly responded to the inflation pre-action petition via Variety. “The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” the label said. “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.”
Spotify, in their opposition papers filed in December, said “Spotify has no economic incentive for users to stream ‘Not Like Us’ over any of Drake’s tracks. Only one of Spotify for Artists’ tools, Marquee, was purchased on behalf of the song, for €500 to promote the track in France. Marquee is a visual ad that is disclosed to users as a Sponsored Recommendation.” They also denied claims that UMG charged them reduced licensing rates in exchange for extra promotion of the record by way of increasing how often it was recommended to the app’s users.
Drake’s legal team fired back with a counterstatement to Variety. “It is not surprising that Spotify is trying to distance themselves from UMG’s allegedly manipulative practices to artificially inflate streaming numbers on behalf of one of its other artists,” they said. “If Spotify and UMG have nothing to hide then they should be perfectly fine complying with this basic discovery request.”
If anything has become clear about this rap beef, and what it has unfolded into, it is that this is just the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Nonetheless, time may reveal whether Spotify, UMG, and the For All The Dogs artist settled outside of court to avoid further litigation, or confirm the strong online narrative that the “Family Matters” rapper’s legal team recognized they did not have a strong enough case to continue pursuing.
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